Brooke McWherter

Education

• BS, Missouri State University
• MS, University of Michigan
• PhD, Purdue University

Research interests

Brooke McWherter is a natural resource social scientist. Her work examines the ways that interdisciplinary understandings of decision making, trust, and risk perception can be used to understand individual and organizational behavior in the context of natural resource and agricultural conservation and management. Her research aims to contribute to efforts to improve our knowledge about individual and organizational adaptive capacities and the factors influencing their development.  Specifically, her research utilizes interdisciplinary theories that pull from social psychology and public administration to examine natural resource and agricultural decision making of and between individuals and organizations. She asks questions about (1) how do ecological, economic, social, political, and cultural factors influence decision-making and risk perception of individuals and within organizations, (2) how individuals and organizations develop and maintain collaborations that are capable of adapting to change, and (3) how do different scales (local, group, organizational) intersect to influence program development, implementation and engagement.

Her postdoctoral research focuses on examining the influence of peer-based mentoring systems thinking and on the long-term adoption of holistic grazing by Canadian livestock producers. This research is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Kate Sherren, Farmers for Climate Solutions, and the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association.

Selected publications

• McWherter, B., Bauchet, J., Ma, Z., Grillos, T., Asquith, N., Rathjen, M., Markos, A. (2022) Compliance under control:  Insights from an incentive-based conservation program in rural Bolivia. Ecological Economics, 194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107317.
  
• Vargas, M., Garcia, M., Vidaurre, T., Carrasco, A., Araujo, N., Medema, C., Asquith, N., Pynegar, E., Tobon, C., Manco, Y., Ma, Z., Bauchet, J., Grillos, T., & McWherter, B. (2022) The researcher-practitioner symbiosis: Evolving mutualisms from parachutes. Conservation Science and Practice. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.596.