Corrie Knapp

Associate Professor, Environment and Society

Institute for Rural Resilience & Innovation

Center for Climate, Water, and People

Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources

corrie.knapp@uwyo.edu | Crane Hall, Rm 143

Google Scholar | CV

 

Education

PhD, Human Ecology, University of Alaska Fairbanks

MS, Rangeland Ecology, Colorado State University

BA, Literature & Writing, University of Colorado Denver

 

Background and Expertise

Corrine Noel Knapp (Corrie) is an Associate Professor in the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. She came to the University of Wyoming from Western Colorado University in Gunnison where she had been a faculty member in the School of Environment & Sustainability and a founding member of the Masters of Environmental Management Program. She also directed the Integrative & Public Land Management track in the graduate program, where her graduates had a 95% placement rate in environmental jobs.

Her research interests are at the confluence of climate change, conservation & livelihoods. Using a social-ecological approach, she works in climate change adaptation, local and indigenous knowledge, sense of place, and conservation innovation. She has a deep commitment and passion for Western landscapes, rangelands, and the human and ecological communities that depend on them.

She is interdisciplinary by training and practice and enjoys researching with communities in a transdisciplinary approach. In addition, she is interested in how research is used in real-world applications, and how education can better prepare students to contribute meaningfully to managing complex challenges. Her current projects include understanding how changing water availability impacts Wyoming communities (WyACT project), how we can help communities towards equitable and sustainable transformations, and how to create actionable and useful climate information in her work with Western Water Assessment (NOAA funded) and the North Central Climate Science Adaptation Center (DOI funded). In addition, she recently served as the Chapter Lead for the Northern Great Plains region chapter of the National Climate Assessment, and is currently serving as an advisor to the Meridian Institute to provide suggestions for how to make the National Resource Conservation Service programs more responsive to climate change. 

Prior to returning to school for her graduate studies, she worked for several non-profits (Denver Urban Gardens, Colorado Environmental Coalition, Center for Native Ecosystems), in agricultural production (Organic farm co-manager, ranch-hand), in public service (Denver Public Library, Fraser Public Library) and in environmental education (National Park Service, Snow Mountain Ranch). She brings these diverse work experiences into case studies in the classroom and concrete career advice for students. She teaches a range of undergraduate and graduate courses (see below).

She chooses to be a professor because it allows her to work one-one with students, challenge them to be engaged citizens, and contribute to the resilience of communities and ecosystems in the context of climate change.

 

Teaching

Dr. Knapp has taught a wide variety of courses, including Introduction to Environment & Sustainability, Integrative Skills for Environmental Management, Public Land Management, National Environmental Policy Act for Environmental Managers, Sustainable Rangeland Social-Ecological Systems, Social Science for Environmental Management, and the Science of Climate Change, Adaptation & Mitigation. At University of Wyoming, she teaches graduate and undergraduate sections of Environmental Assessment, as well as Orientation to Environment, Natural Resources and Society, and Climate Change Responses.

 

Selected Publications

[In Press] Amanda Cravens, K. Clifford, C. Knapp and W. Travis. 2024.  The dynamic feasibility of resisting (R), accepting (A) or directing (D) ecological change Conservation Biology.  

Knapp, C.N., D.R. Kluck, G. Guntenspergen, M.A. Ahlering, N.M. Aimone, A. Bamzai-Dodson, A. Basche, R.G. Byron, O. Conroy-Ben, M.N. Haggerty, T.R. Haigh, C. Johnson, B. Mayes Boustead, N.D. Mueller, J.P. Ott, G.B. Paige, K.R. Ryberg, G.W. Schuurman, and S.G. Tangen. 2023.Ch. 25. Northern Great Plains. In: Fifth National Climate Assessment. Crimmins, A.R., C.W. Avery, D.R. Easterling, K.E. Kunkel, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock, Eds. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA. https://doi.org/10.7930/NCA5.2023.CH25 

Shelley Crausbay, B. Chaffin, K. Clifford, A. Cravens, J. Gross, C. Knapp, D. Lawrence, D. Magness, A. Miller-Rushing, G. Schuurman, H. Sofaer, and C. Stevens-Rumann. 2021. A science agenda to support natural resource management decisions in a non-stationary world. Bioscience, biab102, Online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab102 

Knapp, C.N., S.M. McNeeley, T. Even, J.B. Gioia, and T. Beeton. 2020. Climate change, agency decision-making, and the resilience of land-based livelihoods. Weather, Climate & Society. 12(4): 711-727.

Knapp, C.N., R. Reid, M.E. Fernandez-Gimenez, J. Klein and K. Galvin. 2019. Placing transdisciplinarity in context:  A review of approaches to connect scholars, society, and action. Sustainability. 11(18) 4899.