Clare Sullivan is a PhD candidate in the Geography Department. She joined the Gibbs lab in fall 2017. She is focusing on agricultural change and drivers of deforestation in Colombia and exploring the effectiveness of different policy mechanisms on supply chain management and sustainable land use. Her work aims to explore the potential to meet both production and conservation goals in agricultural landscapes. She is leading the lab’s work in Colombia and Peru for the USAID grant Amazonia Connect.

Prior to starting her PhD, she worked as the Deputy Research Director of Columbia University’s Agriculture and Food Security Center. There, she worked with Dr. Cheryl Palm and led socioeconomic and biophysical research to study the impacts of agricultural systems on environment and livelihoods across Sub-Saharan Africa. She has worked on projects with the National Park Service in the US, the CGIAR system in the Peruvian Andes and Amazon Basin, UNEP in Haiti, and World Vision in Bangladesh.

Clare completed a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, with a concentration in environmental science and policy. She has a Bachelors degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

When she has free time, Clare loves spending it baking bread, printmaking, or doing just about anything outside.