Sheila R. Foster is a Professor at Columbia University's Climate School and an affiliated faculty member at Columbia Law School.

Foster is well known for her articles and books on environmental and climate justice, land use, local government, and urban policy. These include From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement (NYU Press) and the award-winning Co-Cities: Innovative Transitions Toward Just and Self-Sustaining Communities (MIT Press). Throughout her career, Foster has worked with local communities, federal and state agencies, and public officials on a range of urban, environmental, and climate issues in disinvested and marginalized communities.

She has worked in and with communities ranging from Camden, NJ; Chester, PA, Harlem, NY; Baton Rouge, LA; and South Los Angeles, CA. From 2017-2020, she served as the chair of the advisory board for the Global Parliament of Mayors. She has been a Mayoral-appointed member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change since 2016 and most recently appointed to the city's Environmental Justice Advisory Board.

Foster is co-editor and a founding Advisory Board member of the Journal of Climate Resilience & Climate Justice. Foster also co-directs LabGov, a ground-breaking research laboratory that pioneered the award-winning Co-City approach applied in various cities around the world, helping to reorient cities toward more collaborative and place-based solutions to urban challenges. LabGov is now associated with Columbia University's Climate School.