Danielle Johnson Email & Phone Number

I see research as a pathway to support meaningful social change and better environmental outcomes. Over the last nine years I’ve worked at the interface of society and environment, refining my skills as an applied social scientist. I am drawn to questions of equity and justice, and have worked extensively with communities in Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States to better understand the socio-political dimensions of climate change, wellbeing, and food sovereignty. I specialise in climate change vulnerability and adaptation, working with Indigenous (Māori) peoples, and cross-cultural, participatory, and ethnographic research. I seek to engage and explore peoples’ diverse lived experiences of climate (and other environmental) change, and am driven to influence policy to more effectively accommodate these diverse realities. I see value in interdisciplinary collaboration between social and biophysical sciences, arts and humanities, and am committed to respectful interactions at the intersection of worldviews and cultures. At NIWA, I lead and work within a range of interdisciplinary research projects across the organisation’s climate, hazards, and freshwater portfolios, with a special focus on supporting intergenerational wellbeing through equitable, inclusive climate change adaptation and hazard management. Drawing on my qualitative research skills and extensive knowledge of climate- and hazard-related social science, I collaborate with NIWA’s economists, social and biophysical scientists to undertake policy-relevant research for the New Zealand government, local councils, Māori iwi (tribes), and the private sector.