Biographical Information about Rebecca McLain

Rebecca McLain is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Institute for Culture and Ecology, a non profit based in Portland, Oregon specializing in applying social science theory and methods to the resolution of natural resource problems. Rebecca received her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Texas-Austin, M.S. in Land Resources from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Ph.D. in Forest Management and Engineering from the University of Washington.

From 1986 to 1992, she worked as a Research Associate with the Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducting applied research on land tenure and natural resource policy in the Caribbean and west Africa. Since 1999, she has directed the Institute for Culture and Ecology’s Power, Politics and Justice Program.

Her research covers sustainable rural economic development, participatory natural resource decision-making, and the politics of non timber forest products harvesting in the United States.