RESEARCH AREAS
Risk perception
Individual level decision making
Modeling behavioral heterogeneity
Climate adaptation
Resource management (soil, water, forests)
Private lands conservation
COURSES OFFERED
ENR 3400 – Psychology of Environmental Problems (every AU)
ENR 7150 – Environment, Risk and Decision Making (AU, even years)
ENR 7400 – Communicating Environmental Risk (SP, even years)
Dr. Wilson is an author on over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, and book chapters, and a PI or co-PI on approximately $20 million in awarded grants. Since beginning her academic career at Ohio State in 2007, her work has focused primarily on the interplay between intuitive and analytic information processing and the influence this has on risk perception and ultimately judgment or choice behavior. She is also interested in the development of risk communication and decision support tools to inform decision making and risk management. Her current research focus is on individual adaptation to climate-exacerbated hazards, and what motivates and constrains different land use and land management decisions on private and public lands.
Dr. Wilson is very active as a leader on campus and in her professional organizations as demonstrated by her service on several committees and advisory boards related to behavioral decision-making and environmental science. She is a current member of the US EPA Board of Scientific Counselors Social and Community Science Subcommittee, and recent past-President of the Society for Risk Analysis. She is a former member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Resilient America Roundtable, the NASEM Board on Environmental Change and Society, and the US EPA Chartered Science Advisory Board.
Dr. Wilson received her B.A. in Environmental Studies with Honors from Denison University, and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Environment and Natural Resources from The Ohio State University. Dr. Wilson’s research over the past several years has been supported by the National Science Foundation (Innovations in Food, Energy, Water Systems; Coupled Natural Human Systems; Decision, Risk and Management Science), the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Resilient Agroecosystems in a Changing Climate; Water for Food), the USFWS Joint Fire Sciences Program, The USEPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, The Nature Conservancy, The Great Lakes Protection Fund, The Great Lakes Observing System, and The Fertilizer Institute (4R Research Fund).