Biographical Information

Hilary Schaffer Boudet began her PhD in 2004. She moved to California from Houston, Texas, where she had lived for 7 years. She grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- one of the Secret Cities created during the Manhattan Project. It was her childhood experiences not being allowed to fetch stray soccer balls out of the nearby, mercury-contaminated creek that first got her interested in environmental issues. In her spare time, Hilary still enjoys playing soccer (when her knees aren't broken).

Research Interests

Her research interests include the environmental and social impacts associated with energy development and public participation in environmental decision-making. Her dissertation focuses on the factors and processes shaping community mobilization around proposals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities.

She recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Science and Society and Sociology programs to study contentious politics surrounding the siting of 20 energy facilities in the U.S. with Professor Doug McAdam. In addition, she is working as part of a larger team of researchers from Stanford's Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects, examining drivers of conflict in international infrastructure projects.

Hilary is a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Stanford Graduate Fellow and a Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society Fellow. She holds a B.A. in Environmental Engineering and Political Science from Rice University.

Professional Activities

Prior to joining the E-IPER Ph.D. program, she worked for three years as a senior project engineer in the environment and regulatory group at the ExxonMobil Development Company. In this role, she supervised the research, writing and publication of the socioeconomic sections of environmental impact assessments submitted to the Russian government for the Sakhalin-1 Project and directed the associated public consultation program.