Valerie Esposito Valerie.esposito@uvm.edu Graduate Research Assistant, PhD Program Relationship with MIMES: Leader of workgroup 1. Participant in workgroups 2 (Modelling), 6 (Ecosystem Services Website) 8 (Case Studies and Calibration Sites) and 9 (Broader Participation and Public Interface), Participated in the organization of the October ‘06 and July ‘07 conferences. Contact: 617 Main Street, Burlington VT, 05446 Phone: 802-656-2978 |
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Valerie Esposito received her MA in Environmental Studies from Brown University in the Spring of 2004. For her thesis, she looked at the establishment of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. The establishment of such an area in arguably the most important resource in that state was highly contentious, and she looked at the issue within a multi-perspective framework. Investigating the perceptions of scientists, legislators, and user groups, she worked with them to determine what reasonable next steps would be in the establishment of an MPA.
She has previously worked as the director of a non-profit organization that provides preschool services to low-income children, and the supervisor of a social service program. Prior to that, Valerie served as a volunteer for the Global Service Corps in Monteverde, Costa Rica, where she worked with local women of an all-female crafts cooperative to develop business administration and sustainability planning skills, as well as strategies for managing the impacts of tourism on their community. She was also an ESL instructor in Santiago and Vina del Mar, Chile, where she conducted environmentally focused classes. She obtained her Bachelor's Degree in Justice from American University in 1996.
Her current research interests include developing community-based ecological literacy, incorporating public participation and systems-thinking in environmental decision-making, ecosystem services valuation, payments for ecosystem services and social capital modeling.
