Dorit Kerret brings to CSF an interdisciplinary background spanning law, public policy, and environmental health. She holds an LLB in Law along with degrees in Environmental Studies and Public Health and is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University. Over the past decade, she has collaborated with colleagues to develop the field of “Positive Sustainability,” an approach that integrates positive psychology with environmental sustainability to foster resilience and engagement. During her time at CSF, she is focusing on a mixed-methods research project examining positive psychology and sustainability education across northeastern U.S. campuses. Her work explores how higher education institutions can integrate sustainability into campus life through narratives of hope rather than fear or doomsday framing. The project includes participatory observations of campus tours and interviews with sustainability leaders to identify best practices. These findings will inform her forthcoming book manuscript, tentatively titled Positive Sustainability.

The foundations of her work in positive sustainability began when she and her colleagues received an Israel Science Foundation grant to study green schools in Israel. Through this research, she identified education as the critical bridge between positive psychology, which centers the individual, and environmental policy, which focuses on systemic change. Teaching has long been central to her work, and it was her students who motivated her to examine pedagogies that encourage and prepare future environmental leaders. Her previous research has centered on the relationship between wellbeing and environmental action. She has studied green schools in Israel, conducted environmental intervention studies in schools, and carried out comparative research linking environmental education, positive education, and positive sustainability. Alongside this, she has developed and taught positive sustainability courses for public policymakers, educational leaders, teachers, and school principals at Tel Aviv University, while continuing to refine strategies for engaging students.

At CSF, she was particularly excited to participate in the Summer Institute for New York City Public School Teachers and is looking forward to teaching at the winter institute in February. She is also eager to explore and develop collaborative pathways between her home institution and Columbia. As a visiting scholar, she hopes to advance best practices for “crafting environmental leaders” through the positive sustainability framework. By analyzing current practices across Northeastern universities, she aims to identify ways sustainability can be taught in engaging and lasting ways that extend beyond the classroom. Ultimately, her work seeks to bridge research and practice while fostering long-term institutional partnerships with Columbia University.