Elizabeth Olson

Dr. Liz Olson is an active teacher, researcher, and social advocate. She earned her doctorate degree in Anthropology from Case Western Reserve University in 2009, and is currently an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Southern Utah University (Cedar City, UT). She has conducted fieldwork in the USA, Western Europe, Mexico and Bolivia. Her doctorate research tackled questions about the constitution and distribution of indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge in west-central Mexico. She has used a blend of qualitative and quantitative approaches to study traditional ecological knowledge of medicinal plants and relate it to the processes of community development and community-based conservation. Currently, her research agenda is focused on the role of botanical knowledge in ethnomedical systems in Western Europe, the USA and Mexico.