I am an interdisciplinary scholar at the intersection of environmental policy, governance, justice, and hydrology.

I currently hold a joint appointment as Assistant Professor at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and at the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona. I graduated from Stanford University with a PhD in Environment and Resources and a Minor in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2023. 

My current research focuses on the governance of international freshwater resources. I work to improve the management of transboundary water quality and climate change adaptation through better understanding of governance processes and outcomes in North American borderlands. My methods draw on social, political, economic and environmental qualitative and quantitative data with the goal of making more robust causal connections between institutional design, policy decisions, and environmental outcomes. My research has been published in Policy Studies JournalEnvironmental Science & Policy, and International Journal of the Commons, among others. 

gemmasmith@arizona.edu

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