Natural Resources in Governance and Policy

Andrea Gerlak's research interests are in the fields of public policy, institutional theory, natural resource management, and water governance. Broadly speaking, her work investigates water management and policy at multiple scales and across diverse settings. Her research addresses conditions supporting collective action, the interface between science and policy, and institutional change and adaptability in large-scale ecosystem settings in the United States. In international transboundary settings, she studies the role of intergovernmental organizations in cooperative institutional arrangements and scientific knowledge and information sharing in global water governance.

Anne Browning-Aiken holds a Ph.D. degree in cultural anthropology with an emphasis on Latin America from The University of Arizona (UA), a master’s degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a B.A. from Northwestern University. She also has additional training for environmental conflict resolution with the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution and ESL teaching from the University of Michigan.

Browning-Aiken is a cultural anthropologist and senior researcher at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy with working ties to several units at the UA, including the Institute for the Environment and its Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS); Water Resources Research Center; and Joint International Unit on Water, Environment and Policy (UMI). She also is affiliated with the UNESCO Hydrology for the Environment, Life, and Policy (HELP) Program, and with the Fulbright Scholarship Program in Brazil.

She has taught environmental policy and anthropology courses at the UA and Pima Community College, and has been trained as a facilitator to help communities develop resource governance in the Southwestern U.S., along the U.S.-Mexico border, and in northern Mexico. Browning-Aiken also has taught ecosystem science, water resource use, and individual and community participation in sustainable planning through informal educational programs such as Project WET and the international science GLOBE Program.

Before coming to the UA, she was a volunteer archaeologist at sites in the Southwest and taught British and American literature and composition in Athens College (Greece) and in public and private schools in North Carolina and Michigan.

J.E. 'Ed' de Steiguer's research program emphasizes integrated natural resources management on public lands and U.S. public lands policy. Recent research has examined the economic impact of air pollution and global change on forests.