Jess studies land use and livelihood dynamics in agricultural frontier regions. She's particularly interested in the ways that wealth and inequality affect land use, the problems of regulating across different scales of actors, and the tensions that arise when trying to make (environmental) policies both fair and effective. Her research is situated in the Amazon region of Peru and Brazil and the montane region of Western Uganda. She enjoys using both qualitative and quantitative methods and draws from training in Development Economics, Political Ecology, and Conservation Biology. She came to Wisconsin from North Carolina, where she grew up and got her undergraduate degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has a special fondness for salamanders, sourdough bread, gardening, and her husband Andrew.

Where are they Now?

Associate Professor of Geography at the Middlebury College.