Shorna Allred

Adjunct Professor, Natural Resources and the Environment Section

About
Research
Team

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

Charles Tebbutt (PhD student)

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.

Aalayna Green (PhD student)

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.

Neelia Heath (MS student)

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

Daria Ponstingel, Ph.D.

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

(607) 255-2149

srb237 [at] cornell.edu

Shorna in the news

News

July 22, 2026

Rubber tree agroforestry supports birds, biodiversity in the Colombian Amazon

A doctoral candidate and Semlitz Sustainability Fellow and his Colombian partners seek to protect birds and biodiversity in the Amazon via sustainable rubber tree agroforestry.

Cornell Atkinson
Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment
Natural Resources and the Environment Section

A marsh with an open section of water in the center, surrounded by plants growing in the water. Multicolored trees circle the marsh, and mountains lay behind their reach. A beautiful fall day at this marsh in New Paltz, New York.

News

October 17, 2022

Cornell, DEC team up for green Hudson Valley land planning

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.

Global Development Section
Natural Resources and the Environment Section
Land