Center for Climate, Environment and Health

Dr. Meredith T. Niles is a Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health and Professor of Environment and Society with the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES).  Her interdisciplinary research focuses on advancing efforts to achieve sustainable food security and improve health, environmental, and rural livelihood outcomes in food systems, especially with rural communities. Her two main areas of focus are 1) enabling farmer's adoption of sustainable agriculture practices that can improve public and environmental health, especially in the context of climate and other environmental changes; and 2) improving food and nutrition security and health outcomes in rural communities as a result of climate change and other crises.  Her international research has resulted in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, and dozens of open-source policy briefs and government reports. She has received notable honors including as an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine Fellow (2022-2025) from the National Academy of Medicine and the Vogelmann Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship from The University of Vermont in 2024.  Dr. Niles holds a B.A in political science with honors in environmental studies from The Catholic University of America, a PhD in ecology with a focus on sustainable agriculture and environmental policy from the University of California-Davis, and was a Sustainability Science Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.