User Profile

Board of Directors

• Environmental Information Coalition

Editorial Board

• The Encyclopedia of Earth

Dr. Sidney Draggan, an Ecologist and Science Policy Analyst, served most recently as Senior Science and Science Policy Advisor to the Assistant Administrator for Research and Development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He joined the staff of the Immediate Office of the Assistant Administrator in 1997 after serving for two years as Special Assistant for Science to the Administrator (Carol Browner) and Deputy Administrator (Fred Hansen) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He is an Ecologist (Ph.D. in Systems Ecology) with special interests in science policy research and analysis; environmental assessment, monitoring and management; chemical testing and control; and international environment policy. Currently, he is a member of the Environmental Information Coalition's Board of Directors.  Also, he is Topic Editor for Environmental Monitoring for the Encyclopedia of Earth.

Prior to working in the Administrator’s Office, he was Associate Director of the Office of Research and Development’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP). His work with the EMAP focused on program policy formulation, information management issues, and strengthening the scientific-defensibility, reliability and credibility of all EMAP activities and products. He has served as Research Ecologist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Environmental Sciences Division; Senior Research Fellow at the UNEP/WHO Monitoring and Assessment Research Centre in London, UK; and, Ecological Effects Team Leader with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Toxic Substances.

The EPA is the second Federal agency where Dr. Draggan has worked. Between 1978 - 1985, he was Environmental Policy Analyst at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Policy Research and Analysis. Also, he served as Associate Program Manager for Polar Biology and Medicine at NSF's Office of Polar Programs; and in 1989, he was named Environmental Officer of the NSF's Office of Polar Programs and of the U.S. Antarctic Program. During 1987, Dr. Draggan became the first NSF staff member to winterover on the Antarctic Continent, managing activities at McMurdo Station of the U.S. Antarctic Program. The following year, he served as NSF Representative, New Zealand.

Dr. Draggan has published in the peer-reviewed ecological and science policy literatures. He is on the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Environmental Studies, and Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. He was the U.S. EPA’s Liaison to the U.S. National Committee for CODATA. Also, he chaired the Partnership of Science and Technology Advisors of the international partnership, The Consortium for Advancing the Monitoring of Ecosystem Sustainability in the Americas. Dr. Draggan is a member of the Network for Science and Technology for Sustainability, was on the Project Advisory Group of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and is on the 2002, 2004 and 2006 Planning Committees of the Gordon Research Conferences on Frontiers of U.S. Science and Technology Policy.

Significantly, he has edited four volumes on setting priorities for long-term Federal environmental and environmental health research and development activities, requested by the President's Council on Environmental Quality. He served on the Planning Committee for the National Council for Science and Environment's 2007 National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment: Integrating Environment and Human Health; and he chaired the Breakout Session on Designing for Complementarity Among Programs Generating Environmental and Health Information. Also, he was on the Planning Committee for the NCSE's 2008 Conference on Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World. He is a Contributing Author to UNEP's Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4): Chapter 10 (From the Periphery to the Core of Decision Making–Options for Action). He was Chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Board for the conference "Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in the Context of Climate Change, the Energy Crisis and Food Insecurity" that convened November 2009 in Agadir, Morocco (In 2011, he co-edited this Conference's Proceedings, "Global Food Insecurity"). In 2009, Dr. Draggan was named to the Board of Directors of EnvironMentors, a national college access initiative that prepares high school students for college degree programs in environmental and related science fields. He was Chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Board for the May 2011 International Conference on "Climate Change, Agri-Food, Fisheries and Ecosystems: Reinventing Research, Innovation, and Policy Agendas for Enviromentally- and Socially-Balanced Growth". Dr. Draggan serves on the Food Security Advisory Committee of the 2012 Annual NCSE Conference on Environment and Security. He participated in the group that developed the 2012-2017 Strategic Plan for the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.