Elizabeth A. Bennett, PhD, is an internationally recognized expert on sustainable supply chains and values-driven business strategy, with more than 20 years of experience advising companies, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and policymakers at the intersection of profitability, labor standards, and global economic governance.
Since receiving my PhD from Brown University in 2014, Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon (a small, selective liberal arts school) has been my institutional home. At Lewis & Clark, I am the Joseph M. Ha Endowed Chair and Full Professor of International Affairs, and the Director of Political Economy.
I am also affiliated with two research universities. At the University of California, Berkeley, I am a Visiting Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy and a Research Affiliate at the Cannabis Research Center. At Rutgers University, I am an Institute Fellow at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.
I recently completed residential fellowships at the Forum Basiliense at the University of Basel in Switzerland (2025), and at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University (2022).
I am an applied researcher and actively bring evidence-based insights to high-level decision-makers. I am a Permanent Member of the Academic Advisory Council to the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) and a voting member of the Standards Committee of GOTS (the Global Organic Textile Standard). I am also a member of the IDOS, German Institute of Development and Sustainability, Research Network on Sustainable Global Supply Chains.
I have authored more than 40 publications on sustainable business and related topics and am currently working on a book about living wages in global supply chains, which I describes in this interview with consulting firm Article One.
My publications include a book (The Civic Imagination: Making a Difference in American Political Life) and co-edited volume (The Handbook of Research on Fair Trade with Laura T. Raynolds). My work has been published in the top journals in my field, including World Development, Sustainable Development, the American Journal of Sociology, Global Policy, International Review of Applied Economics, and Business Ethics, Environment, and Responsibility.
All of my work is interdisciplinary. I engage literature from international relations, political economy, public policy, sociology, social movement studies, consumer culture, business management, and sustainable development. More on my current research here.
I hold a PhD in Political Science from Brown University and a MALD (Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy) focused on the political economy of economic development from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. I completed my dissertation in residence at Colorado State University’s Center for Fair and Alternative Trade (CFAT).
If you are interested in strategic advising, commissioned research, consulting, graduate workshops, keynotes, expert statements, or an interview, please contact me directly: ElizabethBennett@lclark.edu.