Herlin Chien is the Deputy Executive Director for Sustainable Development Office, Vice-Dean for Office of International Affairs, and an Associate Professor at College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. In 2012, she served as the founding Director for ICLEI KCC in Taiwan. Beyond her first PhD in Political Science focusing on policy change studies, public-private-partnership and citizen engagement, since 2018 she has been pursuing a second doctoral degree in Sustainability Science at United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability in Japan. Her recent research interest is to understand recursive human-nature coevolution process from a social-ecological system dynamics perspective.

Theoretical concepts or tools she adopts include common-pool resource system coding, coupled infrastructure framework (CIS), common international classification of ecosystem services, adaptive governance, urban resilience. She also has a particular interest in aquatic ecosystem such as restoration of urban river, water pollution from livestock waste and protection of metropolitan water catchment. From 2021-2024, she is a Co-Investigator in Taiwan team for Belmont Forum international cooperation project – ABRESO: Abandonment and Rebound – Societal views on landscape- and land-use change and their impacts on water and soils.