Dr. Nicole Peterson

Nicole Peterson is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at UNC Charlotte. As an applied, environmental, and economic anthropologist, they engage with communities dealing with changes and inequities around food, health, and the environment. After receiving a Ph.D. from UC San Diego for work focusing on decisions about resource management and economic development around a Mexican marine protected area, Dr. Peterson joined the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University to study decision-making under uncertainty, including climate change adaptation in Ethiopian and Argentinian agriculture. In 2015-2016, they held a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship. Dr. Peterson now focuses on Charlotte area food security, collaborating with the Jamil Niner Student Pantry and administrators at UNC Charlotte to understand how to reduce student food insecurity, and also with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council and other organizations as part of the State of the Plate food system assessment effort, which has been community driven. They also have engaged through community-based participatory research with organizations like Community Dream Builders and Women’s Health Equity Institute to address experiences with neighborhood change and health inequities, respectively.