Shawn Benner is the Dean in the College of Innovation and Design. Shawn received his BA from Colorado College, MS from the University of Montana and his PhD from the University in Waterloo. His scholarship focuses on student-oriented environmental research addressing problems of immediate value to society; he has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications. Prior to joining Boise State, Shawn held a post-doctoral position at Stanford University and was a Research Scientist at the Desert Research Institute. As a professor in Geosciences at Boise State, Shawn helped build the innovative ‘sophomore core’ undergraduate curriculum, which helped more than double major recruitment and retention. He was the Boise State lead on the multi-institutional, $25,000,000, Idaho NSF-EPSCoR Program, managed the Trace Analytical Facility, and co-founded the Human-Environment Systems program. He served as Associate Dean of CI+D from August 2018-April 2022.