Riva completed her MS in rural sociology at Auburn in 2012 where she wrote her master’s thesis on the differences between red meat inspection regulations at the state and federal levels and the implications that these differences have for small slaughterhouses and the local meat production and distribution systems of which they are a part. She completed her PhD in sociology at Michigan State University in 2018 with graduate specializations in Ecological Food and Farming Systems, and Environmental Science and Policy, and a certificate in Environmental and Social Systems Modeling. She wrote her dissertation on Midwestern farmers use of soil and water conservation practices.
Riva is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan where she is studying family forest owners’ perceptions of climate change impacts and their forest management practices in the Upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.
