Eliisa Carter

I am pursuing a dual-title PhD in Geography and Transdisciplinary Research on Environment and Society (TREES) at Pennsylvania State University. I am affiliated with the Landscape Ecology at Penn State (LEAPS) Lab, led by Dr. Erica Smithwick. I focus on climate change adaptation and environmental governance as it relates to fire in forested landscapes, across public lands and the wildland-urban interface in the United States.  

I am excited to work with the Eastern Fire Network (EFNet), a multi-institution research and training network focused on advancing wildfire science in the eastern United States. I am an interdisciplinary, primarily qualitative researcher intrigued by examining our pressing ecological disturbances and human responses to climate risk in forested landscapes through a social-ecological lens. I’m looking to fortify my skills in physical geography, and I am excited to collaborate with and learn from students, colleagues, and faculty members in the Department of Geography and beyond through the TREES program.

Before becoming a PhD student, I was a research associate at Colorado State University's Public Lands Policy Group, where I explored how natural resource managers incorporate adaptation concepts, planning processes, tools, and innovations into their sub-disciplines, such as post-fire restoration and habitat conservation. I also managed climate curriculum training programs for teachers at the middle and high school level, as well as the undergraduate level. My previous work also includes consulting within the Adaptation Division at UN Climate Change by supporting futures-thinking programs at the Conference of the Parties sessions, and working in urban forestry within the Washington, D.C. metro area.  

I earned my B.A. in International Studies from American University’s School of International Service in 2016. I received my M.S. in Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation from Lund University’s Faculty of Engineering in 2019.