Derric N. Pennington, Phd'D Email & Phone Number

Minneapolis And St. Paul, Minnesota, Us

Minneapolis And St. Paul, Minnesota, Us

Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology

Minneapolis And St. Paul, Minnesota, Us

A Sustainability Scientist working at the interface of conservation, economics, land use and supply chain management, and private and public sector governance, and is a leader in developing cross-disciplinary, cross-sector solutions to sustainability problems. A principle goal for this position is to conduct applied research to understand how society and business can meet food, fiber and fuel demand while minimizing environmental impacts contributing to climate change, water scarcity, eutrophication and loss of biodiversity. Within this broad aim, a key goal is to improve understanding of how regulatory programs and voluntary sustainability standards can help mitigate risk and improve private and public sector decisions about their sourcing and purchasing strategies. Leads innovative research to inform and improve sustainable development and conservation outcomes. Expertise includes 1) understanding the effects of global environmental change, such as land-use and climate change, on the structure and function of ecosystems, with a focus on biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and economic well-being; 2) applying socioeconomic and ecological models to evaluate, communicate, and mitigate the risk and impacts of markets and corporate and public policy across temporal and spatial scales; and 3) developing collaborative, stakeholder-targeted decision support systems and tools to help facilitate the identification and implementation of multifunctional land-use policies for urban and rural landscapes at local and global scales. Outputs include evaluating and communicating the sustainability-related risks and mitigation opportunities in agricultural commodity production as it relates to alternative market-based and regulatory mechanisms for promoting sustainable land use, in collaboration with producers and the corporate, finance, and public sectors.

Our Purpose1. Building people (and nature) connections in and out of public, private, and civil society sectors2. Convening diverse peoples and facilitating participatory dialogue to explore shared values and learning3. Creating highly-accessible decision support tools to help deciders better understand the opportunities and tradeoffs amongst environmental, economic, and social indicators of well- beingMost risk assessments tend to only focus only on baseline trends and conditions. A stakeholder can get information on their current situation (e.g., local water quality for drinking water is bad) but not so much on what actions they can take in the future to improve or mitigate risk (e.g., where to best target a conservation practice? How this action improves my situation?). Furthermore, there is a need for information on how future decisions will impact multiple objectives including conservation and development, such as food production and agricultural profits, and the need for an accompanying interactive interface that allows multiple stakeholders to visualize potential solutions. Our novel science-based geodesign tool, SCOPE, explicitly links cutting-edge science with stakeholder expertise through interactive “real-time” exploration and visualization. The tool supports a larger collaborative stakeholder process that integrates ecosystem services and economic modeling with local data to provide an “on-the-fly” interactive visualization and design interface for stakeholders to explore both baseline conditions and to evaluate their own “what if?” scenarios to improve local conditions. SCOPE also provides output tables highlighting the synergies and trade-offs with other stakeholder objectives such as greenhouse gas reductions and economic returns to farmers. Currently, our work focuses on land use decisions, specifically agricultural stakeholders curious about nutrient loading into water ways, water use, GHGs emitted, biodiversity and agricultural profits.

St Paul, Minnesota, Us

Washington, Dc, Us

Responsible for conceiving and facilitating complex and diverse partnerships integrating science into public and private strategic decision making. Specialized in development and application of scientific approach for evaluating tradeoffs of public and private land-use policy on biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and human wellbeing, with a focus on agricultural systems. Designed and implemented interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects resulting in conservation innovations and publications in internationally recognized journals on topics such as sustainable agriculture, ecology, biodiversity conservation, landscape planning, impact evaluation, ecosystem services, environmental policy, and environmental economics.Led scientific collaborations with external partners in the business, government, academia and other NGOs. Published and disseminated findings to staff and broader scientific community. Served as spokesperson and communicated scientific results to donors and general public. Mentored staff on science-based approaches, particularly related to quantitative and/or interdisciplinary analyses. Supervised and collaborated with university researchers. Served as co-lead of WWF-The Coca-Cola Company Partnership’s Valuing Nature Initiative 2013 to 2018 and as science lead for WWF’s engagement in the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative from 2016-2018.

Minneapolis And St. Paul, Minnesota, Us

Instructor, SUST 3003: Sustainable People, Sustainable Planet, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN. Introductory core course for the sustainability studies minor that approaches the topic from multiple viewpoints and explores various models for understanding sustainability. Utilizes a variety of real-world case studies and explores the conflicts and trade-offs that occur from trying to put sustainability into practice.

Minneapolis And St. Paul, Minnesota, Us

Research Assistant, Ecosystem Science and Sustainability Initiative, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN. Co-developed interdisciplinary undergraduate curriculum for Sustainability Studies Minor, advised undergraduate students enrolled in the minor, and provided administrative oversight of Minor program, including navigating course approvals, elective course review procedures, organizing seminars, and coordinating with departmental and college advising. Served as the teaching assistant for SUST 4004: Sustainable Communities (2008). Co-developed this new interdisciplinary course using systems approaches to sustainability problem solving. Developed syllabus, course assignments and readings, coordinated guest lectures, facilitated and mentored student group projects, lectured and advised team projects, and graded. Advisor: Dr. Anne Kapuscinski.

Minneapolis And St. Paul, Minnesota, Us

Research Assistant, Ecosystem Science and Sustainability Initiative, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN. Developed and taught an outdoor education curriculum for the National Science Foundation Long-term Ecological Research Center (LTER), Cedar Creek Natural History Area that focused on ecosystem science, biodiversity, and sustainability, and utilized current research projects and natural areas at the LTER. Advisor: Dr. Robert Blair.

Certified organic 15 crop fruit and veggie production for direct to market sales in restaurants, Co-ops, and farmers markets.

Phd, Conservation Biology

M.Env., Environmental Sciences

B.A., Zoology