Jadda Miller
Ph.D. Candidate - Science and Agricultural Education
Research Interests
Community-based participatory research; Indigenous knowledge systems; Climate adaptation; Community science; Land stewardship; Social-ecological systems resilience; Environmental justice; Critical place-based environmental education; Youth environmental stewardship
Research
Jadda’s work sits at the intersection of participatory research, critical place-based pedagogy, and environmental stewardship. She collaborates across sectors to establish partnerships that center on local, place-specific knowledge to address broader environmental concerns and issues of justice. Her work examines how educational institutions can support community-led initiatives by fostering learning environments where students work alongside local experts to advance community-identified goals, developing as environmental stewards and practitioners in the process. Her work aims to foster reciprocal partnerships where communities define research priorities, shape educational programs, and drive collective action toward achieving social-ecological resilience.
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
National Academy of Education Spencer Dissertation Fellow (2025-2026)
U.C. Davis Global Grad Research Grant, Global Affairs (2025)
U.C. Davis Public Impact Research Initiative Grant, Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement (2024-2025)
U.C. Davis Institute of the Environment (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
MPA Watch Intercept Survey Pilot Report
This report documents a pilot study in which the community science network known as MPA Watch developed and tested an intercept survey protocol for potential use alongside its existing data collection methods. The high-level goal was to explore the feasibility of the new method and its potential value in understanding human dimensions of MPAs and perhaps other ocean and coastal issues in California.
Practitioner Resource: Supporting Volunteer-Based Monitoring of Human Activities in Watersheds
We are excited to announce the release of “A Guide to Volunteer-Based Monitoring of Human Activities in Watersheds,” a resource developed by the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science in collaboration with the Resources Legacy Fund’s (RLF) Open Rivers Fund. This guide emerged from an ongoing project focused on the role that community and citizen science (CCS) can play in dam removal and watershed restoration, and it serves as a companion piece to the CCS manual.
NARST 2025 Preview
Wildfire Mitigation and Social-Ecological Systems Resilience in Maui, Hawaiʻi
In response to the August 2023 Lahaina fire, a research-practice partnership is reimagining how high school students can contribute to wildfire mitigation while learning both Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western Science. This work will be presented at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) conference in March 2025 through a roundtable discussion titled “Culturally-Relevant Field Ecology: Wildfire Mitigation and Social-Ecological Systems Resilience in Maui, Hawaiʻi.”
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.
