For the Media

Dr. Anderson frequently speaks with the media on a range of coastal management and environmental science topics. He most frequently discusses oil spills, pollution, wildfires, coastal development, our coastal economy, public opinion polling, fisheries, natural disasters, wildlife corridors, international conservation, drones, and submarines.

• e-mail (link to campus directory): click here
• cell: 805-732-2732
• or via CSU Channel Islands Campus Media Relations:
  • website (link to staff contacts): click here
  • phone: 805-437-8424

Please note: The large volume of e-mails I receive daily make a speedy reply to your e-mail inquiry doubtful and unreliable, especially if you have a time-critical question. Rather, a text to my cell phone is the best way to reach me if you are on deadline. If I do not reply promptly, I am likely teaching or in the field. In such a case, our stellar campus Media Relations will usually be able to reach me and a call to them would most likely help.

Sean Anderson, Ph.D.
Professor of Environmental Science and Resource Management
California State University Channel Islands

short bio (234 words), last updated August 2016

Dr. Sean Anderson is a broadly trained conservation biologist who has tackled environmental challenges from Alaska to the South Pole. Anderson left Stanford University to join the just-opened California State University Channel Islands in 2005. He proceeded to help grow both his university and program with strong emphases on interdisciplinarity, service learning (experiences wherein community volunteering is central to the learning), deep community partnerships, undergraduate research, engagement with underrepresented groups, and curricula often directed around difficult to address conditions or predicaments across the coastlines of our world. This approach has lead to frequent collaborations with partners outside academia spanning government, tech companies, heavy industry, non-profit, and arts groups.

His innovative and award-winning teaching emphasizes applied research and deep community engagement, including signature courses wherein students travel across California, the Pacific, and to New Orleans to conduct long-term monitoring and serve local communities grappling with major environmental challenges. 
Anderson’s research ranges from the Middle East to the South Pacific and spans a variety of ecological restoration, ecotoxicology, autonomous flying/swimming robotic, epistemology, public opinion, and sustainability projects. He is an elected or appointed member of several working groups, boards, joint power authorities, and Scientific Advisory Panels across local, state, U.S., and international bodies.

Dr. Anderson’s energetic, innovative teaching and conservation efforts are often covered in the popular press and spawned the eponymous “Sean Anderson” character (played by Josh Hutcherson) in Warner Brother’s Journey film franchise.