Members > Derric Jacobs

Research Associate (Postdoctoral), Portland State University

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Portland State University's Environmental Science and Management Department. My work is in researching social networks in communities and in governance of wildfire prone landscapes. Prior to coming to Portland State University I received my Masters of Public Policy and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science at Oregon State University. While working on my Ph.D., I worked as a Graduate Research Assistant on a National Science Foundation funded collaborative research project known as Forest-People-Fire. This Coupled Human and Natural Systems project investigated wildfire ecology, wildfire governance and community adaptation and resilience to increasing wildfire risks in central Oregon.

I currently maintain an instructor position at Oregon State University's School of Public Policy and the Sociology Department where I teach Social Dimensions of Sustainability and Leisure and Culture. My Post Doctoral Research Associate position is extending the work I did with social networks in both communities and in governance within wildfire prone landscapes. We are currently working on project in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone of the Ukraine as well as investigating wildfire governance of trans-boundary wildfire risks to landscapes and communities in the western United States.

Key research Interests: Social Network Analysis, Social-Ecological Systems, Climate Change, Community Adaptation and Resilience, Public Policy