Beth Martin

Beth Martin is a Teaching Professor in Environmental Studies and a scholar in the Center for the Environment at Washington University in St. Louis. She serves as the co-focal point for the Research and Independent Constituency to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is regarded as an expert in the UNFCCC process. She provides guidance to researchers worldwide who want to engage with the UNFCCC and herself focuses on transparency and observer engagement in multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) processes with a focus on climate change.

Beth teaches courses at the intersection of science, engineering, law, and policy and has taught in three separate schools at the University (law, engineering and arts and sciences). Beth’s courses prioritize understanding of place, progression of environmental decisioning and interdisciplinary engagement and include IPCC: Governance, Policy and Science, Multiparty-Environmental Decision Making, A Sense of Place: Exploring the Environment of St. Louis and the International Climate Negotiation Seminar. As part of the seminar, Beth travels with and leads student delegations to the UNFCCC COP each year. Consistent in Beth’s teaching is a desire for students to understand the value of different disciplines and to see and understand how who they are as individual and what they are learning has relevance and meaning in the world outside of the classroom. 

Beth is also an active undergraduate advisor serving as a 4-year advisor to the cohort of students in the Pathfinder Fellows in Environmental Leadership program and a major and minor advisor for students in Environmental Studies.

Beth, a registered professional engineer, received her Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Math from Birmingham-Southern College.