My Biography
Ed is a cultural anthropologist who served as Executive Director of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) from 2013 to 2023. Before joining AAA’s staff, Ed had a long career with the non-profit Battelle Seattle Research Center, conducting research and public policy analysis on a variety of energy, public health, and social policy issues. He has been affiliated with the University of Washington since 1986, and he has been a visiting professor at Università Carlo Cattaneo Castellanza, VA, Italy, and a Senior Fellow of the Fulbright Commission. He currently serves as Chair of the Board of the Consortium of Social Science Associations, and is also a member of the National Humanities Alliance board. He has served on the executive boards of the AAA, the Society for Applied Anthropology, the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Community, and the Jack Straw Media Arts Foundation. He earned his PhD and MA from Arizona State University and his BA from Carleton College.
Ed retired as Executive Director of AAA in July 2023.
“I am AAA. My career has focused on research in the public interest, and, more recently, serving the profession. This work has been dedicated to the search for upstream solutions in the policy realm, where small, manageable changes at key intervention points can have significant impacts in the quest for a more just and sustainable future. I now have the privilege of leading the AAA staff, where every day we have the opportunity to fully exercise the Association’s convening power and the power of voice to advance human understanding and apply that understanding to tackling some of the world’s most pressing problems.”