Elizabeth L. Malone's interests focus on policy-relevant social science research in global change issues, developing studies that integrate disparate worldviews, data sources, and scientific approaches. Her work has contributed to linkages among global environmental change, globalization, economic development, equity, and sustainability. Recently she has been working on developing structured methods for analyzing country, sector, and local vulnerabilities to climate change. Associated with that work she has been exploring approaches to scenarios of the future that integrate socioeconomic and environmental information. She participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Fourth Assessment Report as a Review Editor and Contributing Author.

Malone edited, with Steve Rayner, Human Choice and Climate Change, a four-volume assessment of social science research relevant to global climate change, jointly authoring, with Steve Rayner, the summary volume and an invited paper for Nature on the conclusions. She was the co-Principal Investigator for the PNNL team that developed the Guidelines and Sector-specific Issues and Reporting Methodologies for the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases under Section 1605(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (six sectors). She also has extensive experience in stakeholder involvement in environmental issues. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Maryland.