Student Profiles
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We value our international students for the world perspective they bring to our activities and for their role as global ambassadors advocating responsible forest and environmental stewardship. Many of our students are interested in international issues and their research sites stretch as wide as the globe.
International Research of Current FER Students
Simone C. Bauch — Ph.D. Candidate in Forestry, with concentration in Forest Economics
Simone's research evaluates conservation policies in the Brazilian Amazon. She has taken different perspectives of outcomes (such as human welfare, health, and land conservation) into consideration when evaluating the sometimes unintended consequences of policies. Interventions such as roads, protected areas, externally funded conservation projects are intrinsically related to human welfare, health and livelihoods, as such Simone uses econometric techniques (including quantile regressions, spatial autoregressive models, program evaluation) to identify the impacts of these policies. Simone is also looking at the mechanisms through which these interventions affect livelihoods by incorporating aspects such as social networks into the analysis. Based on previous work experience in Brazil and on-going research in the region, she hopes to continue doing applied research that is important for the sustainable development of on of the largest carbon sinks in the world.
Cody Burnett —M.S. Candidate in Natural Resources, with concentration in International Resources
As a Masters International student, Cody will integrate Peace Corps service into his degree program while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. In early 2009, Cody began an assignment on the island of Santiago in Cape Verde and is working in the Serra Malagueta natural park. His assignment description includes helping the park develop ecotourism, collecting data on soils, water, fauna and flora, and working with a school garden. In addition, he helps develop maps and leads environmental education sessions.
Aziz Carrell — Ph.D. Candidate in Forestry, with concentration in Remote Sensing and GIS
Aziz's is interested in assessing, through remote sensing and GIS capabilities, the Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) dynamics in Ethiopia's central rift valley area and it's relation to poverty and poverty reduction. In addition, he plans on assessing the study area through specific methodologies derived from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's program entitled "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)". Aziz feels t is necessary to implement these procedures to conclude if the REDD's program can be used as a means to compensate local inhabitants and deter them from primary reliance on forest resources for their livelihood. Attempting to answer the question, "Is the REDD's program inclusive and viable for small communities in developing countries?
Neil Chartier — Ph.D. Candidate in Fisheries and Wildlife, with concentration in Ornithology
Study area: Guatemala
George F. Khan — M.S. Candidate in Forestry, with concentration in Molecular Genetics
Study area: Central America and the Caribbean
Sadharga ‘Hargo’ Koesbandana — Ph.D. Candidate in Forestry, with concentration in Forest Economics
Hargo is interested in doing research in forest policy and economics. A native of Indonesia, a country rich in tropical biodiversity but also very densely populated, he entered the program to find a better understanding and pragmatic solutions for the complex real problem in the field. There are three concentration areas that he is working on right now for possible project proposals: policy impacts of protected area expansion on environment and local communities; local costs and benefits of protecting biodiversity hotspots; and actualization of policy processes in advancing conservation goals. He is looking for a chance to visit Halimun-Salak National Park in Indonesia, Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil and other interesting places around the world.
Charlie Macintyre — M.S. Candidate in Natural Resources, with concentration in International Resources
Charlie recently returned from Minas Gerais, Brazil on a study abroad program at the Universidade Federal de Viçosa. He is researching government development projects in the Amazon as well as sustainable forest management legislation. He conducted field work in the spring of 2009. Charlie is interested in the relationship between household welfare, deforestation and small scale land use decisions in the old frontier of Amazonian development. The fieldwork will be concentrated in the state of Rondonia and will focus on surveys and interviews with local organizations and people. Check out Charlie's blog: http://oslobosnobrasil.blogspot.com/
Michelle Moorman — Ph.D. Candidate in Forestry, with concentration in Resource Management
Michelle’s interests are in sustainable development and resource management; specifically she wants to know how conservation happens. She is conducting a case study of the Llancahue peri-urban park in Valdivia, Chile where she is defining perceptions, values, expectations and interactions of various stakeholders involved in the newly created park’s design and management. This research highlights the on-the-ground challenges that conservation professionals face, as well as potential strategies for overcoming these barriers from the view point of stakeholders. She hopes to provide insight into the conservation process at the local level and create a more thorough understanding of conservation management in Latin America.
Karnjana Sanglimsuwan— Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics
Study area: Southeast Asia
Bryanne Senor — M.S. Candidate in Natural Resources, with concentration in International Resources
Study area: Sub-Saharan Africa
Rachel Shellabarger — M.S. Candidate in Natural Resources, with concentration in International Resources
Rachel conducted her research with land management and human rights groups along the Arizona-Mexico border. The US began enforcing undocumented immigration at urban border points in 1993, which moved migrants to more remote areas such as western Arizona. This led to a marked increase in migrant deaths, as well as protected lands being damaged by trash, erosion and fire. One wildlife refuge (a 118,000 acre valley) saw as many as 4000 people pass through the valley each night, until a border fence was put up, pushing these people into the surrounding mountains. Rachel's thesis research explored how land management and human rights groups responded to human and environmental distress in the borderlands.
Jin Sherry Xiong— Ph.D. in Forest Genetics
Study area: China
Recent FER Graduates
Rodrigo Arriagada — Ph.D., Forestry, 2008, major field: economics
Funded by a Zobel research grant from the department and a research fellowship from the Organization for Tropical Studies, Rodrigo earned his Master of Science degree from NC State in 2005. He spent two months working with rice farmers to understand rice production and the connection between agriculture and wetland conservation. As a doctoral candidate, Rodrigo’s dissertation evaluated the causal effect of the Costa Rican Program of Payments for Environmental Services. In 2007, Rodrigo obtained a dissertation improvement grant from the National Science Foundation and a research grant from the Latin American and the Caribbean Environmental Program (http://www.laceep.org/images/stories/rodrigopb.pdf ). With this new funding, Rodrigo was able to scale up the analysis of the Costa Rican program in order to obtain national estimates of program impact. To read his dissertation, click here. Rodrigo is currently an assistant professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile.
Stibniati S. Atmadja — Ph.D., Forestry, 2008, major field: economics
Stibniati is interested in the linkages between poverty and natural resource management. Her dissertation focused on time preference (the preference for consuming something now rather than later), because it is one of the factors that link the two issues together. She studied how time preferences affects intertemporal decisions related to disease prevention, forest investments and estate planning. Study sites include the state of Maharashtra, India and rural North Carolina. She also worked on a research project with ICRAF Southeast Asia, studying the livelihood impacts and estimating the profitability of a Community-based Forest Management initiative for forest farmers in East Java, Indonesia. To read her dissertation, click here. Nia is currently in Bogor, Indonesia working for the Center for International Forestry Research as a Climate Change Research Fellow in the Forest and Livelihood Program. She recently helped edit and contributed chapters to a book on reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).
Katie Caldwell — M.S., 2007, Natural Resources, major field: international forestry
Katie’s thesis was on “Determining Importance Values for Medicinal Plants in Ghana.” In the summer of 2006, she conducted surveys and interviews on medicinal plant uses. She ranked plant species by several quantitative ethno botanical methods and compared the results to evaluate methods, variation in use/knowledge across socio-demographic groups, and how knowledge is transferred between generations. To read her thesis, click here. She is currently employed in Oakland, CA working for URS Corporation, a consulting firm, as a biologist.
Luis Carrasco — Ph.D., Forestry, 2008, major fields: GIS and environmental impact assessment
Luis’s project focused on aspects of spatial scale and strategy applied to environmental impact assessment of regional policies at the national and international level. He applied these elements to areas such as renewable bio-based energy adoption, urban infrastructure and the environment, and rural land use policies. To view a copy of his dissertation click here . Luis is currently employed as a Environmental Data Analyst with an environmental consulting firm in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Nevin Dawson — M.S., Forestry, 2006, major field: international
Nevin was an agroforestry volunteer in Senegal from 2003 to 2004. He returned to do his research on cashew intercropping adoption in 2005. He studied the process of adoption in spatial and social terms, and proposed extension practices that would increase the speed and dispersion of cashew or similar agroforestry technology adoption. Nevin graduated with a M.S. in Forestry in August 2006 and is currently the Forest Stewardship Educator at the Wye Research and Education Center on Maryland Eastern Shore. To read his thesis, click here.
Greg Frey — Ph.D. Candidate in Forestry, with concentration in Forest Economics
Greg is studying agroforestry as a tool for sustainable production of agricultural and forest products. He has spent significant time observing silvopasture systems (combinations of native or plantation forests with livestock) and their practitioners in northern Argentina. He has also been investigating the social and economic impacts of silvopasture systems, in particular exploring the similarities and differences in adoption motives and system implementation between farmers of different scales. He currently works for the World Bank in Washington D.C. as a Forest Carbon Specialist; Agriculture and Rural Development; Latin America and the Caribbean Region. To view a copy of his dissertation please click here.
Gill Green — M.S., Natural Resources, 2005, major field: natural resource management
Gill’s thesis research was conducted with Mbororo and Fulbe families on the Adamaoua Plateau of Cameroon. He examined the relationship of households' geographic location and ethnicity to natural resource management practices in a proposed conservation area. His current work on a PhD dissertation at McGill University examines institutional change in post-conflict areas. To read Gill's thesis, click here.
Jin Huang - Ph.D., Forestry, 2008, major field: forest economics
Jin Huang got her Masters in Statistics in 2005. Her dissertation research focused on studying forest management adaptation to climate change and extreme events, i.e. how climate change might affect forest managers’ decision making. She participated in IIASA 2007 Young Scientists Summer Program to Austria in the summer of 2007 to research topics related to her dissertation. She also gave a presentation in 2007 Amsterdam Conference of Global Environmental Change. She is currently employed in Washington, D.C. by Abt Associates Inc. as a senior analyst. To read her dissertation abstract click here.
Kathleen McGinley — Ph.D. Candidate in Forestry, with a concentration in Policy and Sustainable Management
Kathleen is interested in research in policies for sustainable forest management in the Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. To assess the effectiveness of government forest management regulation and non-goverment forest certification for promoting sustainability, Kathleen has developed a comparative case study approach. She interviewed experts involved in these programs between March and June of 2007. The goal of the interviews is to enhance our understanding of policy approaches for promoting sustainable forestry. The research results provide important information for government and non-government decision and policy makers seeking viable solutions to forest degradation and deforestation in tropical countries. Click here for a copy of her dissertation. She is now working with the USDA Forest Service.
Kitt Payn — Ph.D., Forestry, 2008, major field: forest genetics
Kitt's dissertation focused on understanding the level of genetic diversity and population structure across the native range of Eucalyptus urophylla in eastern Indonesia. To review a copy of his dissertation click here.
Scott Sink — Ph.D. Candidate in Forestry, with concentration in Silviculture
Scott's researc hwas in the temperate rainforest near the town of Valdivia, Chile. He has spent time measuring and studying the ecology of old growth and second growth forests to determine silvicultural techniques necessary to manage for old growth conditions in the Llancahue watershed. Scott Sink spent 6 weeks in Valdivia, Chile (January 21 - March 1), where he measured trees, inventoried understory plants, and recorded coarse woody debris in 25 0.1-hectare plots in the Llancahue watershed. He also collected tree cores from 75 trees and measured their recent growth and total age while in Chile. Click here to view a copy of his dissertation.
Kelly (Jones) Wendland — M.S., Natural Resources, 2005, major field:natural resource management
Kelly was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the north of Togo from 2002 to 2004, where she was an agricultural and environmental extension agent. Her activities focused on teaching women how to cultivate and use soybeans in their diet, introducing farmers to inter-cropping with soil-improving plants and helping to start community gardens and tree nurseries. Her Masters International research focused on the adoption of new technologies, specifically soybean farming by rural families. She graduated in May 2005 with a Masters of Science in International Resources with a minor in statistics. After working at Conservation International for a year, Kelly is now pursuing a PhD in Agriculture and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin Madison. To review her Masters thesis, click here.
Shubhayu Saha — Ph.D., Forestry, 2008 major field: economics
Shubhayu's doctoral dissertation examined the impacts of increase in milk and meat processing plants on land use choices made by small farmers in the Amazon frontier of Rondonia in Brazil. While farmers' income from milk and meat has significantly increased, it is unclear if they have invested to intensify their pastoral land use systems, or if they continue to extensify converting more forest to pasture. From a broader policy perspective, his research evaluates if the evolution of the cattle industry has created a win-win scenario of improving the quality of life of migrant farmers and reduced the alarmingly high rates of deforestation in the Amazon frontier. In 2006, a National Science Foundation grant allowed Shubhayu to conduct detailed interviews with personnel in the milk and meat processing plants to gather historical data about development of the market for milk and meat. Using this panel data set, he plans to develop spatial econometric models to test if farmers responded by intensifying their milk and meat production systems following the evolution of the markets for these products in the region. To review his dissertation, click here. Shubo is currently employed as a Prevention Effectiveness Fellow with the National Center for Environmental Health, Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA.
