Meredith Niles is an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences and the Food Systems Program at the University of Vermont. Her research focuses on sustainable food security from a behavioral science and policy perspective. Specifically, she explores the adoption of sustainable practices by farmers, how climate change and other extreme events (i.e. COVID-19) will affect food systems and food access, and potential food and agriculture pathways for improving health and environmental outcomes.

Dr. Niles holds a B.A in political science with honors in environmental studies from The Catholic University of America, and a PhD in ecology with a focus on human ecology and environmental policy from the University of California-Davis. She was a Sustainability Science post-doctorate fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government where she explored smallholder farmer experiences with climate change and food security across 20 countries.