2019 Topic: Mapping Wellbeing in the Congo with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Basic Necessities Survey
2018 Topic: Forest edges in western Uganda: From refuge for the poor to zone of investment
Biography:
Jess joined the Geography Department in 2016. She studies land use in tropical forest regions undergoing rapid development, focusing on ways that conservation and development policies interact, and the potential impacts on wealth distribution and land access. She currently conducts research in the Amazon Basin and the highlands of East Africa and previously worked on land conservation issues in her native state of North Carolina. Jess earned a Ph.D. in Geography, an M.A. in Agricultural and Applied Economics, and a M.Sc. in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her new home in Vermont, she enjoys natural history, gardening, and food preservation projects with her husband Andrew and their dog Fen.