Hello, I’m Jessica.
I’m a writer, a photographer, and a social scientist.
About a year ago, I moved back to Denver after a decade teaching and doing research in Asia.
I spent seven years teaching landscape architecture at the National University of Singapore (I can tell you why it’s called the Harvard of Asia). While teaching was fulfilling, I decided not to go for tenure because I wanted to participate more directly in the practice and policies of designing and building our communities and cities.
As simply as I can state, my research investigates human-environment relationships at the planner-public nexus. Trained as a landscape architect and a health and behavioral scientist, I combine social theory, health and behavioral frameworks, and qualitative, quantitative, and spatial (GIS) research methods.
My research covers…
Sustainable urban (food) systems
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Human decision-making related to individual, community, and ecological health
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Community engagement through the process and product of place-making
Wow, that’s a mouthful! But I can honestly say these are my expertise and also my passions.
Suffice it to say, I am interdisciplinary in research and practice–drawing from the fields of landscape architecture, urban planning, geography, sociology, public health, public affairs, and engineering.
Experience
+ Developed Publish It!, a website for academic writers; includes self-paced courses, live workshops, videos, blogs, and consulting/copy-editing services for scientific publications
Assistant Professor
2016-2023, National University of Singapore, Master of Landscape Architecture Programme, College of Design & Engineering, Singapore, Singapore
+ Conducted independent and multi-disciplinary, collaborative locally-based and international research funded by grants ranging from $63K to $1.9M including as a Principal Investigator
+ Participatory Action Research (Co-PI) to co-create community solutions to improve the living environment using multiple approaches to community engagement; translated outcomes into recommendations for design and policy-change to government agencies
+ Rural-urban food system research across national and internation scales using a political ecology approach to measure and synthesize social, ecological, economic drivers of change and threats to food security resilience
Research Consultant
2013-2017, Denver, CO, USA
+ The Colorado Trust (2014-2017) Conducted spatial analysis and generated maps based on a large dataset of social determinants of health to identify health disparities to improve health equity
+ Denver Public Health (2013-2014) Conducted quantitative analysis of a large dataset to identify associations between health behaviours and health status of Denver adolescents, published in peer reviewed journal
Education
Phd, Health & Behavioural Sciences (2015)
University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO
- National Science Foundation, IGERT PhD Fellow, 2010-15
- Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar, Ambedkar University Delhi, India, 2013-14
BLA & MLA, Landscape Architecture (2010)
The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
- PA-ASLA Honor Award for Student Collaboration, 2010
- ASLA Student Honor Award, 2009
- Department Student Award of Excellence, 2008
- Ann Pellow Wagner (Research) Scholarship, 2006
BA, English (2000)
West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, WV
- Concentration in creative writing
- Philosophy minor
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Jessica A. Shea, PhD 