Charlene Brenner

About Charlene

As the Research Development Partnerships Senior Analyst with the Sustainability Institute (SI) at The Ohio State University, Charlene works closely with SI’s faculty director Elena Irwin and faculty research leaders to develop and execute strategies that align SI’s strategic vision, planning, implementation, evaluation and assessment of SI’s research goals and impacts. 

Charlene firmly believes that fostering a sense of belonging and trust is essential to working collaboratively and effectively across interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams addressing critical issues of sustainability. In her research development capacity, Charlene will develop and lead a variety of research-focused initiatives including sustainability focused research collaborations, investments, programming, facilitation, trainings and workshops, and extramural proposal development, while providing research project support to the Sustainability Institute’s 300+ core and affiliated faculty across the spectrum of sustainability scholarship at Ohio State. Charlene will lead research development activities, including taking responsibility for the design and execution of various forums for SI faculty affiliates to exchange new scientific discoveries and knowledge and to build professional networks of potential collaborators and resources for research including SI’s Exploratory Research Groups, networking activities, conferences, and other scholarly interactions.

Charlene brings to this role over a decade of experience within the university community having served as Program Director of the STEAM Factory at The Ohio State University, a widely diverse, grassroots organization consisting of over 350 faculty, staff, and post-doctoral students. Charlene is an alumna and holds a Juris Doctor from the Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Kenyon College.