Nicola Ulibarri
Faculty Director, Master of Public Policy program
Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy
Biography
Nicola Ulibarri, Ph.D., is Faculty Director of the Master of Public Policy program and Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine. A scholar of environmental governance, Ulibarri examines collaborative approaches to managing natural resources and infrastructure, with particular attention to water management, climate adaptation, and environmental impact assessment. Ulibarri's research spans federal hydropower licensing, groundwater sustainability planning, flood risk management, and the implementation of environmental regulations such as the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act.
Ulibarri is a contributing author to the Fifth National Climate Assessment's Adaptation Chapter and served on the authorship team for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group Two. Ulibarri has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles in outlets including Nature Climate Change, Nature Sustainability, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and Global Environmental Change. Ulibarri is the author, with Amanda Cravens, of Creativity in Research: Cultivate clarity, be innovative, and make progress in your research journey, published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. Ulibarri received the 2025 Best Article Award from the Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division for "An analysis of micro-scale conflict in collaborative governance."
Ulibarri has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on research projects funded by the National Science Foundation, NOAA, the National Forest Foundation, and the University of California, totaling over $7 million in external awards. Ulibarri serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory and as Associate Editor of the Collaborative Governance Case Database. Ulibarri received a Ph.D. in Environment and Resources from Stanford University.
Return to topEducation
- PhD in Environment & Resources, Stanford University, 2015
- MSc in Nature, Society & Environmental Policy, University of Oxford, 2009
- AB in Social Anthropology, Harvard University, 2008
Distinctions
- Best Article Award, Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division, 2025
- Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2022
- Best Teaching Simulation, Ninth Annual Collaboration Teaching Case and Simulation Competition, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (E-PARCC) at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, 2016
- Social Science Immersion Fellow, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, 2015-2016
- David & Lucile Packard Foundation Stanford Graduate Fellow in Science & Engineering, 2010-2015
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, 2010-2013
Areas of Expertise
- Environmental Governance
- Collaborative Governance Dynamics
- Water Resources Management
- Climate Adaptation Policy
- Environmental Impact Assessment
- Flood Risk Resilience
- Groundwater Sustainability Planning
Recent Publications
- Ongaro E., Ulibarri N., Bryson J.M., Joyce P., “Interrogating “scale” in strategic management-at-scale: lessons from collaborative governance” (opens in new tab), Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, vol. 9, pp. 1-6, 2026.
- J. Wang, Nicola Ulibarri, “Motivations for Collaborative Governance in China: A Systematic Review of the Literature” (opens in new tab), International Review of Public Administration, vol. 30, pp. 204-222, 2025.
- Pearce, JM, Ulibarri, N, Borowski, E, “Beyond infrastructure: Patterns of environmental justice and multi-level governance in Greater Los Angeles transportation and hazard planning”, Institute of Transportation Studies, 2025.
- H. Nesbit, M. Hamilton, Nicola Ulibarri, M. Williamson, “Operationalizing the social capital of collaborative environmental governance with network metrics” (opens in new tab), Environmental Research Letters, vol. 19, no. 11, pp. 113003, 2024.
- O. Pérez Figueroa, Nicola Ulibarri, “Navigating Justice: Examining the Intersection of Procedural and Distributive Justice in Environmental Impact Assessment in Puerto Rico” (opens in new tab), Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 109, pp. 107648, 2024.
- J. Wang, Nicola Ulibarri, T.A. Scott, “Agency consultation networks in environmental impact assessment” (opens in new tab), Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 448-464, 2024.
- O. Pérez Figueroa, Nicola Ulibarri, S. Hopfer, “A Content Analysis of Social Media Discourse During Hurricane María: Filling a Void when Traditional Media Are Silent” (opens in new tab), Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 15, pp. 71-86, 2024.
- Nicola Ulibarri, “An analysis of micro-scale conflict in collaborative governance” (opens in new tab), Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 316-330, 2023.
- J. Petzold, T. Hawxwell, Nicola Ulibarri, J. Xu, “A global assessment of actors and their roles in climate change adaptation” (opens in new tab), Nature Climate Change, vol. 13, pp. 1250-1257, 2023.
- S.P. Gerenday, D. Perrone, J.F. Clark, Nicola Ulibarri, “Recycled water aquifer recharge viable for many Central Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agencies”, California Agriculture, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 63073, 2023.
- K.A. Goodrich, Nicola Ulibarri, R. Matthew, E.D. Stein, M. Brand, B.F. Sanders, “Toward improved sediment management and coastal resilience through efficient permitting in California” (opens in new tab), Environmental Management, vol. 72, pp. 558-567, 2023.
- J. Wang, Nicola Ulibarri, T.A. Scott, S.J. Davis, “Environmental justice, infrastructure provisioning, and environmental impact assessment: Evidence from the California Environmental Quality Act” (opens in new tab), Environmental Science and Policy, vol. 146, pp. 66-75, 2023.
- Nicola Ulibarri, M.T. Imperial, S. Siddiki, H. Henderson, “Drivers and Dynamics of Collaborative Governance in Environmental Management” (opens in new tab), Environmental Management, vol. 71, pp. 495-504, 2023.
- Nicola Ulibarri, C. Valencia-Uribe, B.F. Sanders, J. Schubert, R. Matthew, F. Forman, M. Allaire, D. Brady, “Framing the problem of flood risk and flood management in Metropolitan Los Angeles” (opens in new tab), Weather Climate and Society, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 45-58, 2023.
- Wasley, E, Dahl, TA, Simpson, CF, Fischer, LW, Helgeson, JF, Kenney, MA, Parris, A, Siders, AR, Tate, E, Ulibarri, N, “Ch. 31. Adaptation” (opens in new tab), Fifth National Climate Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2023.
- Gerenday S.P., Perrone D., Clark J.F., Ulibarri N., “Recycled water could recharge aquifers in the Central Valley” (opens in new tab), California Agriculture, vol. 77, pp. 63-73, 2023.
- Nicola Ulibarri, O. Pérez Figueroa, A. Grant, “Barriers and Opportunities to Incorporating Environmental Justice in the National Environmental Policy Act” (opens in new tab), Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 97, pp. 106880, 2022.
- R.P. Scott, Nicola Ulibarri, T.A. Scott, “Concise or comprehensive? Drivers of impact assessment choices for electric transmission line projects” (opens in new tab), Risk Analysis, vol. 43, no. 5, pp. 994-1010, 2022.
- N. Escobedo Garcia, Nicola Ulibarri, “Planning for effective water management: An evaluation of water management plans in California” (opens in new tab), Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, vol. 66, no. 13, pp. 2739-2759, 2022.
- Torhan, S, Grady, CA, Ulibarri, N, Shah, MAR, “Tradeoffs and Synergies Across Global Climate Change Adaptations in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus” (opens in new tab), Earth's Future, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. e2021EF002201, 2022.
Most Cited Publications
- Berrang-Ford, L, Siders, AR, Ulibarri, N, Abu, TZ, “A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change” (opens in new tab), Nature Climate Change, vol. 11, pp. 989-1000, 2021.
- Ulibarri, N, Scott, T, “Linking network structure to collaborative governance” (opens in new tab), Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 163-181, 2017.
- Ulibarri, N, Emerson, K, Imperial, MT, Jager, NW, Newig, J, Weber, E, “How does collaborative governance evolve? Insights from a medium-n case comparison” (opens in new tab), Policy and Society, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 617-637, 2020.
- Ulibarri, N, “Tracing process to performance of collaborative governance: A comparative case study of federal hydropower licensing” (opens in new tab), Policy Studies Journal, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 283-308, 2015.
- Araos, M, Jagannathan, K, Ulibarri, N, Turek-Hankins, LL, “Equity in human adaptation-related responses: A systematic global review” (opens in new tab), One Earth, vol. 4, no. 10, pp. 1454-1467, 2021.
- Pulver, S, Ulibarri, N, Sobocinski, K, Alexander, S, Johnson, M, McCord, P, Dell'Angelo, J, “Frontiers in socio-environmental research: Components, connections, scale, and context” (opens in new tab), Ecology and Society, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 23, 2018.
- Ulibarri, N, “Collaboration in federal hydropower licensing: Impacts on process, outputs, and outcomes” (opens in new tab), Public Performance and Management Review, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 578-606, 2015.
- Ulibarri, N, Ajibade, I, Galappaththi, EK, Zommers, Z, “A Global Assessment of Policy Tools to Support Climate Adaptation” (opens in new tab), Climate Policy, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 77-96, 2021.
- Ulibarri, N, Scott, TA, Perez-Figueroa, O, “How Does Stakeholder Involvement Affect Environmental Impact Assessment?” (opens in new tab), Environmental Impact Assessment Review, vol. 79, pp. 106309, 2019.
- Ulibarri, N, Escobedo Garcia, N, Nelson, RL, Cravens, AE, McCarty, RJ, “Assessing the Feasibility of Managed Aquifer Recharge in California” (opens in new tab), Water Resources Research, vol. 57, no. 3, 2021.
Contact Information
Website: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/ulibarri/
Email: ulibarri@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-6484
Address: 206B Social Ecology 1
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Last updated on 5/13/2026.