Elaine Marshall

PhD Candidate
Supervisors Prof Jane Stout and Prof Susan Murphy

Biography

Elaine has 20+ years of international experience managing collaborative relationships for research, impact assessment, communication and policy implementation across the natural resource, rural livelihoods and health sectors. Having worked primarily in Latin America and West Africa, Elaine has an established interest in community-based resource management and forest product trade, poverty alleviation, governance and gender empowerment, and has focussed more recently on ecosystem restoration and farmer-led interventions for integrating nature ‘on farm’. Wider experience includes evaluating the co-benefits of climate change mitigation policies for agricultural systems and human health, and opportunities for sustainable energy solutions for health care provision in resource constrained settings. Her first degree was in Agriculture and the Environment, she holds a Masters in Resource Management, and she believes that making progress on biodiversity and sustainable development ambitions relies not only on the effective engagement of local communities in all levels of decision-making, but that within these communities the specific empowerment of women is key to unlocking the full potential of Nature Based Solutions. To this end, Elaine hopes that her PhD research will provide a timely opportunity to bring her experience and interests into a space where the components of social justice and gender equity, can be explicitly evaluated in the context of ecological restoration.