Shorna Allred
Adjunct Professor, Natural Resources and the Environment
Adjunct Professor, Department of Global Development
About
Shorna Allred is the Susan R. Wolf Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Dept. of Geography and Environment, College of Arts and Sciences. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Cornell University in the Center for Conservation Social Sciences, Dept. of Natural Resources and the Environment, and the Department of Global Development.
Dr. Allred, a native Texan and first-generation college student, earned her Ph.D. from Oregon State University and her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Penn State University. Allred began her academic career at Purdue University in 2001 and was on the Cornell University faculty from 2007 through 2023. She was also the Associate Director of the Center for Conservation Social Sciences and a member of the Graduate Fields of Natural Resources and Global Development while at Cornell.
A conservation social scientist, Dr. Allred teaches and conducts research in the areas of global sustainability, conservation and land use decision-making, community resilience, and environmental justice. Her main interests center on how social science can facilitate community-based approaches to planning and management while enhancing the resilience and sustainability of communities both locally and abroad.
Dr. Allred is passionate about engaging students in community-based work and leads a global service learning program, Global Citizenship and Sustainability, that is focused on indigenous community resilience. She works in Southeast Asia in Malaysian Borneo and recently spent her sabbatical investigating flood resilience in Bangkok, Thailand. Her teaching focus is on community-based research methods in natural resources, global service-learning, environmental justice, and community organizing for the public good. She was the recipient of the 2018 Engaged Scholar Prize, the 2019 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service, and the 2021 Rising Star Faculty Award.
In her spare time Dr. Allred enjoys spending time with friends and family, learning about cultures of the world, reading historical fiction and poetry, exploring the outdoors, and her new hobby of playing the ukelele.
Appointments
- 2022-Present, Susan R. Wolf Professor, Dept. of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- 2023-Present, Affiliated Faculty, Center for Conservation Social Sciences
- 2016-Present, Visiting Professor, Universiti of Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)
- 2016-2023, Associate Director, Center for Conservation Social Sciences
- 2018-2023, Core Faculty Member, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University
- 2016-2022, House Professor-Dean, Alice Cook House
Education
- Ph.D., Dept. of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Forest Social Science, Oregon State University, 2001
- M.S., Dept. of Ecosystem Science and Management, Natural Resource Education, Pennsylvania State University, 1997
- B.S., Environmental Resource Management, Pennsylvania State University, 1994
Interests
Conservation social science
Environmental justice
Southeast Asia
Awards & Honors
- 2021: Rising Star Faculty Award, CALS Alumni Association, Cornell University
- 2019: SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service
- 2018: Engaged Scholar Prize, Cornell University, Office of Engagement Initiatives
- 2018: Exemplary Designation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award for Rust to Green initiative
- 2015: New England Cottontail Conservation Award, Dept. of Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- 2015: Career Leadership Award, Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals (ANREP)
- 2015: Legacy Planning for Forest Landowners Outreach Program, Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals (ANREP), Silver Award
- 2013: Family Forests Education Award, Forest Connect Team Award; awarded by National Woodland Owners Association (NWOA) and National Association of University Forest Resource Programs (NAUFRP)
- 2013: Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship in Service-Learning
- 2013: Engaged Learning and Research Faculty Fellow
- 2006: Top 40 Young Professionals of Greater Lafayette (for community-based work)
- 2002: Honoree, Natural Resources and Environmental Management Program of the Cooperative Extension System
- 2000: Search for Excellence Award - Leadership in Educational Programming, Oregon State University Extension Association
Research Focus
Shorna B. Allred's research program blends human factors and natural sciences to improve resource management and conservation. The goal of her research program is to develop a fundamental understanding of human behavior for the purposes of improving resource conservation and management. An understanding of human social, political, and psychological processes will enhance our ability to conserve and manage our natural resources and encourage an open and informed exchange of ideas.
Current Graduate Students
Gloria Blaise, M.S. '20, Ph.D. '24
Research Interests: Community development and ecological restoration via community-based agroforestry programs
M.S. Thesis title: Trees for Livelihoods: Effectiveness of Community-Based Agroforestry on Land Cover Change and Agroforestry Adoption Behavior in Haiti
Research Interests: Charles' research focuses on involving local stakeholders in conservation decision-making and governance. He uses participative methodologies to work with diverse communities towards developing a holistic understanding of the social-ecological systems of fire occurrence and sustainable agriculture in the Colombian Amazon. Charles enjoys collaborating with farmers, rubber tappers, park rangers, indigenous groups and local authorities to build consensus around forest fire patterns and solutions.
Research Interests: Aalayna's research interests include the gendered dimensions of wildlife crime, conservation justice, and feminist political ecology. For her dissertation, she is investigating the gendered dimensions of militarized conservation in the Kavango–Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area in Southern Africa.
Research Interests: The role of racial capitalism and how it disproportionately affects the environment and the BIPOC communities that call the Black Belt region of Alabama their home.
Post-Doctorate Associates
Postdoctoral Researcher, Conservation and Land Use Program
Past Graduate Students
Francine Barchett, MPS '21
Research Interests: sustainability certification strategies in wildlife
Anna Brettman, MPS '21
Research interests: Disaster relief and response
Rex Ukaejiofo, MPS '20
Research interests: Examining Climate Adaptation Policies and Strategies in Agricultural Livelihoods in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo
Gretchen Worth, MPS '19
Research Interests: Community engagement and heritage conservation in under-served communities.
Jeffrey Wall, Ph.D '18
Ph.D. Research Interests: Ethnobiological dimensions of plant genetic resource value.
Thesis title: What Women Know that Men Do Not about Chestnut Trees in Turkey: A Method of Hearing Muted Knowledge
Sara Naiman, M.S. '17
M.S. Research Interests: The impact individuals' perceptions of the environment, community and sense of place have on environmental behavior
Thesis title: Understanding Support for Actively Managed Protected Areas: The Case of the Albany Pine Bush Reserve
Jennifer Fownes, M.S. '17
Thesis title: The Influence of Weather on Perceptions of Personal Experience with Climate Change Extreme Weather in New York State
Christine Moskell, M.S. '12 and PhD '16
PhD dissertation: Mixed-methods investigations of Community Engagement in Urban Environmental Stewardship
M.S. title: Towards Sustainable Urban Forest Governance: Strategies for Stakeholder Engagement in Tree Planting and Stewardship
John Vogel, M.S. '15
M.S. title: The Land-Use and Land Management Decision-Making of Exurban Landowners in the Adirondack Park and the Yellowstone Ecosystem
Ashley Dayer, PhD ' 13
PhD dissertation: Advancing The Study of Private Landowner Behavior: Understanding Early Successional Forest Habitat Management
Rachel Parks, MPS '13
MPS title: Encouraging Wildlife Habitat Management on Private Woodlands: New England Cottontail in the Hudson Valley of New York State
Andrew Roe, M.S. in Natural Resources '11
Thesis title: Private Forestland Parcelization in New York: Patterns, Drivers, and Effects
Contact Information
srb237 [at] cornell.edu
Shorna in the news
News
Through a long partnership between Cornell and the DEC, communities in the Hudson watershed have received training, tools and assistance to advance conservation land-use planning and policy.
- Department of Global Development
- Natural Resources and the Environment
- Land
News
A new outreach publication shares the stories of Black forestland owners in the Northeast to raise awareness of legacies of discrimination and recommend policies for expanding access for minority landowners.
- Department of Global Development
- Natural Resources and the Environment
- Landscape