Dr. Judith Shapiro was one of the first Americans to work in China after the normalization of relations with the U.S. in 1979 and taught journalism and literature to more than 600 students and faculty in Changsha, Hunan from 1979 to 1981. She is the author of Mao’s War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China and China’s Environmental Challenges, among others. She has lectured in China for the U.S. Department of State on environmental issues and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

At American University, Dr. Shapiro is on the faculty of the Global Environmental Politics Program and directs the dual degree in natural resources and sustainable development with the University for Peace in Costa Rica. She holds her PhD in environmental politics and international relations from American University, her MA in Asian studies from the University of California at Berkeley, another MA in comparative literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her BA in anthropology and East Asian studies from Princeton University.