James (J.T.) Erbaugh is an Applied Social Scientist with The Nature Conservancy and a Research Associate/Lecturer at Dartmouth College. He specializes in environmental governance and policy.

His work investigates how groups make rules or provide incentives for the management of environmental resources, and how those rules or incentives effect social, economic, and environmental change. As a quantitative social scientist, J.T. uses statistical models to analyze data from surveys, censuses, and remotely sensed imagery. He often complements such analyses with mixed-methods findings from interviews and focus-group discussions. J.T.’s recent research contributes to better understanding community-based resource management, national policies for forest and fisheries management, the socioeconomic dimensions of global forest restoration, as well as the role of information and group deliberation in promoting sustainable development.

J.T. retains an academic appointment in the Department of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College as an affiliated faculty member and lecturer. Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, J.T. was a National Science Postdoctoral Fellow in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. He has a BA in Philosophy and Environmental Studies from Miami University, an MPhil in Geography from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in Natural Resource Policy and Behavior from the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. J.T.’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the World Bank, the IUCN, the Institute for Social Research, the Social Science Research Council, and other generous supporters. Before beginning his research career, J.T. taught middle school science on the Navajo Nation with Teach for America, and he taught conversational English through the Fulbright Program in Java, Indonesia.