Jonathan Lash

Jonathan Lash Biography

Jonathan Lash retired from Hampshire College in July 2018 after seven years as its President. He steered Hampshire through a period marked by significant advances in its student-centered education, access to higher education, diversity, sustainability, philanthropy, and infrastructure, recommitting Hampshire to the pursuit of its founding principles — to challenge students to shape their own eduction, to engage students and faculty in critical social issues, and for all to be a force for positive change in the world.

In 2014, Hampshire became the first U.S. institution not to accept SATs and ACTs, citing studies that show that the tests have little predictive value for determining who will excel at the College and are biased against low-income families. The school pioneered highly individualized recruitment and application processes.

During his tenure Hampshire significantly increased the diversity of its student body, Board of Directors, and Faculty. Hampshire also became the first residential college to obtain 100% of its annual electricity needs from solar power with savings of over four million dollars. He motivated record numbers of donors to invest in these efforts, more than doubling the college’s fundraising.

His essays and ideas on improving education have been published by Education Week, the New York Times, the Hechinger Report, the Washington Post, Money magazine, and the Huffington Post, extending Hampshire’s influence in higher education.

Before coming to Hampshire, Lash was president of the World Resources Institute, an international environmental think tank that was the source for the key policy ideas underlying global agreements on climate and forests. Under his leadership, the organization quadrupled its budget and globalized its work, with offices in eight nations and partners in more than 50 countries.

From 1993 to 1999, Lash co-chaired the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, a group of public- and private-sector leaders appointed by Bill Clinton. In 2010, Lash was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

A former Peace Corps Volunteer and a lawyer, Lash began his legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Frank M. Coffin, then Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He went on to serve as a federal prosecutor and later as an environmental litigator for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

In 1985 Lash was named by Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin as Commissioner of Environmental Conservation and two years later as Secretary of Natural Resources. He developed, lobbied for, and implemented a series innovative statutes pertaining to pollution prevention, solid-waste management, and conservation.

In 1990, he was appointed director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School, rated by many as the best program of its kind in the United States.

As President of the World Resources Institute, Lash advocated for environmental standards for businesses and finance. He was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics” by Ethisphere magazine (2007) and one of the world’s “Top 100 Most Influential People in Finance” by Treasury and Risk Management magazine (2005). In the same year, Rolling Stone Magazine profiled him as one of 25 “Warriors and Heroes” who were "fighting to stave off [a] planet-wide catastrophe.” He served on the founding Board of Generation Investment Management, Al Gore’s green investment firm.