Stephanie Spera, Neukom Postdoctoral Fellow

Stephanie is interested in how and to what extent humans are modifying the landscape, what is driving these changes in land cover, and how are these changes affecting the environment. Back on earth, she completed an interdisciplinary doctoral dissertation at Brown University through the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society where she focused on how and why land cover had changed across the Cerrado of Brazil since 2000.

To disentangle these complex human-environment dynamics, Stephanie relies on remotely-sensed data, GIS, and spatial statistics. The goal of her research is to provide policy makers with the information they need to ensure that we manage our environment and its resources responsibly. Her work on mapping agricultural expansion and its effects on regional climate has been featured in The Washington Post and O Estado do São Paulo.

While at Dartmouth, Stephanie will use a regional climate model to investigate how replacing natural vegetation with pasture and soy crops will affect the regional climate of Brazil. She will also teach a new course on “The Global Food and Energy Landscape” in Summer 2017 and Spring 2018. And you can follow her cat, Kenneth, on Instagram at @therealkenneththecat.