The crowd applauds for Chris Boone at his installation as USC Price dean. (USC Photo/Steve Cohn)
Sustainability leader Chris Boone installed as USC Price dean
During Monday’s event, USC Price’s new dean gave credit to a family that taught him the value of higher education.
Chris Boone’s hardworking Canadian grandmother may not have been at Monday’s installation ceremony for the new dean of the USC Price School of Public Policy, but the late Mary Boone was there in spirit thanks to her grandson’s heartfelt remarks.
“My father was an only child, which meant his mother could sock away what little extra money she made as a seamstress,” Boone said from the podium inside the Town and Gown ballroom on the University Park Campus. “[He] remembered from his earliest days that his mother would talk about him going to college — not if, but when and where.”
His grandmother’s determination has so far led to two generations of educators in the Boone family, including the new USC Price dean who also holds the C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Dean’s Chair at the school. Boone made note of other key mentors in his life and career during the ceremony attended by USC President Carol Folt, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrew T. Guzman, and many of the leaders of USC’s 22 other schools and academic units.
“Achievements are never our own,” Boone said. “I am standing here because of the kindness, encouragement and sacrifices many, many people made for me.”
In her remarks, Folt described Boone as “an exceptional academic leader and thought leader — a leader for the future.”
Folt also lightheartedly shared with the crowd that Boone doesn’t like to be called Christopher because it has too many syllables. It’s also what his mother called him whenever he was in trouble.
“I have a hard time believing Chris was ever much of a troublemaker,” Folt said. “But if he were, it would have been because of a far-reaching and restless intellect and a deep curiosity about the world. It makes sense that he’s now taking the helm of USC Price — a renowned school with nearly a century’s legacy of developing disrupters, changemakers, innovators and creative thinkers of all kinds.”
A sustainable past for new USC Price dean
Boone comes to USC after 18 years at Arizona State University, where he filled a variety of leadership roles, including serving as dean of the School of Sustainability from 2013 to 2020 and founding dean of ASU’s College of Global Futures. He also co-founded and served as interim president of the National Sustainability Society.
Boone is an expert in urban sustainability, global environment change, urbanization and environmental justice whose research contributes to scholarship and practice in those fields. He has authored and co-authored three books, 21 book chapters and 56 journal articles. His scholarship has been supported with 62 research grants totaling $40 million.
Boone has also held visiting professor positions in the department of biology at Georgetown University and in the Yale University School of the Environment. His first academic job was at California State University, Los Angeles, so returning to Southern California is a homecoming of sorts for Boone and his wife, Marcia Nation. The couple has two adult sons, Alexander and David.
“[We] used to come to the USC campus occasionally to work in the Doheny Library,” Boone said. “[We] loved spending time on this beautiful campus.”
The lure of USC Price
Boone said he was drawn to USC Price’s “commitment to solutions, real-world impact and interdisciplinarity.”
“At Price, we have engaged in scholarship and activities for policies, and plans and guidelines that are responsive to immediate needs — but also anticipate future needs,” he said. “Our goal is to solve problems, and there are plenty to solve. But our goal should also focus on problem avoidance.”
Boone was also impressed by USC’s commitment to sustainability, which has been one of Folt’s five “moonshot” initiatives since she arrived at USC in 2019. This includes the creation of Assignment: Earth, USC’s framework to ensure that the university remains at the forefront of sustainability operations, research and education.
“We need more higher education institutions engaged in sustainability, and I am excited to lend my knowledge and experience to advance the admirable sustainability efforts already underway at USC,” Boone said.
New USC Price dean: Boone family role models
Because of his grandmother’s foresight, Boone’s father, John, was the first in his extended family to complete a university degree, graduating from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia in 1962 before pursuing a master’s degree in history at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He became a high school history teacher and later a principal.
Like his father, Boone graduated from Queen’s University with a bachelor’s degree in geography before earning a master’s and doctoral degree in the subject from the University of Toronto.
His mother, Betty Boone, worked as a medical lab technologist at a hospital, eventually completing her own university degree over many years as a part-time student before becoming a dean at a local community college.
“The transformative power of education was a frequent dinner-table conversation,” Boone said. “I’m thrilled to be joining a leading research university and its amazing and inspiring faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends.”
