People

Courtney Flathers completed her Master of Public Policy at OSU in 2017. Her academic interests include rural policy, natural resources policy and marine policy. A native Oregonian, Courtney earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Sociology from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. After completing her undergraduate education she completed a year of AmeriCorps service working as a literacy tutor in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Before pursuing graduate school she also worked in the Oregon State Legislature for three years. At OSU, she conducted research with the support of NOAA and Oregon Sea Grant on demographic changes in the commercial fishing industry and impacts on community resilience. She worked with Hilary on the community reactions to extreme weather project. She now works as a field representative for Senator Merkley.

Brittany Gaustad graduated from OSU with a Master of Public Policy in 2015. She is currently a research assistant at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at North Caroline State University. Her research interests include environmental and energy policy, conserving energy through everyday behavior, social movements and the impacts of globalized commodities on environmental quality. While at OSU, she conducted research on perceptions of public participation processes in the siting of liquefied natural gas facilities in Astoria and Coos Bay, Oregon.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Emery completed her M.S. degree in the Forest Ecosystems and Society Program at Oregon State in 2020. Prior to joining the program, she helped establish the City of Flagstaff, Arizona’s Open Space Program, including working with stakeholder groups to acquire natural areas, develop management plans, establish natural resource policies, and implement infrastructure improvement projects. At OSU, Betsy’s research explored how people perceive risks and make decisions, with a specific focus on how people reason about the use of biotechnology to address forest health threats. When she isn’t organizing events for the College of Forestry’s Graduate Student Council or reading about cognitive psychology, you can find her hiking in the Cascade mountains or dancing at a concert in Portland.