Brian Sharbono

Brian is the Director of Programs at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at the Stanford Doerr School for Sustainability. Prior he served as Research Analyst with the Economic and Regulatory Research Unit of the Washington State Department of Ecology.  At the Beldon Fund, a spend down philanthropy, Brian managed strategic grantmaking programs that invested $10M per year to improve environmental health, bolster the capacity and policy coordination of state-level environmental NGOs, and advance market-based strategies to improve ESG in the private sector. At Stanford, Brian co-founded and was Managing Director of the Rural Education Action Program at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to prototype and rigorously evaluate program interventions.  REAP demonstrably enhanced the nutrition, health and educational attainment of children of poor households at scale in rural China by showing impact and leveraging provincial and national policy change.  Brian subsequently served as program evaluator for Stanford’s Biodesign Innovation Program. 

At the Woods Institute, Brian partners across the university and externally. Brian initiated the Realizing Environmental Innovation Program, a funding opportunity and external advising channel for faculty research teams seeking to validate and accelerate innovation for climate and sustainability challenges.  The program complements the Environmental Venture Projects, a funding program for faculty research teams of high risk, earlier stage, cross-university environmental projects, which Brian also directs. He initiated the Forum for Undergraduate Environmental Leadership (FUEL) and the Stanford Environmental Policy Internships in California (EPIC internships), which create opportunities for Stanford students to learn about and contribute to the environmental policy work of regional and state agencies and NGOs. Other programs support independent environmental projects and summer research by students.