Bio

Dr. Pelican has worked in 45 countries to strengthen the multi sectoral systems needed to address the world’s most complex challenges in the integrative fields of One Health and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She founded and directed the SPARC office (sparc.umn.edu) at U. Minnesota charged with establishing and growing large-scale, interdisciplinary programs and projects. She founded and co-lead the system-wide SDG Initiative (sdg.umn.edu) to mobilize UMN to meet these 17 UN goals from the local to global level. She also created the OH-SMART toolkit (oh-smart.umn.edu) that has improved multi-sectoral cooperation around complex challenges in the US and 29 countries globally. She recently joined the University of Hawai’i as the inaugural Director of the Health Sciences Institute at UH Manoa where she will be advancing the interdisciplinary programs and projects across the UH system to improve the health and well-being of the people of Hawai’i and communities throughout the Pacific Rim.