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PhD in Sustainable Development Student Profiles

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Charlene Chi

Charlene Chi graduated summa cum laude from The Ohio State University with a B.S. in Economics and Political Science. Her senior thesis studied the role that national nongovernmental organizations played in poverty reduction in Peru. At Columbia, she is interested in examining how poverty reduction and ecological stability can come together through payment for environmental services schemes in rural parts of China and Latin America. Her current interests lie in examining desertification impacts on rural poverty in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau.