Dara M. Wald is associate professor of urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech University, where she is affiliated with the Fralin Life Sciences Institute and the Invasive Species Collaborative. Wald is also a research fellow in the Institute for Science Technology and Public Policy in the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. Her research combines theory from psychology and policy to examine how trust, values, and power emerge, differ among audiences, and shape communication, collaborative processes, and policy outcomes in polarized environmental contexts. She received her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and her PhD from the University of Florida.
Her book with Anna L. Peterson, Cats and Conservationists: The Debate over Who Owns the Outdoors(Purdue University Press, 2020), examines how science and competing values shape public debate over contentious environmental issues. In 2022, Wald received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Her project, “The Polarization of Science, Source Credibility, and the Public Good,” will examine how perceptions of scientific source credibility vary across the political spectrum and shape polarized responses to environmental policies.
May 2024
