Immersion Workshop: Environmental Economics

Dr. Lisa Wainger is a professor of environmental economics at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and has over 20 years of experience in integrating ecological and economic analysis tools to evaluate costs, benefits and risks of ecosystem restoration and protection. She is known for pioneering work to include aspects of land spatial configuration in economic valuation techniques and wetland mitigation accounting. She is also known for work developing economically-based non-monetary benefit indicators to improve the representation of tradeoffs in natural resource policy and decision-making.

Her current research is testing whether findings from behavioral sciences can more effectively engage farmers and local government officials in environmental problem solving under changing conditions. As Past Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (EPA Chesapeake Bay Program), she collaborates with a wide network of scientists to provide scientific review and direct future research. She also serves on numerous advisory boards to federal and state governments and non-governmental organizations. 

Dr. Doug Lipton is the Senior Research Scientist for Economics at NOAA Fisheries. In this role, he provides leadership and guidance to the economic and social science enterprise across the agency. In this role, he advises NOAA senior leadership on the conduct and interpretation of economic and social science analyses that impact agency policies. Areas of interest include commercial fisheries analysis, recreational fisheries economics, non-market valuation of marine resources, and aquaculture economics.

Most of his research and extension work has focused on valuation of benefits related to improvements in water quality and the economics of ecosystem-based fisheries management with specific application to the Chesapeake Bay. His current focus is on integrating economics with ecosystem-based fisheries modeling approaches. He has conducted local and international research on the economics of finfish and shellfish aquaculture in extensive, intensive, and multi-trophic production systems. Lipton, until recently, was a member of the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council, Scientific and Statistical Committee. He is currently a member of the Executive Board of the International Institute for Fisheries Economics and Trade, Board Member of the Marine Resource Economics Foundation and Board Member of the Maryland Agricultural and Resource Based Industries Development Corporation.