Nives Dolšak is the Stan and Alta Barer Professor in Sustainability Science and the Director of the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, University of Washington Seattle. She teaches courses in Climate Governance, International Organizations and Ocean Management, Economic Development and the Environment, Research Design, and Policy Analysis. Between 2012 and 2018, she also served as a visiting professor at Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She received her Joint Ph.D. from School of Public & Environmental Affairs and the Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington.  

Her research examines institutional challenges in governing common pool resources at multiple levels of aggregation. In collaboration with Professor Elinor Ostrom, she has published two books: The Drama of the Commons (The National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council's Committee on Human Dimensions of Global Change), and The Commons in the New Millennium: Challenges and Adaptation (the MIT Press). She has published in leading journals of environmental studies, public policy, and nonprofits. As a private citizen and not representing the views of the University of Washington, she also contributes to public scholarship via platforms such as The Washington Post, The Hill, Slate, Huffpost, The Conversation, Regulatory Review, Forbes.com, and Opendemocracy.

Professor Dolšak was nominated by Governor Jay Inslee to the Washington Coastal Marine Advisory Council. She also serves on the Science Panel of the Puget Sound Partnership. She is the recipient of the University of Washington's College of the Environment Outstanding Community Impact (2018) and the Outstanding Teaching Faculty (2013) awards. Her co-authored article entitled Three Faces of Climate Justice, published in the Annual Review of Political Science, was listed among the "100 most read articles in 2022 from across all 51 Annual Review journals." Her co-authored paper, "Factors impacting investments in energy efficiency and clean technologies: empirical evidence from Slovenian manufacturing firms", published by Journal of Cleaner Production, was recognized among "The Ten Most Resounding Research Achievements of the University of Ljubljana in 2016".