Erika Gavenus

Erika Gavenus is a researcher and PhD graduate from the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, supervised by Dr. Terre Satterfield. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s in Global Health from Georgetown University.

• Research Focus: Cultural ecosystem services, environmental and cultural values, First Nations and resource management, food security, political ecology
• Awards: International Doctoral Fellow, O’Riordan Fellow

Her work bridges social and ecological dimensions, analyzing how coastal communities access natural resources and how these mechanisms affect human health. She has published extensively on topics including salmon stewardship, food justice, fisheries governance, and the interplay between cultural values and environmental policy. Her research is informed by personal experience in Alaska’s fishing communities and fieldwork in British Columbia and Kenya.

Key publication themes include One Health approaches to food-energy-water systems, Indigenous rights in fisheries, salmon harvest rates, and social network interventions for nutrition. She has contributed to the Canadian Mountain Assessment and studies on restorative diets, emphasizing equity and sustainability across global and local scales.