Bio

Dawn Rodriguez-Ward is the Academic Program Manager of the Climate and Sustainability Academy.  She serves as the strategic and operational leader for high-impact applied learning experiences that integrate sustainability and environmental science across the campus and beyond. In this role, Dawn develops climate and sustainability-related curricular and co-curricular activities, coordinates CaSA’s PACKLab Living Lab program, and oversees the Sustainable Futures Fellows program. She also serves as the Lead Instructor for NC State’s Environmental First Year Program, where she connects students to real-world learning opportunities to solve grand environmental challenges.

Prior to joining NC State, Dawn conducted applied field research on sustainable forestry, landscape governance, climate policy, and participatory stakeholder engagement. Dawn holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology (University of Florida), M.A. in Social Anthropology and Development (University of Chile), and B.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Sciences (New York University).

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Area(s) of Expertise

Community Forest Governance, Climate Change and Redd+, Agriculture and Timber Certification Systems, Natural Resource Management

Publications

• Community sawmills can save forests: Forest regrowth and avoided deforestation due to vertical integration of wood production in Mexican community forests , Ecological Economics (2025)
• Community Sawmills Save Forests: Forest Regrowth and Avoided Deforestation Due to Vertical Integration of Wood Production in Mexican Community Forests , SSRN Electronic Journal (2023)
• Participation, anticipation effects and impact perceptions of two collective incentive-based conservation interventions in Ucayali, Peru , Ecological Economics (2023)
• Pathways to community timber production , Routledge Handbook of Community Forestry (2022)
• Evaluating the Impact of REDD+ Interventions on Household Forest Revenue in Peru , Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (2021)
• Reduced-impact logging practices reduce forest disturbance and carbon emissions in community managed forests on the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico , Forest Ecology and Management (2019)
• Campeche, Mexico , The State of Jurisdictional Sustainability (2018)
• Canmultilevel governance transform business as-usual trajectories driving deforestation? Lessons for REDD+ and beyond , Infobrief (2018)
• EndingTropical Deforestation: A Stock-Take of Progress and Challenges, Jurisdictional approaches to REDD+ and Low Emissions Development: Progress and Prospects , (2018)
• Quintana Roo, Mexico , The State ofJurisdictional Sustainability (2018)