Dr Jessica C. Fisher

Dr Jessica C. Fisher is a Research Fellow on the E3 Sharing Space for Nature initiative, exploring the social side of nature restoration. Her research interests are on the intersection between health and wellbeing, environmental change, and social inequalities.

Jess gained a BSc in Zoology from Newcastle University before completing an MRes in Biodiversity Evolution and Conservation from University College London. She joined DICE in 2016 as a PhD student, examining human-nature interactions in urban Guyana. During her PhD, Jess spent time working with Natural England through a UKRI-funded Policy Internship, contributing to redevelopment of the ‘Monitoring Engagement with the Natural Environment’ (MENE) survey (now the People and Nature survey).

Since 2020, Jess has worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on projects including ‘Woodland Biodiversity for Human Health and Wellbeing’, funded by the Woodland Trust, and ‘Environmental Spaces and the Feel-Good Factor: Relating Subjective Wellbeing to Biodiversity’ (RELATE), funded by the European Research Council and led by Professor Zoe Davies. This project aimed to understand which components of nature and biodiversity play a role in human wellbeing.

Dr Jessica C. Fisher is a member of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology.

Dr Fisher’s research interests cross traditional disciplinary boundaries using mixed research methods to tackle social and environmental challenges. Her expertise also includes participatory visual methods (video, photo elicitation), quantitative questionnaires, structural equation modelling, and data visualisation.

Human health and wellbeing

• Nature-based ‘green’ social prescribing
• Environmental health inequalities
• Physical, psychological, social and spiritual health

Ecosystem services

• Biodiversity and ecosystem function
• Social impacts of nature restoration
• Cultural ecosystem services and relational values

Environmental change

• Biodiversity loss and climate change
• Health/wellbeing impacts of environmental change
• Planetary health and One health approaches

Please email me if you are interested in collaboration or supervision

• Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management Thematic Group on Human Health
• Social Science Representative of the British Ecological Society Rewilding Special Interest Group
• Co-chair of the Women’s Researcher Network