Jay Mistry is a Professor of Environmental Geography. Her research interests include environmental management and governance, participatory visual methods and Indigenous geographies. Her work involves supporting local livelihoods and biodiversity conservation, action research using participatory video and Indigenous rights. She is also interested in different types of fire knowledge, and how these can be brought together for more effective and socially just fire management and governance.

 Jay is Associate Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, which aims to make a step change in our scientific understanding of fire, its drivers, and its impacts, and produce evidence for living sustainably with fire.

Key qualifications

• Over 25 years experience as principal and/or co-investigator on a range of multidisciplinary projects in South America, the Caribbean, Asia and Europe
• Particular expertise in environmental management and governance, combining environmental and social methods and analyses (including biophysical methodologies, participatory methods, participatory video and GIS), fire governance, bridging scientific and traditional knowledge
  
• Project development, management, implementation and reporting
• Trainer and facilitator on various capacity-building courses and workshops
• Author and co-author of a range of peer-reviewed articles, books and reports on environmental management and governance
  
• Over 25 years teaching experience, from undergraduate to doctoral level
• Former Director of the MSc in Practising Sustainable Development, Royal Holloway, University of London
• Former member of the Darwin Expert Committee (DEC), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), UK government.
• Former Director of Impact, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London
• Awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s (with IBG) Busk Medal in recognition for two decades dedicated to conservation and policy impact research in the Global South in May 2015