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PhD in Sustainable Development Student Profiles
Kimberly Lai
Kimberly Lai is a second-year student in the PhD program in Sustainable Development. Her research interests include natural resources, ecosystem services, collective arrangements, and international agreements. After graduating from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in management science and engineering, she interned in investment banking and worked as a management consultant before becoming a marine conservation coordinator at The Nature Conservancy. There she helped to implement an innovative partnership between local fishermen and conservation interests to protect sensitive habitats from trawling and develop a more sustainable harvest model. In 2010 she returned to school for an MPA in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University. While at Columbia she led a workshop group on REDD-Plus (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and presented a draft proposal for social and environmental safeguards at the 2011 UN Climate Change Conference in Bangkok.