University of Michigan

E-mail: mkforbes (at) umich.edu

Melissa Forbes is a fourth year PhD candidate in Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She is also a doctoral affiliate with the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise and a Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute Fellow. Her general research interests include organizational theory, economic sociology, corporate governance, and environmental policy. Melissa’s research focuses on shifting institutional logics of investing around environmental and social governance (ESG) issues. Her dissertation focuses on collective action by institutional investors on the issue of climate change. She is examining how a group of diverse institutional investors have decoupled institutional logic beliefs with practices to maintain a unified investor social movement. She is also examining what organizational factors influence firms’ responses to climate change shareholder resolutions. Melissa graduated summa cum laude from Truman State University in 2002 with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Sociology. She received her master’s degree in Public Service and Administration from the Bush School of Government at Texas A&M University in 2004.