Kirsten Oleson

Dr. Kirsten Oleson is a Professor of Ecological Economics with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is an interdisciplinary sustainability scientist. Her research program's overarching goal is to ensure that the value of nature is captured in national, state, and community decision making. She employs tools from economics, social science, engineering, and decision analysis to provide rigorous foundations for discussions of trade-offs. She engages with national and state policy makers and local communities over a wide range of resource management, economic development, and conservation issues that are of direct and urgent relevance to the state of Hawaiʻi and other Pacific Islands, such as food security, climate adaptation, and sustainable economic growth. She is currently a Pew Marine Fellow; her Pew project is to build coastal ecosystem accounts for the state of Hawaiʻi.

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A headshot of Kirsten Oleson