Katie Clifford

Katie is a social scientist who studies human-environment relationships in the context of environmental change. Her research blends a mix of methods, approaches, and theoretical expertise from risk and hazards, adaptation social science, political ecology, science and technology studies, co-production, and decision making. Katie’s commitment to community-engaged scholarship comes from a long history of working with stakeholders to co-produce research and conduct usable science. In addition to nearly a decade of work with Western Water Assessment, she has worked with a number of other boundary organizations including the North Central and National Climate Adaptation Science Centers, CU Engage, and others. Katie received her B.A. at Macalester College and her master's and doctorate degrees in Geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

During her postdoc at the USGS Social and Economic Analysis (SEA) branch, she worked with environmental managers to create actionable science to support adaptation in transforming ecosystems.  Specifically, she served as a leading social scientist on an interagency task force to develop the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) Framework for managing ecological transformation and co-produced research with managers to understand RAD decision-making on public lands.