A parent, survivor of chronic illness, and participatory researcher, ODC Communications and Volunteer Coordinator Dr. Susannah McCandless holds degrees in Geography, Biology, Francophone and Latin American studies. After college, she accompanied smallholder Costa Rican coffee farmers, who raised questions about conservation-as-usual. Back on unceded Western Abenaki territory, she studied who does the work to maintain Vermont’s working landscapes. She still collaborates with farmworkers, whose grassroots advocacy has changed terms of access, mobility, and self-determination in the state.A Fulbright Scholar, Ford Community Forestry and Switzer Fellow, Susannah has taught at University of Vermont and Mount Holyoke College. She has worked on questions of land and food sovereignty, community forestry, ethnobiology, and environmental justice. When not at ODC, Susannah supports Indigenous- and other community-led initiatives to strengthen viable landscapes and dignified livelihoods.