College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Community Sustainability

Advisor: Maria Claudia Lopez

I’m a PhD candidate in Community Sustainability and Environmental Science & Policy Program.  My academic interests center around sustainability and natural resource management with focus on agriculture. My research integrates resilience thinking, system dynamics, economic theory and statistical and computational modeling to explore the complex outcomes resulting from management practices in social-ecological systems. I have conducted research in many countries including Nicaragua, Taiwan, Costa Rica, and the United States. I hold a BA in Applied Economics from Nicaragua and a MS in Agriculture from Taiwan.

My dissertation investigates the potential of grazing management to enhance human wellbeing and build resilience in cow-calf operations across the United States. I draw from conceptual frameworks of human wellbeing, social-ecological systems (SES) to answer how psychological wellbeing and management are intertwined.  I also use a mix-method approach to ground Agent-Based Models (ABMs) and examine how grazing practices affects people, the land and their resilience. My research emerges in the context of a larger project involving cow-calf producers across Michigan, Oklahoma/Texas, Wyoming/Colorado. Ultimately, my dissertation work seeks to inform practices that enhance the sustainability of livestock systems in the US.

Read about my work here:

Hirata, V., Quiñones, R., Vivas, J., Guillaume,J., Iwanaga, T., Kwakkel, J., Quinlan, A., Rocha, J., Cr.pin,A., Dakos, V., Donges, j., Lade, S. (2025). Integrating Diversity and Agency into Social- Ecological Resilience.

Vivas, J., & Hodbod, J. (2024). Exploring the relationship between regenerative grazing and Ranchers’ wellbeing. Journal of Rural Studies, 108, 103267.

Vivas, J., Kim, M. K., Takagi, C., & Kirimi, L. (2023). Adopting African indigenous vegetables: A dynamic panel analysis of smallholders in Kenya. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 48(1),14-30.