Gemma Elizabeth Smith
- Assistant Professor, School of Government and Public Policy
- Member of the Graduate Faculty
- Social Sciences, Rm. 315
- Tucson, AZ 85721
- gemmasmith@arizona.edu
Biography
Gemma Smith holds a joint appointment as Assistant Research Professor at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and Assistant Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona.
Gemma is an interdisciplinary scholar at the intersection of environmental policy, governance, justice, and water resources engineering. She graduated from Stanford University with a PhD in Environment and Resources and a Minor in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2023.
Her current research focuses on the governance of international freshwater resources. She works to improve the management of transboundary water quality and climate change adaptation through better understanding of governance processes and outcomes in North American borderlands. Her methods draw on social, political, economic and environmental qualitative and quantitative data with the goal of making more robust causal connections between institutional design, policy decisions, and environmental outcomes. Her research has been published in Policy Studies Journal, Environmental Science & Policy, and International Journal of the Commons, among others.
Prior to her PhD, Gemma completed her Master’s in International Policy (Environment and Energy specialization) at Stanford University and a Graduate Diploma in Political Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She previously worked in international investment management in Europe and Asia, having completed her Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Spanish at the University of Exeter, UK, in 2013.
Degrees
- Ph.D. Environment and Resources
- Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
- Designing Diplomacy: The Use of Collaborative Governance in Transboundary Rivers
- M.A. International Policy
- Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
- Groundwater Governance for Sustainability: Enablers, Constraints, and Solutions on the California Central Coast
- Graduate Diploma Political Science
- London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom
- B.A. English Literature and Spanish
- University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
Work Experience
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (2024 - Ongoing)
Interests
Teaching
Collaborative governance, environmental policy and governance, water governance, international environmental policy, environmental justice, climate justice
Research
Collaborative governance, environmental policy and governance, water governance, international environmental policy, environmental justice, climate justice
Courses
2025-26 Courses
-
Collab Gov/Theory, Prac, Rsrch
PA 620A (Fall 2025)
2024-25 Courses
-
Collab Gov/Theory, Prac, Rsrch
PA 620A (Fall 2024)
Scholarly Contributions
Journals/Publications
- Yoder, L., Hammond Wagner, C., Sullivan-Wiley, K., & Smith, G. E. (2022).
The promise of collective action for large-scale commons dilemmas: reflections on
common-pool resource theory
. International Journal of the Commons, 16(1), 47 - 63. doi:http://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1163 - Hui, I., & Smith, G. E. (2021). Private Citizens, Stakeholder Groups, or Governments? Perceived Legitimacy and Preferred Representation in Water Collaborative Governance. Policy Studies Journal, 50(1), 241 - 265. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12453
- Santana, F., Hammond Wagner, C., Berlin Rubin, N., Bloomfield, L., Bower, E., Fischer, S., Santos, B., Smith, G. E., Muraida, C., & Wong-Parodi, G. (2021). A Path Forward for Qualitative Research on Sustainability in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability Science, 16, 1061 - 1067. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00894-8
- Smith, G. E., Bayldon Block, L., Ajami, N., Pombo, A., & Velasco Aulcy, L. (2020). Trade-offs Across the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: A Triple Bottom Line Sustainability Assessment of Desalination for Agriculture in the San Quintin Valley, Mexico. Environmental Science & Policy, 114, 445 - 452. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2020.08.008
- Hui, I., Smith, G. E., & Kimmel, C. (2019). Think Globally, Act Locally: Adoption of Climate Action Plans in California. Climatic Change, 155, 489 - 509. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02505-7
Presentations
- Smith, G. E. (2024, December). Beyond Regulation: Understanding Responses to PFAS Contamination Under Environmental Federalism. SGDE Colloquium Series. Tucson, Arizona.
- Smith, G. E. (2024, March). Institutions for Innovation in the US-Mexico Borderlands. Tenth Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference. Phoenix, Arizona: Bill Lane Center for the American West, Stanford University.
- Smith, G. E. (2024, October). Designing Diplomacy: Collaborative Governance in Transboundary Rivers. Water Governance Working Group at Ostrom Workshop. Online.
- Smith, G. E., & Henriquez-Perez, B. (2024, September). Smart Implementation of Wastewater Reuse for Climate Resilience in Middle-Income Nations. 43rd WEDC International Conference on Water and Climate Resilience. Online: Loughborough University.
Poster Presentations
- Smith, G. E., Gilson, G., Brown, A., Zuniga Teran, A. A., & Gerlak, A. K. (2024, June). PFAS Responses Across the Political Spectrum in US States. 2024 National PFAS Conference. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
