Christy Slay
-
Mail code: 8204Campus: Scottsdale
-
Dr. Slay was appointed The Sustainability Consortium’s (TSC) CEO in 2021 and has been with TSC since its inception in 2009. She currently leads strategic planning for the organization and The Sustainability Insight System (THESIS), a global, transparent, science-based measurement and reporting system for product sustainability used by retailers and suppliers.
She leads many of TSC’s strategic corporate, academic, and ngo partnerships, and is the Principal Investigator on TSC’s grant funded projects including two USDA Climate Smart Commodities projects, a project to implement the Ethical Charter for labor rights in produce supply chains, and a supply chain prioritization tool called CommodityMap.
She publishes in notable scientific journals, including Nature Climate Change on global forest carbon fluxes and Science on the drivers of global forest loss. She has also co–authored reports on sustainable agricultural metrics and climate change resilience in supply chains. Christy was featured on CNBC as an expert on supply chains and climate change.
She has 23 years of experience as an educator in both collegiate and environmental education settings. She received her doctorate in biological sciences from the University of Arkansas and bachelors in biology from Hendrix College. Prior to her graduate research, she led curriculum development and strategic planning with the National Audubon Society where she also authored articles for Audubon Magazine.
She serves on the board of the Ozark Natural Science Center, a residential nature education center for school children. In her spare time Slay co–leads cave ecology research for the HICAVES Project on the island of Hawaii discovering new species and featured in a documentary on Nature PBS. Christy is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is an avid birdwatcher, and loves spending time exploring the Ozark mountain trails and rivers with her biologist husband, Mike, and rescue dog, Roxie.
2010-2012. Postdoctoral Research Associate. Environmental Dynamics Program and The Sustainability Consortium. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
2010. Ph.D. Biological Sciences. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
1998. B.A. Biology. Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas and attended Hendrix in London at Birkbeck College, London, U.K.
- Commodity supply chain traceability including food, forestry, mining
- Mapping environmental and social risks from consumer goods production including deforestation, child and forced labor, water scarcity, and biodiversity
- Application of remote sensing, GIS, and modeling to create sustainability solutions for business
- Scaling sustainable agriculture through partnerships, novel solutions, and research applications
- Sustainability metrics and performance assessment including barriers and opportunities for data mobility
- Migratory shrubland bird management and conservation
- Cave invertebrate conservation in Hawaii lava tube caves. HICAVES Project is discovering new invertebrate species in Hawaii lava tube caves
Garcia-Moore, T., C. Urban, E. Killeen, J. Rockvam, C. Melhart Slay, A. Skoczlas Cole, 2023. Farmers’ Perspectives on Data: Feed Sustainability Data in Pork Supply Chains (Third Edition). Trust In Food™ at Farm Journal & The Sustainability Consortium. https://www.trustinfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TSC-Feed-Study-Report-FINAL-1-24.pdf
Hannelore, H., M.L. Porter, C.M. Slay, M.E. Slay, M. Streck, and R. Chong, 2024. From the dark side of paradise: a new natural replication of cave planthopper evolution from Hawaiian lava tubes (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae). Zoological Journal.
Myers, A., J.K. Lowry, S.J. Taylor, M.E. Slay, C.M. Slay, M.L. Porter, 2023. A new species of Spelaeorchestia (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Talitroidea) from Lava Tube Caves on the Island of Hawaiʻi in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Records of the Hawaiian Biological Survey Bishop Museum Occasional Papers.
Slattery, D., K. Rayburn, C.M. Slay, and T. Garcia-Moore. 2021. Farmer perspectives on data 2021. Trust in Food. https://www.trustinfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Farmer-Perspectives-on-Data-2021.pdf
Harris, N., D. Gibbs, A. Baccini, R. Birdsey, S. de Bruin , M. Farina, L. Fatoyinbo, M. Hansen, M. Herold, R. Houghton, P. Potapov, D. Requena Suarez, R. Roman-Cuesta, S. S. Saatchi, C. Slay, S. Turubanova, and A. Tyukavina, 2021. Global maps of 21st century forest carbon fluxes. Nature Climate Change. https://rdcu.be/cdY40
Atwood, R., J. Clift, C.M. Slay, S. Meiburg, A. Wilcox, A. Oduoa, and T. Garcia, June, 2020. The efficacy and value generated from sustainable cotton programs in the United States. Meridian Institute Supply Chain Sustainability Research Fund. https://www.supplychainresearch.eco/effectiveness
Slay, C. and K. Dooley. Improving Supply Chain Resilience to Manage Climate Change Risks. HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance, HSBC Sustainable Finance, June, 2020. https://www.sustainablefinance.hsbc.com/sustainable-infrastructure/supply-chain-resilience-and-climate-change
Slattery, D., K. Rayburn, and C.M. Slay, 2020. Farmer perspectives on data. Trust in Food. Retrieved June 3, 2020. https://www.trustinfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Farmer-Data-Perspectives-Research_final.pdf
Curtis, P.G., C.M. Slay, N.L. Harris, A. Tyukavina, and M. Hansen. 2018. Classifying drivers of global forest loss. Science 361: 1108-1111.
Slay, C.M. and P.G. Curtis, 2017. Coffee Production and Sustainability: The Sustainability Consortium’s Commodity Mapping Report. The Sustainability Consortium. Retrieved Feb 16, 2018. https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/downloads/coffee-production-sustainability-sustainability-consortiums-commodity-mapping-report/
Slay, C.M. and A. Raster, 2017. Sustainable Commodity Supply Chains Project: Case studies and a framework for addressing sustainability in commodity procurement and supplier codes of conduct. The Sustainability Consortium. https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/impact/case-studies/sustainable-commodities-project-framework/
Slay, C.M., J. Reijs, and A. Raster, 2016. How to get sustainability data following in agriculture supply chains. The Sustainability Consortium. Retrieved Feb 16, 2018. https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/downloads/how-to-get-sustainability-data-flowing-in-agriculture-supply-chains/
Slay, C., K. Ellison, C.A. Ribic, K. Smith, and C. Schmitz. 2012. Nocturnal Activity of Nesting Shrubland and Grassland Passerines. Pp. 105-115 in C.A. Ribic, F.R. Thompson, and P.J. Pietz (editors), Video surveillance of nesting birds. Studies in Avian Biology Series (vol. 43), University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Slay, C.M. and K.G. Smith. 2009. A comparison of nest success rates of four shrubland specialists in conservation-managed fields to other managed and unmanaged shrublands. Pp. 705-712 in Rich, T.D., C. Arizmendi, D.W. Demarest, and C. Thompson, editors. Proceedings of the Fourth International Partners in Flight Conference. 13-16 February 2008. McAllen, Texas. Partners in Flight. 712 pp.
Stephenson, S.L., M.E. Slay, C.M. Slay, and A.E. Tuggle. 2007. Cave crickets (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae) as vectors of dictyostelids. Entomological News 118: 292-295.
Current grant-funded projects
- Connected Ag Climate Smart Project, Farm Journal Trust in Food
- Farmers for Soil Health (FSH) Climate Smart Commodities Partnership, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
- Ethical Charter, Equitable Food Initiative, Walmart Foundation