Kelsey is a PhD candidate, focusing on qualitative research spanning the fields of global climate and environmental politics, political ecology, critical development studies, human and Indigenous rights, and environmental conflict. Her research, broadly defined, examines how global policies and transnational financial flows influence governance in corrupt states and what impact they have on the rights of vulnerable communities.
Kelsey spent 10 years advocating on related issues in Latin America, serving as the Executive Director of the US-based Guatemala Human Rights Commission and campaigning at the Center for International Environmental Law. Kelsey earned a degree in History and Spanish from Grinnell College and participated in the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University’s Washington College of Law. At Berkeley, she was a NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a 2019 Fellow at Berkeley’s Human Rights Center. She is currently a Research Affiliate of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project and a co-coordinator of the Guatemala Scholar-Activist Working Group.
Research Group(s):
O’Neill Lab, Berkeley Carbon Trading Project
Awards:
NSF GRFP
Tinker Fellowship
Human Rights Center Fellowship (2019)
Publications:
How injustice can lead to energy policy failure: A case study from Guatemala
Quality Assessment of REDD+ Carbon Credit Projects
Contact:
kalfordjones@berkeley.edu