Jesse Abrams
Dr. Abrams is Associate Professor of Natural Resource Policy and Sustainability and Director of Graduate Studies for the Integrative Conservation (ICON) Ph.D. Program at the University of Georgia. He joined the faculty of the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and Savannah River Ecology Laboratory in 2018. Dr. Abrams received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Forest Resources from Oregon State University and his B.A. in Environmental Studies from New College of Florida. Past positions include two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Whitman College and five years as a Research Associate with the Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment at the University of Oregon. His work on natural resource governance and policy spans diverse forest and rangeland environments from the United States to Argentina, focusing on the participation of local communities and local- to regional-scale organizations in environmental governance, policy implementation, and institutional change. Key themes in his scholarship include: adaptive, participatory, and network governance; co-management and co-production; alternatives to traditional state- and market-led approaches to conservation and development; and the dynamics of rural community engagement with natural resource stewardship and conservation.
Current Students
Shinyeong Park
Shinyeong is pursuing a PhD in the Integrative Conservation (ICON) – Forestry and Natural Resources program. Her research interests include social-ecological systems, human-wildlife interactions, conservation policy, and environmental justice, and her research site is mainly the Korean Demilitarized and Civilian Control Zone. She is interested in examining restoration and conservation actions across disciplines including ecology, anthropology, and politics. Shinyeong received a Master of Science in Biological Sciences from Seoul National University, a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Korea University, South Korea.
Ravneet Kaur
Ravneet is pursuing her PhD in Integrative Conservation (ICON) with a focus on forest policy. She is interested in exploring various socio-ecological dimensions of forested systems to inform forest management. She completed her BS in Agricultural Sciences from Punjab Agricultural University, India. After receiving her MS in Natural Resource Management from Oklahoma State University, Ravneet worked as an Urban Forester with the City of New York managing street tree planting and performing GIS-based data analysis. During this time, she worked in historically underserved neighborhoods with high Heat Vulnerability Index, fostering her interests in social and political dimensions of natural resource management. Additionally, she worked with the US Forest Service’s Urban Field Station to evaluate the coastal resiliency of various tree species to determine their planting suitability. Her research interests include climate policy, natural resource economics, climate adaptation, resource equity, and socio-ecological systems. Ravneet’s current research primarily focuses on timberland financialization in Maine, USA.
Eileen Joseph
Eileen is pursuing her PhD in Integrative Conservation (ICON) – Forestry and Natural Resources. She earned dual MAs from American University in Washington, DC, and the UN-mandated University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica, where she studied International Affairs and Natural Resources and Sustainable Development. During her master’s program, she researched the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on a community in Costa Rica heavily reliant on ecotourism. Eileen is particularly interested in governance, community resilience, and the dynamics between local residents, tourists, and the environment in ecotourism-dependent communities. Her previous research also centered on environmental policy and conservation through Costa Rica’s payment for environmental services program (PSA). Eileen holds a BS in Sustainability Sciences and a BA in Politics and International Affairs from Furman University in Greenville, SC.
Mahesh Tiwari
Mahesh is a PhD student in UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, specializing in Forest Economics and Policy. Prior to his PhD, Mahesh completed his MS in Forestry Science at Mississippi State University. He graduated with a BSc in Forestry from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. During his master’s program, Mahesh studied the legal environment of heirs’ property disputes, especially those relating to the partition of forestlands. His research interests lie at the intersection of natural resource economics, policy, and law. He is interested in forest economics and policy, forest finance and investment, environmental and climate economics, legal research related to natural resources, the welfare impact of natural resource utilization, and human dimensions of natural resource management. Currently, Mahesh is developing surveys to understand stakeholders’ perceptions of forest management practices, ecosystem services and market analysis in the eastern US.
Ella Brodowski
Ella is pursuing a PhD in Forestry with a focus on social factors surrounding wildfires, such as community access to wildfire risk reduction resources, social vulnerability, and how place history may impact current wildfire risk conditions. Her primary research interests are natural hazards, social vulnerability and resilience, and overall disaster mitigation, adaptation, relief, recovery, and resilience. Ella earned her BS in Sustainability Science & Society with minors in Law & Society and Earth Science from Michigan Technological University in 2024. She worked as a research assistant doing GIS work to map social vulnerability to wildfires for the contiguous US at the block group level from 2023-2024. Ella then continued her education at Michigan Tech and completed an accelerated MS in Sustainable Communities, also receiving graduate certificates in Public Policy and Natural Hazards & Disaster Risk Reduction. Her MS research built off of her undergraduate work, qualitatively looking at social vulnerability to wildfire in Western Montana.
Past Students
Meg Seidel
Meg received her Master of Natural Resources (MNR) degree in 2023, emphasizing environmental policy. She graduated in 2022 from UGA’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences with a BA in Agricultural Business and a minor in Horticulture. Over recent summers she has interned in Athens at the state office for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), training with the Georgia state economist. Through these experiences she has been exposed to agricultural and resource management practices in the southeast, mostly working with the NRCS’s cost-sharing programs with landowners as well as watershed and dam restoration initiatives. Her interests lie in public service and environmental policy, specifically on the themes of environmental justice, climate policy, and environmental economics. In her time at Georgia, she has also been an athlete on the UGA Equestrian team, being a part of the 2021 National Championship winning team. She has also served on the UGA Athletics Association’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee since its inception in 2020.
Alejandro Collins
Alejandro received his Master of Science degree from the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources in 2023. His research interests lie in the conservation of Latin American forests and the use of community forestry for sustainable development. His master’s thesis examined land tenure and livelihood resilience among campesino producers in the Chaco region of Salta Province, Argentina. In May of 2021, he received a Bachelor of Science in Forest Resources with an emphasis in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management from Warnell. During his undergraduate years, Alejandro was involved with a variety of university, local, and national organizations focused on supporting sustainability initiatives and social justice efforts.
Samantha Siragusa
Samantha completed her Master of Natural Resources in the Fall of 2020. She graduated from the University of Georgia in May 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science where she focused her studies in environmental economics, environmental management, ecology, and sustainability. Her research interests include sustainable development and policy, natural resource conservation with a focus on water, waste reduction, and environmental education and outreach. Previously, Samantha worked with Athens-Clarke County Recycling Division to divert waste from going to landfills at events in the Athens community such as the Athens Twilight Bike Race.
James Ch
apin
James completed his Masters of Science degree in Spring 2021 at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida, where he studied journalism and forestry. Prior to arriving at UGA, he worked in conservation lands management in Hillsborough County, Florida, gaining first-hand experience with prescribed fire, hydrological flow restoration, and other processes. His interests include sustainable development and land use policy, adaptive governance in environmental contexts, restoration ecology, and the social foundations of environmental stewardship. James also brings experience as a writer in various genres, and his work has appeared in local and national outlets.
Amelia L. Russell
Amelia completed her Master of Science degree at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources in the summer of 2021. She researched head-starting techniques and habitat management perceptions to better augment gopher tortoise populations in the Southeast. In 2016, she received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of South Carolina Upstate. Her research interests include applied conservation, anthropogenic effects on wildlife health and population dynamics, and sustainable forestry and wildlife land management for conservation efforts.
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amelia_Russell
Anderson Felt
Anderson completed her Master’s of Natural Resources degree in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources in the Spring of 2021. She focused on environmental policy and sustainability; she also completed graduate certificates in Water Resources and Sustainability. She received her undergraduate degrees from the University of Georgia where she studied Ecology and International Affairs, with an emphasis on political ecology and environmental politics. Prior to joining the Abrams Lab, she helped organize and coordinate the 2018 Upper Oconee Watershed Network Science and Policy Summit. During her undergraduate career, she worked with the University’s Student Government and Office of Sustainability to implement mobile charging stations and push and promote sustainability initiatives around campus.
Destin (Kee) Hobbs
Destin completed her Master of Science degree at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources in 2022. In May of 2020, she received her Bachelor of Science in Forest Resources from Warnell. Her interests are based on the political and social dimensions of natural resource management. Her research focused on the U.S. Forest Service’s Shared Stewardship Strategy, an integrated policy that emphasizes partnerships with the states, tribes, and other collaborators to identify priority areas for management, coordinate work across jurisdictions, and leverage diverse capacities.
Previously, Destin worked with Domain Timber Advisors’ environmental mitigation and legal departments. She worked to identify appropriate opportunities to capitalize on their environmental attributes through wetland and stream mitigation banks, habitat conservation banks, fishery banks, environmental enforcement solutions, and direct environmental restoration projects. She is currently the Forest Policy Coordinator for the Georgia Forestry Association.
Amanda Komasinski
Amanda completed her Master of Science degree from the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources in 2022. In May of 2020, she received a B.S. in ecology, evolution, and environmental biology with a minor in environmental politics and policy from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Her research interests lie at the interface between environmental science and environmental policy, with focuses such as how policy and funding might influence research productivity or vice versa. She explored these interests through case studies of the Department of Energy’s seven National Environmental Research Parks located across the United States.
Chase Cook
Chase received his Master of Forest Resources in Spring 2024. His interests include forest land ownership, forest certification, and market-based regulation and conservation incentives. Previously, Chase worked as a senior analyst with the US Government Accountability Office, a university researcher, a forester with Temple Inland Forest Products Corporation, and with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Chase holds a BS in Forest and Environmental Resources from the University of Georgia and a MS in Applied Economics from Montana State University.
Behnoosh Abbasnezhad
Behnoosh received her Ph.D. in Integrated Conservation (ICON)-Forestry and Natural Resources in Spring 2024. She holds a Master’s Degree in Natural Resources Engineering and a Bachelor’s Degree in Natural Resources Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, Iran. She is interested in exploring the social, political, commercial, and ecological factors that should be considered in proposing forest management strategies in developing countries. She is also interested in applying remote sensing methods in forests studies regarding carbon sequestration and including temporal dimensions in remote sensing and cartographic projects to inform forest management strategies.
Abrams Environmental Governance and Policy Lab 