Charlene Brenner

About Charlene

As Director of Research and Innovation for the Sustainability Institute (SI) at The Ohio State University, Charlene works closely with SI leadership, faculty research leaders, and partners across the university and beyond to advance interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, strategic partnerships, and innovative approaches to sustainability challenges. Her work focuses on connecting people, ideas, and resources to strengthen research capacity, support collaborative problem-solving, and accelerate research and societal impact.

Charlene is passionate about creating the conditions that help people do their best work together. She is particularly interested in team science, collaborative leadership, and the structures and practices that enable diverse groups to work effectively across disciplines and sectors.  She embraces approaches grounded in trust, belonging, curiosity, and shared purpose, and designs and facilitates programs, workshops, and collaborative experiences that help researchers build relationships, navigate complexity, and translate innovative ideas into meaningful action and impact.

In her role, Charlene leads initiatives that support research development, partnership building, faculty engagement, strategic planning, and proposal development across SI's network of more than 300 faculty affiliates. She works with researchers, community and institutional partners to cultivate new collaborations, support emerging research priorities, develop funding strategies, and create opportunities for scholars to connect across disciplines. She is particularly interested in helping teams address complex sustainability challenges through approaches that bridge research, practice, and policy.

Charlene brings to this role over a decade of experience building communities and supporting collaborative initiatives within higher education. Prior to joining the Sustainability Institute, she served as Program Director of the STEAM Factory at The Ohio State University, a diverse grassroots network of more than 350 faculty, staff, students, and postdoctoral scholars dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary connections and creative collaboration. Charlene is an alumna of Ohio State and holds a Juris Doctor from the Moritz College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Kenyon College.

Outside of work, Charlene enjoys gardening, long nature "sanity" walks that help her untangle complex ideas, and exploring new creative pursuits, most recently learning her way around a pottery wheel. Whether in her professional or personal life, she is energized by curiosity, learning, connection, and opportunities to see the world from new perspectives. She lives in Columbus with her fabulous wife and their beloved menagerie of pets.