Summary
Gina Gilson, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral researcher in political science at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her work focuses on environmental governance, with a focus on water policy and politics.
Gina uses qualitative and mixed methods to examine water governance challenges. Her research interests are broadly related to the intersection between formal institutions (i.e. legal frameworks and policies) and informal institutions (i.e. social norms and trust). She has examined market-based strategies, collaborative processes, power dynamics, and trustworthiness across diverse contexts, including the Western U.S. and Kenya.
During her Ph.D., Gina was an Early Stage Research Fellow with the NEWAVE Next Water Governance Innovative Training Network, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Her work has been published in academic journals including Environmental Research Letters, the Journal of Development Studies, and Conservation & Society.
She received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment, where she was affiliated with the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment.
Courses taught
- PSC 403G: Land and Water Policy
Publications
- Gilson, G.G., Garrick, D., Cersey Ochieng, O., Ochieng Okoth, E. and Morara Ogendi, G., 2025. Can Informal Water Vendors be Trusted? The Evolution of Informality in Kisumu’s Delegated Management Model. The Journal of Development Studies, 61(5), pp.671-688.
- Garrick, D., Gilson, G., Hope, R., Wagner, J., Epstein, G., Okoth, E.O. and Silas, F., 2025. We must account for the results of water governance to deliver the SDGs and beyond. Environmental Research: Water, 1(1), p.013001.
- Gilson, G.G. and Garrick, D., 2024. Co-producing water service delivery: a scoping review and typology of informal water vending in Sub-Saharan Africa. Environmental Research Letters, 20(1), p.013004.
- Gilson, G.G. and Garrick, D.E., 2021. Can philanthropy enable collective action to conserve rivers? Insights from a decade of collaboration in the Colorado River Basin. Conservation and Society, 19(3), pp.190-194.
- Garrick, D., Iseman, T., Gilson, G., Brozovic, N., O'Donnell, E., Matthews, N., Miralles-Wilhelm, F., Wight, C. and Young, W., 2020. Scalable solutions to freshwater scarcity: Advancing theories of change to incentivise sustainable water use. Water Security, 9, p.100055.
Education
- DPhil, Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, 2025
- MSc, Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, 2018
- B.S., Biology and Environmental Science, Creighton University, 2014