Nicholas Institute Staff

Kathleen Lawlor
Kathleen Lawlor’s work at the Nicholas Institute focuses on emerging policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from tropical deforestation.  Since 2000, Kathleen has worked on international forestry and community development issues.  Prior to joining the Nicholas Institute, she worked at the independent accountability mechanism for the private-sector lending arms of the World Bank Group, where she helped investigate complaints from communities who believed their livelihoods or environment were adversely affected by World Bank Group projects.  She also coordinated analysis of how the institution could improve its measurement and reporting of development impacts on local communities.  Kathleen has worked at the U.S. Forest Service, helping develop capacity-building projects for sustainable forestry in Africa, and briefly with Friends of the Earth, monitoring World Bank Group activity in Africa’s natural resource sectors.  For two years, she worked with farmers in Cameroon on agroforestry, HIV/AIDS education, and community development initiatives as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  She later returned to Cameroon to conduct research on factors affecting households’ collection of non-timber forest products.  Kathleen earned her master’s degree from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, where she studied environmental economics and policy.