Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, Forestry

Cecilia Dank's research focuses on the intersection of community well-being and forest stewardship. Her work has addressed issues in community-based forestry, community-based forest enterprises, communities and carbon markets, forest certification, community-level socioeconomic monitoring, institutions for collaborative management, and the working forest. Cecilia is interested in institutional arrangements for community-based resource management, especially as they affect equity and sustainability in: climate change policies, community-based forestry, and forest carbon.

She advises graduate students in three Rubenstein School graduate concentrations: Environment, Society and Public Affairs (ESPA), Forest and Wildlife Sciences (FWS), and Environment, Thought and Culture (ETC). She seeks to fund and advise graduate research in the following areas:

  • Community-based Forestry: Institutions and Research Needs
  • Community Forestry and Carbon Markets
  • Community-based Wood Biomass Energy
  • Community Engagement in Town Forests
  • Institutional Issues in Forest Certification and Working Forests
  • Social Entrepreneurship in the Natural Resource Sector
  • Funding for graduate assistantships associated with these projects depends on the success of pending grant applications.

Check with her for the current status of project funding.

uvm.edu/forestcarbon/

Associations and Affiliations

  • Board of Directors, Watershed Research and Training Center, Hayfork, CA
  • Extended Research Advisory Committee of Ford Foundation Community-Based Forestry Demonstration Program
  • Policy Working Group, National Network for Forest Practitioners
  • Policy Dialogue Group, Rural Voice for Conservation Coalition
  • Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Council
  • Northeastern Regional Stewardship Contracting Team, U.S. Forest Service
Cecilia Danks outdoors smiling broadly

Areas of Expertise and/or Research

Research: Environmental policy, sustainable forestry, community forestry, climate change mitigation, forest carbon markets, woody biomass energy

Education

  • PhD, Wildland Resource Science, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, Division of Resource Institutions, Policy and Management, University of California at Berkeley
  • MS, Wildand Resource Science, Department of Forestry and Resource Management, University of California at Berkeley
  • BA, magna cum laude, with highest honors in Biology and Coordinate Major in Environmental Studies, Williams College, Massachusetts

CV

PDF icon Cecilia Danks CV 5-2022(PDF).pdf

Contact

Email:

Cecilia.Danks@uvm.edu

Phone:
  • 802-656-0175
Office Location:

Bittersweet House Room 205

Courses Taught

  • ENVS 204 Forest, Community and Climate: Burning Issues
  • ENVS 295 Community-Based Conservation

Other Courses:

  • FOR 285 Sustainable Forest Certification
  • NR 002 Nature and Culture
  • NR 104 Social Processes and the Environment
  • NR 385 Comparative Policy Analysis: Community Forestry