Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza

Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza serves as Associate Professor of the Practice of Environmental Policy and Management at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. She directs Duke's Engaged Scholarship initiative, Community Engagement for the Superfund Research Center, and the Certificate in Community-Based Environmental Management.

• Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley (2010)
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2019)

Her research examines human-environment interactions in conservation programs, focusing on how economic, political, and power dynamics shape outcomes of market-based environmental initiatives. Specializing in qualitative methods, she investigates Payments for Ecosystem Services in Mexico, climate change mitigation through forest carbon in Peru/Mexico, coffee farmer adaptation in Latin America, and environmental health justice in North Carolina. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates geography, economics, ecology, and public health to address conservation challenges through community partnerships.

Recent publications reveal growing emphasis on critiquing biodiversity finance mechanisms while exploring community-led alternatives to market-based conservation. Her work increasingly connects environmental initiatives to structural economic justice issues, particularly debt and tax systems, while maintaining focus on local implementation challenges in Global South contexts.

Shapiro-Garza advises graduate students including Elizabeth Houghton (2020) and secures major funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, Tinker Foundation, and International Institute for Impact Evaluation. Her community-engaged research partners with agricultural cooperatives, indigenous communities, and NGOs across Latin America and the southeastern U.S.

She leads community engagement for Duke's Superfund Research Center and collaborates with institutions including the Kenan Institute for Ethics, UNC Geography Department, and Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies.