Rachelle Gould is an Associate Professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Her work addresses two primary topics: the nonmaterial benefits that nature provides to people, and environmental education. Issues of equity, justice, and connecting with communities are central to her research.
In Dr. Gould’s nonmaterial benefits work, she studies Cultural Ecosystem Services and relational values. This research addresses the complexities of human-nature relationships, including phenomena such as ecosystem-based recreation, spiritual connections with ecosystems, and cultural heritage associated with ecosystems. In her environmental education work, her current focus is on how learning, values, and behavior interact.
Dr. Gould’s current research projects include (but are not limited to): collaborative research with a Oaxacan Indigenous community on values and value transmission; understanding how Cultural Ecosystem Services connect to decision-making (with PhD Candidate Josh Morse); exploring how coral reef degradation affects the nonmaterial benefits that people of different backgrounds receive from those reefs (with PhD Candidate Alison Adams); in-depth analysis of the social impacts of and responses to Harmful Algal Blooms in St. Albans, Vermont (with PhD Candidate Diana Hackenburg); and understanding how different demographics’ explanations of climate change connects to different values.
