Alison is a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York and part of the Branching Out Leadership Team where she co-leads the development of a framework for thinking and working with social and cultural values. Alison a political ecologist based at the Stockholm Environment Institute. Her work uses participatory approaches to explore the interface between nature and society in relation to management and equity across species boundaries in a variety of areas.  Alison bring non-humans into research and decision making processes in tree health, water governance and biological recording; and investigate the impact that these relationships have on human and non-human health and well-being.  In several projects Alison has explored how these relationships are mediated by human values, particularly focussing on the social and cultural values associated with trees, building understanding of how these values are dynamic in relation to risk, what metrics might be used to measure different types of value and how these values influence land managers’ decision making.