Research Leader
Energy, Environment and Resources Center
University of Tennessee
311 Conference Center Building
Knoxville, TN 37996-4134
Phone: 865-974-3825
Fax: 865-974-1838 
menglish@utk.edu

Selected Publications:

M.R. English, "Environmental Risk and Justice," in T.L. McDaniels and M.J. Small, eds., Risk Analysis and Society: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

M.R. English and J.R. Hoffman, Planning for Rural Areas in Tennessee Under PC 1101 , a White Paper prepared for the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, January 2001.

M.R. English, "Who Are the Stakeholder in Environmental Risk Decisions? How Should They Be Involved?" Risk: Health, Safety & Environment 11(3), Summer 2000.

B. Tonn, M. English, and C. Travis, "A Framework for Understanding and Improving Environmental Decision Making," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 43(2), 2000.

V.H. Dale and M.R. English, eds., Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1999).

M.R. English, J.H. Peretz, and M.J. Manderschied, Smart Growth for Tennessee Towns and Counties: A Process Guide (Knoxville, TN: Waste Management Research and Education Institute, University of Tennessee, February 1999).

M.R. English and R.B. Inerfeld, "Institutional Controls for Contaminated Sites: Help or Hazard?" Risk: Health, Safety & Environment 10(2), Spring 1999. 

J.D. Peine, M.R. English, et al., "Contributions of Sociology to Ecosystem Management," in H.K. Cordell and J.C. Bergstrom, eds., Integrating Social Science and Ecosystem Management: Human Dimensions in Assessment, Policy, and Management (Champaign, IL: Sagamore Press, 1999).

M.R. English, "Environmental Decision Making by Organizations: Choosing the Right Tools," in K. Sexton et al., eds., Better Environmental Decisions: Strategies for Governments, Businesses and Communities (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1999).

M.R. English and J.H. Peretz, "Brownfields Reuse in Tennessee: Impediments and Opportunities," Public Works Management and Policy 2(3), 1998.

M.R. English and M.A. Zimlich, The "Community" in Community-Based Environmental Protection (Knoxville, TN: Waste Management Research and Education Institute, University of Tennessee, September 1997).

Dr. English is an adjunct to the University of Tennessee Sociology Department and a research member of the Waste Management Research and Education Institute. She also teaches a graduate course in architectural ethics.

Her current research interests include land use and growth management planning at the local and state levels, political and economic conditions for sustainable consumption, and participatory processes for environmental decision making. 

Over the past 15 years, Dr. English's work has focused on the social and political aspects of various environmental management issues—e.g., problems with siting controversial projects and with cleaning up Superfund sites, policies to promote the restoration and reuse of brownfield sites, the effectiveness and acceptability of institutional controls as part of contaminated site cleanups, and the nature of collaborative interactions between electric utilities and nonutility parties. As a parallel, her research has focused on ways in which environmental decisionmaking processes can be improved—e.g., alternative mechanisms for involving stakeholders in environmental decisions, how "the community" should be defined within the context of community-based environmental efforts, information-gathering and analytic tools to improve environmental decision making, and guidance on conducting socioeconomic impact assessments.

Dr. English is a member of the Tennessee Air Pollution Control Board. She also has served on a number of  national boards and committees, including the National Research Council's (NRC) Board on Radioactive Waste Management and several NRC study committees, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, and the National League of Women Voters' Advisory Committee to the Nuclear Waste Education Project. 

Her hobbies include bicycling, rowing, hiking, gardening, and tennis.