Rebecca McLain, PhD, Director of Research
mclainrj@pdx.edu | (503) 725-6907
Rebecca joined NPCC in 2019 as the director of its newly-established research program. She believes that research linked to on-the-ground practice has an important role to play in identifying best practices that can make NPCC’s work in supporting collaborative governance and collective action more effective. She was co-founder and executive director for the Institute for Culture and Ecology, an independent nonprofit research organization, for twelve years, and has worked on applied research projects for the Center for International Forestry Research, the International Food Policy Research Institute, Portland State University’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions, SOS-Sahel, CARE-Mali, and the University of Wisconsin’s Land Tenure Center.
Rebecca is co-editor of several books, including Land Tenure Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa, Wild Products Governance, and Nontimber Forest Products Management and Policy in the United States. She has co-authored numerous scientific journal articles and technical reports related to environmental governance, adaptive management, participatory mapping of landscape values, participatory program evaluation, and socio-economic assessments.
Rebecca has a PhD in forest management (social science option) from the University of Washington, an MS in Land Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Texas-Austin. She enjoys traveling to places off the beaten trail, learning French and Malagasy, gathering wild mushrooms, and working on jigsaw puzzles.