Skip to main content

Utility

  • Admissions
  • Exploring Grad School
  • Current Students
  • Community Impact and Engagement
  • Faculty + Staff
  • Alumni
Give
Intranet
Report Sexual Misconduct
Home

Main navigation

  • Academics
    • Master of Science
    • Master of Landscape Architecture
    • Doctoral (PhD)
    • Dual-Degree Programs
    • Graduate Certificate Programs
    • Undergraduate Program
    • Courses
    • Online Learning
  • Research + Impact
    • Sustainability Themes
    • PhD Profiles
    • Student Research
    • The Centers, Institutes + Initiatives
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Labs
  • Prospective Students
    • Why Michigan?
    • Application Information
    • International Students
    • Financial Aid + Tuition
    • Visit Campus
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Admitted Students
    • Exploring Graduate School
  • Student Services
    • SEAS and PitE Student Center
    • Career Services
    • Financial Aid
    • Academic Advising
    • Student Organizations
    • Student Development
    • Forms, Handbooks + Policies
    • Quick Links
  • News
    • Community Highlights
    • In the Media
    • Stewards Magazine
  • Events
    • Co-Sponsorship Form
    • Submit Event
    • Admissions Webinars
    • Gallery
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • SEAS Values
    • Collective Impact Committee
    • Leadership
    • Demographics
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Administrative Departments + Staff
    • Facilities + Locations
    • Community Impact and Engagement
    • Art & Environment Gallery
    • COVID-19
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • History
    • Email Sign-Up
Search search icon

Utility

  • Admissions
  • Exploring Grad School
  • Current Students
  • Community Impact and Engagement
  • Faculty + Staff
  • Alumni
Give
Report Sexual Misconduct
search icon Search

Faculty

Image
Faculty Group 2022
  • Academics
  • Research + Impact
  • Prospective Students
  • Student Services
  • News
  • Events
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • SEAS Values
    • Collective Impact Committee
    • Leadership
    • Demographics
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Administrative Departments + Staff
    • Facilities + Locations
    • Community Impact and Engagement
    • Art & Environment Gallery
    • COVID-19
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • History
    • Email Sign-Up

Main navigation

  • Academics
  • Research + Impact
  • Prospective Students
  • Student Services
  • News
  • Events
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • SEAS Values
    • Collective Impact Committee
    • Leadership
    • Demographics
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Administrative Departments + Staff
    • Facilities + Locations
    • Community Impact and Engagement
    • Art & Environment Gallery
    • COVID-19
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • History
    • Email Sign-Up
back to all faculty

Steven L. Yaffee

Professor
Environmental Policy and Planning
Climate + Energy
Conservation + Restoration
[email protected]
(734)-763-5451
CV
Websites
Ecosystem Management Initiative
NRE 562: Environmental Policy

How to Apply to SEAS Graduate Programs

Explore Graduate School

About

Professor Yaffee's research focuses on collaborative decision making on complex environmental and sustainability choices, including the ways that traditional political processes and organizations function, and how new collaborative structures can be developed to encourage more effective decision making. He is particularly interested in landscape-scale conservation and sustainable natural resource management, and how decision-making institutions can be encouraged to take on an ecosystem-scale perspective. Of particular interest is policy involving biological diversity, public lands, marine and coastal ecosystems and energy. Yaffee's research and teaching draws from substantial on-the-ground work with nonprofit organizations and charitable foundations in facilitating dispute resolution and collaborative problem-solving processes, and in helping them develop monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management strategies. He is committed to professional education at SEAS and teaches skill-building courses in political and institutional analysis, negotiation and mediation.

Publications

  • Julia M. Wondolleck and Steven L. Yaffee, Marine Ecosystem-Based Management in Practice: Different Pathways, Common Lessons (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2017)
  • Steven L. Yaffee, Public Process, Private Dollars: The Unlikely Story of California's Marine Protected Areas, a book manuscript to be published by Island Press, 2017. in press.
  • Julia M. Wondolleck and Steven L. Yaffee, Building Bridges in Marine Conservation: The Practice of Ecosystem-Based Management (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2016). in press.
  • Julia M. Wondolleck and Steven L. Yaffee, Making Collaboration Work: Lessons from Innovation in Natural Resource Management (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2000).
  • Steven L. Yaffee, Ali F. Phillips, Irene C. Frentz, Paul W. Hardy, Sussanne M. Maleki, and Barbara E. Thorpe, Ecosystem Management in the United States: An Assessment of Current Experience, (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1996).
  • Steven L. Yaffee, The Wisdom of the Spotted Owl: Policy Lessons for a New Century (Covelo CA: Island Press, 1994).

Research

2013-2017: California Marine Life Protection Act Initiative: An Assessment and Lessons Learned. Resources Legacy Fund Foundation

2014-2016: Evaluating the Impact of the Kinship Fellows Program: An External Assessment. Kinship Foundation

2014-2016: Demonstrating Proof-of-Concept for Video-Based Training on Collaborative Ecosystem Management. McCance Family Foundation

2008-2013: Evaluating and Disseminating Case Studies of Marine Ecosystem-Based Management. Packard Foundation

2008: Preserving Wild California: An External Assessment. Resources Legacy Fund Foundation

Education

PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (environmental policy and planning)

MS, University of Michigan (natural resource policy)

BS, University of Michigan (resource planning and conservation)

In the News
Wyss Scholars program receives additional funding to support U.S. land conservation
October 30, 2024

Wyss Scholars program receives additional funding to support U.S. land conservation

The Wyss Foundation is a charitable foundation dedicated to promoting land conservation in the United States. Established in 1998, the foundation has achieved permanent...

Julia Elkin
May 28, 2024

Conservation Leadership Award established in memory of SEAS alum Julia Elkin

The Julia Elkin Conservation Leadership Award has been established in memory of Elkin, a member of the SEAS community who graduated in 2015. Elkin passed away on February...

Francesca Governali (MS/MBA ’24): Meet the future of Environmental Policy and Planning
May 1, 2024

Francesca Governali (MS/MBA ’24): Meet the future of Environmental Policy and Planning

University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) master's student Francesca Governali (MS/MBA ’24) was working in Washington, D.C., when she...

Ally Sung-Jereczek (MS ’24)
April 26, 2024

Meet the future of Behavior, Education and Communication: Ally Sung-Jereczek (MS ’24)

Why SEAS? Ally Sung-Jereczek (MS ’24) was first drawn to the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) due to the uniqueness of the...

Max Weintraub
June 13, 2023

SEAS alum dedicated to diminishing the threat of childhood lead poisoning

Although lead paint was banned for residential use in 1978, lead exposure from deteriorated lead paint continues to harm children in the United States. “You’ve got to...

Meet the future of Environmental Policy and Planning: Joel Weltzien (MS ’23)
April 28, 2023

Meet the future of Environmental Policy and Planning: Joel Weltzien (MS ’23)

Joel Weltzien (MS ’23) was in his last year studying cultural anthropology at the University of Montana when he realized he wanted to focus on conservation work. His love...

Ritvik Jain (MS ’23)
April 21, 2023

Meet the future of Sustainable Systems: Ritvik Jain (MS ’23)

Why SEAS? For Ritvik Jain (MS ’23), choosing a graduate program came down to surrounding himself with people who cared deeply about sustainability as well as a place that...

SEAS alumna helps leaders create change through more effective communication
March 10, 2023

SEAS alumna helps leaders create change through more effective communication

University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) alumnae Stephanie Judd (MS/MBA ’13) and Kara Davidson (MS/ MBA ’13) founded Wolf & Heron in 2016...

In the Media
01/29/2024
Steven L. Yaffee
2023-2025 Wyss Scholars named
02/16/2023
Steven L. Yaffee
Wyss Conservation Scholars announced
06/29/2022
Steven L. Yaffee
Four decades on the front lines of environmental activism (MIT Technology Review)
01/19/2022
Steven L. Yaffee
Wyss Scholars Announced
seas logo
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability
Dana Building
440 Church Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
(734) 764-6453
Email us
facebook
twitter
instagram
linkedin
youtube
flickr
planet blue global impact logo

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Intranet
  • Contact Web Team
  • Email Sign-Up

© 2025 The Regents of the University of Michigan | Privacy Policy

Produced by Michigan Creative