Jadda Miller
Ph.D. Student - Science and Agricultural Education
Research Interests
Environmental Science Education; Place-based Education; Citizen Science; Participatory Action Research; Formal and Informal Learning Environments; Traditional Ecological Knowledge; Rural Community Development; Environmental Justice
Research
My research focuses on understanding how collaborative and community-based approaches to scientific research can address local environmental challenges. I am particularly interested in engaging youth in place-based science education research that serves to protect local ecosystems and how these experiences increase students’ agency for environmental action.
I am also interested in understanding: 1) How engaging students in place-based learning may instill an ethic of care and stewardship for the environment; 2) How place-based learning and land stewardship can serve as a source of cultural revitalization; 3) How Traditional Ecological Knowledge can inform place-based learning in an ethical and culturally-responsive manner; and 4) How place-based learning and land stewardship may mediate climate anxiety, particularly in youth.
Education
Ph.D. in Science and Agricultural Education, In progress, University of California, Davis
M.S. in Environmental Studies, 2019, Green Mountain College
B.S. in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, 2014, University of California, Davis
Fellowships and Awards
U.C. Davis Public Impact Research Initiative Grant, Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement (2024-2025)
U.C. Davis Global Grad Research Grant, Global Affairs (2024)
North American Congress for Conservation Biology Conference Scholarship (2024)
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Member (2024)
U.C. Davis Graduate Group in Education Conference Scholarship (Spring 2024)
U.C. Davis Graduate Group in Education Fellowship Award (Winter 2024)
U.C. Davis Community and Citizen Science in Conservation Fellowship (2023-2024)
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) Scholarship (2023)
U.C. Davis Graduate Group in Education Research Fellowship Award (Spring, 2023)
U.C. Davis Graduate Group in Education Fellowship Award (Spring, 2023)
U.C. Davis Public Scholars for the Future Fellowship (2023)
U.C. Davis Graduate Group in Education Fellowship Award (Winter, 2023)
National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Graduate Student Committee Scholarship (2023)
University of California Davis, First Year Fellowship Award (2022)
Coverdell Peace Corps Fellowship (2017)
United States Presidential Community Service Award (2014)
University of California Davis, Provost Award (2013)
Francis J. Saunders Scholarship (2012-2013)
American Association of University Women Scholarship (2012)
Contact
Related Links
Jadda Miller Receives UC Davis Recognitions for Work With Community-Based Environmental Education
Ph.D. student Jadda Miller
has received two recognitions for her work at the intersection of
environmental education and community-based approaches to
scientific research. She has been named a 2024-2025 Earth Scholar
by the UC Davis Institute
of the Environment and, with her advisor Prof. Heidi Ballard, has
accepted a 2024-2025 Public
Impact Research Initiative (PIRI) grant from the UC Davis
Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement.
Shifting Tides: Piloting the MPA Watch Intercept Survey in Southern California
Here’s one inescapable reality of community and citizen science: there are many things that you simply cannot learn until you’ve been on the ground with people, doing work side by side in the field. No matter how much you plan and prepare, no matter how many logistical and technical realities you try to anticipate, things will come up once you get out in the world and start testing out your ideas. Adjustments will be needed.
Project Update: Human Activities Monitoring in Natural Spaces
In March of this year, Ryan and Jadda traveled to Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties to meet with community partners whose work focuses on monitoring human activities in natural spaces but in different geographical contexts.
CCSiC Fellow Spotlight: Cultivating Youth and Community Resiliency
A Community Science Approach to Land Stewardship for Wildfire Mitigation in Maui, Hawaiʻi
Project overview
In August of last year, I submitted
a proposal to the Citizen Science in Conservation Fellowship
program. This collaborative project is titled “Cultivating Youth
and Community Resiliency: A Community Science Approach to Land
Stewardship for Wildfire Mitigation in Maui, Hawaiʻi”. Through
this project, we seek to address a global environmental and
social issue -wildfire- through a place-based, culturally
responsive, and culturally sustaining, curriculum.
Project Update: Back to the Matilija Dam
Discussion surrounding the removal of the 76 year old Matilija Dam started in the mid-1990’s, yet here we are today in 2023, and the Dam is still here. Initially constructed in 1947 for water supply and flood control, the dam is now considered non-functional due to structural deterioration and sediment accumulation. Classified in poor condition, the dam poses a significant impediment to species movement in Matilija Creek, notably impacting the federally-endangered Southern California Steelhead Trout.
