College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Community Sustainability

Ivy is a social scientist whose research examines the intersection of human health, foodways, and sustainable natural resource use in rural communities. Her commitment to rural wellbeing was shaped in part by her upbringing on a small farm in upstate New York and has since carried her across Latin America and East Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer and a mixed-methods researcher partnering with local communities and NGOs. She earned her Ph.D. in international rural development from Washington University in St. Louis and went on to work as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the E3 Nutrition Lab there, managing a USAID Feed the Future intervention focused on child nutrition and sustainable fisheries in coastal Kenya. Prior to joining MSU, she served as a Research Scientist in the Indigenous Health Lab directed by Dr. Melissa E. Lewis, where she supported community-based participatory research on health, language, foodways, and traditional ecological knowledge with citizens of Cherokee Nation. She has also consulted with organizations including the International Food Policy Research Institute, Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo, and the American Indian Resource Center. Dr. Blackmore's current work continues to center community-based participatory approaches, with ongoing collaborations with Cherokee researchers on wellbeing and traditional foodways. She also supports a long-running livelihood diversification and circular economy project in rural Nicaragua.

Ivy’s publications can be found on Google Scholar. Full-text copies of papers are also available on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ivy-Blackmore