Tanya Hayes directs the Environmental Studies program at Seattle University. She holds a joint PhD in Political Science and Public and Environmental Affairs from Indiana University, Bloomington (2007), where she specialized in policy analysis and natural resource management. In addition, she holds a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from Whitman College.

Dr. Hayes’s research examines the institutional and socioeconomic aspects of environmental change and sustainable ecosystem management. She has spent several years in Latin America living and working with peasant farmers and indigenous peoples on soil conservation and forest management. With over ten years experience facilitating and researching natural resource management, Dr. Hayes’s expertise is in international and national conservation policies and their impacts on community resource management in developing countries. Her research examines the impact of different protected area and property rights policies on forest conservation and the conditions that enable communities to self-govern their natural resource systems.