Brianna Karson (she/her) is a first year Master of Environmental Management candidate at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, where her academic concentrations are Coastal and Marine Systems and Community Engagement and Environmental Justice. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies and a Minor in French from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she completed an independent undergraduate thesis titled The Future of Conservation is Female: A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Female Empowerment on Community-Based Conservation Project Success.
After finishing undergrad, Brianna completed a year of full-time volunteering with AmeriCorps NCCC, where she contributed to team-based projects that combat food insecurity in food deserts, provide conservation seedlings to farms devastated by extreme climate events, and resettle refugees fleeing conflict in their home countries. Since then, she has been a manager at Avasol, a small-business that produces organic, reef-safe mineral sunscreen for ocean people.
As a Research Assistant at the Ocean Synthesis Lab, Brianna assembles and analyzes global datasets on social and ecological conditions in marine systems to examine the relationship between climate vulnerability, marine conservation, and equity across local to global scales.
Email: brianna.karson@duke.edu
