Titles

• Graduate Research Associate, Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network, Portland State University

Biography

Mary Ann is an environmental social science researcher exploring the seemingly impenetrable land use questions characteristic of social-ecological systems. Her research interests center on the desire to identify solutions to land use challenges that help regions meet their ecological and sustainability targets while at the same time achieving equitable outcomes. Over the past several years, her areas of focus have included the role of private landowners in shaping our landscape, understanding how social sciences can be applied to ecosystem recovery efforts, examining factors that affect how people interact with the environment and how they respond to policies. Both during and after completing her Bachelor’s degree in forestry from the University of British Columbia, Mary Ann worked in landowner incentive and education programs in Lake Tahoe and Southern California, providing various “carrots and sticks” to motivate environmental practices. This experience helped her recognize the heterogeneity of landowner values, perceptions and attitudes and how these differences reflect across the landscape. Between 2008 and 2010 she attended University of Washington to pursue a Master’s degree from the School of Environment and Forest Science studying forest landowners in Washington State and their likelihood of anticipating development on their property. Following this, she continued to work on social science research within the Puget Sound region and has served as the Program Coordinator for the Washington State University Extension North Puget Sound Forest Stewardship Program.

As a Ph.D. student in the Urban Studies program and as an IGERT Fellow, Mary Ann’s dissertation examines sea-level rise adaptation planning. Using the theory of co-production of knowledge from Science and Technology Studies and constructivist theories of risk, she is examining the way knowledge about risks to sea-level rise are constructed by different institutions and used in adaptation planning. Through case studies of adaptation efforts in Miami-Dade County, FL and San Mateo County, CA as well as a survey of coastal county planners across the country, she hopes that this work will help identify barriers for integrating diverse knowledge systems in sea-level rise adaptations.