Research ProfessorUniversity of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
146 Williams Street
Solomons, Maryland 20688
Email: wainger@umces.edu
Phone: 410-326-7401
Visit Lisa's Research Website
Research Disciplines:
- Economy
- Ecosystem Services
- Environmental Decision Support Systems
- Environmental Restoration
- Outdoor Recreation
- Shellfish Aquaculture
- Social Science
- Water Quality
cost-benefit analysis, ecosystem services, invasive species, aquaculture, wetland policy, water quality, coastal resilience, non-monetary benefit indicators
View Lisa's CVBiographical Sketch
Dr. Wainger is a research professor of environmental economics at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. She has over 20 years of experience in integrating ecological and economic analysis tools to evaluate costs, benefits and risks of environmental policies. She frequently collaborates to develop interdisciplinary models to project ecological and economic outcomes of management actions and test incentives for achieving social goals. Her expertise emphasizes the implications of spatial variability of combined human and biophysical drivers on system outcomes. She has applied integrated modeling to the measurement of ecosystem service benefits, nutrient (water quality) trading, wetland mitigation policy, land use policy, and cost-effective multi-objective policy design. She is currently co-chair of the Ecosystem Science and Management Working Group of the Science Advisory Board to the NOAA Administrator; Chair-Elect of the California Delta Independent Science Board; and past chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee to the US EPA Chesapeake Bay Program. She is a frequent economics advisor to government agencies (including the White House Council on Environmental Quality, National Academies of Science), non-governmental organizations, and private businesses.
Education
- B.S. 1986 (with honors, Phi Beta Kappa), Earth Science, University of California, Santa Cruz.
- Ph.D. 1997 Environmental and Ecological Economics (within Marine Estuarine Environmental Sciences), University of Maryland, College Park.
Ongoing and Recent CESU Projects
Other Research