Dr. Meredith Niles is an assistant professor in the Food Systems program and the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at the University of Vermont.  She completed her BA in politics at The Catholic University of America, a PhD in Ecology at the University of California at Davis and her post-doctorate in sustainability science at Harvard University in the Kennedy School of Government.  While at Harvard she collaborated with Dr. Ray Goldberg on a Harvard Business School Case Study in collaboration with Nestle on the Dairy Farming Institute in China.  Meredith’s work focuses on the nexus of food and environment specifically climate change and food security and farmer’s adoption and perceptions of sustainable practices and policies.  She has studied how farmers perceive and respond to climate change and climate policies, farmer use of water management strategies, farmer adoption of sustainability practices, and how smallholder farmers in the developing world are being affected by climate change and its influence on food security.  

Prior to her academic career Meredith worked for the United States Department of State and for several non-profit organizations.  She has also worked in various consulting projects for farmer organizations, food industry, and non-profit groups, most recently examining potential agricultural carbon offset markets for reduced fertilizer use. She is passionate about making academic research more publicly available through advocating for open access and research policies and is currently serving on the Public Library of Science (PLOS), one of the world’s largest non-profit scientific publishers.  She has received notable honors including the Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award from the American Institute of Biological Sciences and Board Member of the Year from the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students.