Jessica Kritz

Jessica Kritz is a participatory action researcher who teaches stakeholders to use cross-sector collaboration to intervene on complex challenges—wicked problems—that they are facing. A lawyer by training, with a background in conflict resolution, her work sits at the intersection of public administration and public health. Current research collaborations place a particular emphasis on health impacts of environmental and climate change human rights, and include:

- participatory action research with informal sector workers and communities (e-waste and scrap workers, fisherfolk) to develop a strategy grounded in research, trust-building and collaboration across-sectors to mitigate harmful practices at the intersection of the environment and human health

- GOGREEN, a global study on indicators for co-creating the green transition, with a particular focus on culture

- founding a field of Administration and Human Rights to advance the theory and implementation of human rights in public administration, including the development of rights in international and domestic law and the implementation of rights in practice, and intervention design responding to turbulent challenges, with a focus on the COVID-19 response of a rural, Appalachian county in North Carolina.

Since 2015, the anchor for this work is Jessica's empirical research on intervention design to resolve complex challenges in Ghana. This project was designed to provide direct services to vulnerable beneficiaries, while also advancing theory and generating rigorous academic research outcomes.