About the Author

Dr. Simona L. Perry is a social and environmental scientist actively working to document, analyze, and develop alternative dispute mechanisms addressing social and environmental conflicts emerging from economic development projects across North America.  She uses multiple methods to conduct case study research on these conflicts, including surveys, several types of interviews, participant observations, archival research, community-integrated and researcher-directed geographic information systems, and focus groups.  Her broad theoretical and practical focus is on understanding the everyday lives of individuals and communities in a rapidly changing world, sense of place phenomena in the face of globalized markets and identities, and conducting locally-informed and relevant policy analyses for a broad public audience. For the past three years, she has lived and worked in Bradford County, Pennsylvania documenting the environmental, economic, social and psychological changes resulting from the rapid development of shale gas.

Dr. Perry is the founder of c.a.s.e. Consulting Services headquartered in Maryland, USA. She was a Research Scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 2012, and from 2009-2011 was a Mellon Post-Doctoral Scholar at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

From 2004 to 2006 she directed a non-profit international environmental education organization based in Washington, D.C., and from 1995 to 2003 she worked as a field biologist, environmental regulator, and policy analyst with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Massachusetts, Seattle, California, and Maryland. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife biology and management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, her Master’s degree in marine affairs from the University of Washington, Seattle and her Doctoral degree in social science (human dimensions of natural resources conservation) from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.