Sean Gillon, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor of Graduate Programs in Human Nutrition, School of Medicine
  • Co-director, M.S. in Food Systems and Society program

Biography

Sean Gillon is an associate professor and co-director of the M.S. in Food Systems and Society program in the Graduate Programs in Human Nutrition at Oregon Health & Science University.

He earned a Ph.D. in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with funding from the National Science Foundation. He later completed a postdoctoral research fellowship on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s National Science Foundation-funded Water Sustainability and Climate Project.

His interdisciplinary research focuses on science, policy, politics and political economy in the U.S. food system. He works to improve outcomes through critical inquiry, policy and practice.

He teaches courses including Food Policy and Politics, Food System Theory, Food Systems Inquiry and the Capstone series in the M.S. in Food Systems and Society program.

Before joining OHSU, he served as department chair of interdisciplinary and applied liberal arts at Marylhurst University. He has also worked throughout the food system, supported groups advancing social justice and served nonprofit organizations as a researcher and director.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S., 2001, University of Iowa
    • M.S., 2011, University of California, Santa Cruz
    • Ph.D., 2011, University of California, Santa Cruz

Honors and awards

  • Nominee, Oregon Health & Science University FLAME Faculty Award, 2021 and 2022
  • OHSU Community and Wellness Mini Grant Award, 2020
  • Nominee, Marylhurst Faculty Excellence in Academic Service and Teaching Award, 2014-2015
  • National Science Foundation Water Sustainability and Climate Grant (postdoctoral research fellowship), Award No. DEB-1038759, 2011–2013
  • National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, Geography and Regional Sciences, Award No. BCS-0903075, 2009–2011
  • University of California, Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems Graduate Student Grant, 2010–2011
  • UCSC Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, 2009–2010
  • Department of Environmental Studies Teaching Assistant of the Year Award, 2008
  • UCSC Curriculum Development Fellowship, 2009 and 2010
  • UCSC Graduate Division Doctoral Student Sabbatical Fellowship, 2009
  • The Benjamin and Ruth Hammet Award for Research on Climate Change, 2008
  • The David Gaines Environmental Studies Award, 2008
  • The Earthbound Farm Environmental Stewardship Award, 2007–2008
  • UCSC Science, Technology, Engineering, Policy and Society Institute Graduate Grant, 2007
  • University of California Regents’ Fellowship, 2005

Publications

Selected publications

  • Allen, P. and S. Gillon. 2022. Critical pedagogy for food systems transformation: Identifying and addressing social-justice problems in food systems and society. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 6: 847059.
  • Kalinich, C., R. Rdesinski, A. Lin, S. Gillon and D. Stadler. 2021. Assessing student insecurity status at Oregon Health & Science University during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 121(9), Supplement: A85.
  • Gillon, S. 2019. Food and the environment. In J. Konefal and M. Hatanaka (Eds.) Twenty Lessons in the Sociology of Food and Agriculture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Wardropper, C.B., S. Gillon and A. Rissman. 2018. Innovation in outcomes-based water quality policy: A case study from the Yahara Watershed, Wisconsin, USA. Case Studies in the Environment 2(1): 1–7.
  • Wardropper, C.B., S. Gillon and A. Rissman. 2017. Uncertain monitoring and modeling in a watershed nonpoint pollution program. Land Use Policy 67: 690–701.
  • Rissman, A.R. and S. Gillon. 2017. Where are ecology and biodiversity in social–ecological systems research? A review of research methods and applied recommendations. Conservation Letters 10(1): 8
  • Gillon, S. 2016. Flexible for whom? Flex crops, crises, fixes and the politics of exchanging use values in U.S. corn production. Journal of Peasant Studies 43(1): 117–139.
  • Wardropper, C.B., S. Gillon, A.S. Mase, E.A. McKinney, S.R. Carpenter and A.R. Rissman. 2016. Local perspectives and global archetypes in scenario development. Ecology and Society 21(2):12.
  • Gillon, S., E.G. Booth and A.R. Rissman. 2015. Shifting drivers and static baselines in environmental governance: Challenges improving and proving water quality outcomes. Regional Environmental Change 16(3): 759–775.
  • Carpenter, S.R., E.G. Booth, S. Gillon, C.J. Kucharik, S. Loheide, A.S. Mase, M. Motew, J. Qiu, A.R. Rissman, J. Seifert, E. Soylu, M. Turner and C.B. Wardropper. 2015. Plausible futures of a social-ecological system: Yahara Watershed, Wisconsin, USA. Ecology and Society 20(2): 10
  • Hilimire, K., S. Gillon, B. McLaughlin, K. Monsen and B. Dowd-Uribe. 2014. Food for thought: Developing curricula for sustainable food systems education. Journal of Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 38(6): 722–743.
  • Gillon, S. 2014. Science in carbon economies: Debating what counts in U.S. biofuel governance. Environment and Planning A 46: 318–336.
  • Stuart, D. and S. Gillon. 2013. Scaling up to address new challenges for conservation on U.S. farmland. Land Use Policy 31: 223–236.
  • Gillon, S. 2012. U.S. biofuel production as climate policy: Tensions between greenhouse gas governance, agricultural economies and agroecological practice. Norteamérica 7: 129–164.
  • Gillon, S. 2010. Fields of dreams: Negotiating an ethanol agenda in the Midwest United States. Journal of Peasant Studies 37(4): 723–748.
  • Gillon, S. 2010. Appropriationism. In P. Robbins, D. Mulvaney and J.G. Golson (Eds.) Green Food Reference. London: Sage.
  • Gillon, S. 2010. Substitutionism. In P. Robbins, D. Mulvaney and J.G. Golson (Eds.) Green Food Reference. London: Sage.
  • DuPuis, E.M. and S. Gillon. 2009. Alternative modes of governance: Organic as civic engagement. Agriculture and Human Values 26(1–2): 43–56.