Nina Fontana

Nina Fontana, Ph.D. is a community-engaged ecologist and researcher at the University of California, Davis. Her work bridges climate resilience, Indigenous-led land stewardship, and environmental justice. She is passionate about working together to find practical ways to support essential stewardship practices in environmental policy and action, while honoring diverse knowledges held by various communities. She holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Ecology from UC Davis.

Nina’s current projects include co-developing ecocultural refugia on California Indian Allotments and designing geospatial fire stewardship tools in partnership with First Nations in British Columbia, Canada and Native Nations in the Sierra Nevada. Her previous work includes partnering with cultural fire practitioners to examine the jurisdictional challenges of practicing fire stewardship in California; conducting agroforestry research with farmers in California’s Central Valley; and partnering with Hutsul communities in Ukraine’s Carpathian Mountains to explore how stewardship of native plants and mushrooms upholds food sovereignty and ecocultural resilience.