Dr. Gretchen Engbring

Gretchen finished her PhD dissertation in 2020, on the topic of community forest enterprises in Oaxaca, Mexico, where she examined their organizational structures and how those structures contribute to or mitigate trade-offs in economic and social outcomes. Gretchen graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Politics. Continuing her studies, Gretchen earned a Master of Philosophy in Environmental Policy, graduating with commendation from the University of Cambridge in 2012. Upon graduation, she served as a researcher for the Cambridge Center for Climate Change Mitigation Research, focusing on the role of local communities in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+). She is interested in natural resource law, policy and management, with an emphasis on the way forest communities manage their resources, and the impacts such management may have on different (and particularly vulnerable) stakeholders. She is currently the Susatinable Behavior Change Program Manager at the Office of Sustainability, Stanford University.