Leah Jones-Crank

BIOGRAPHY:

Leah Jones-Crank is an interdisciplinary sustainability scholar, focusing on the intersection between water resource management, collaborative governance, and sustainable development. She received her Ph.D. in Sustainability from Arizona State University. Her doctoral research focused on understanding and analyzing collaborative governance within the food-energy-water nexus for improved management, governance, and decision-making of integrated resource systems. Using social network analysis, qualitative data analysis, and stakeholder engagement, she examined the case studies of Cape Town, South Africa and Phoenix, Arizona, USA. At the Earth Institute, she is working with Drs. Ben Orlove and Upmanu Lall to examine a new case study of food-energy-water nexus governance. She explores the role of informal governance of integrated resource systems and examines the causal relationship between collaborative governance and environmental outcomes for increased resource security.