As a child growing up in New Mexico, Nicole Darnall earned her allowance by selling chicken eggs. In hopes of earning more money, she naturally began thinking up ways to get her chickens to lay more eggs, building roosts, nests, and even an incubator to hatch additional hens. After many failed attempts, she ultimately decided to designate some of her best egg-laying chickens as hatchers.
“While my egg production fell initially, after six months, my egg production was at an all-time high. This led to increased sales, largely driven by ethically minded customers who valued locally produced eggs from happy chickens,” Darnall recalled. “I didn’t know it at the time, but sustainable enterprise would become my professional jam, and the lessons I learned at eleven continue to appear in my research today.”
In early September, Darnall told the story of her chickens to an audience in AU’s Katzen Arts Center, where she was installed as the inaugural Arlene R. and Robert P. Kogod Eminent Scholar Chair in Sustainability. The event marked the first joint appointment of an endowed chair in the university’s history. Darnall will work with Kogod and the School of Public Affairs to advance sustainability research across disciplines. Darnall is thrilled with the opportunity to continue work that she’s passionate about among a community of sustainability, business, and public policy experts.
“My appointment as eminent scholar chair in sustainability is an immense honor for me,” she said. “The opportunity to contribute to a joint appointment, fostering connections between diverse fields, and advancing sustainability initiatives is not just a job—it’s a calling that I am passionate about fulfilling.”
Darnall joins the AU community from Arizona State University, where she served as associate dean of faculty success and strategic initiatives for the School of Sustainability and the College of Global Futures. She entered academia after working in data analytics, economics, and research since she had a marked interest in better understanding the organizational science behind sustainability issues. Over the course of her career, she came to understand that business disciplines play a central role in promoting sustainable solutions.