Dr. Lindsey Hendricks-Franco
PhD (Ecology)
BA (Biology)
Fellow
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Dr. Lindsey Hendricks-Franco is a Fellow at Ecologic Institute, where she works across the Agriculture, Water and Adaptation teams. Her work focuses on climate resilience, agriculture and land management, water and soil policy, pesticide regulation, and the translation of scientific evidence into practical policy guidance. She works in English and Spanish and also speaks German.
At Ecologic Institute, Lindsey co-leads the DG CLIMA project developing European guidance on climate-resilient landscapes. She also supporting the Impact Assessment for the upcoming DG CLIMA EU Climate Resilience and Risk Management Framework, including the identification of sectoral policy entry points for resilience planning and the development of common definitions.
Dr. Lindsey Hendricks-Franco was a major contributor to the EU-funded SPRINT project, where she led recommendations on pesticide regulation and future research needs, drawing on evidence about risks to human health and the environment. She also contributed to the communication and public presentation of the project’s findings and drafted a statement on the risks associated with the deregulation of pesticide risk assessment.
Her other work include analysis of investment needs, gaps and barriers for agricultural water efficiency for the European Investment Bank; contributing to the SPONGEWORKS project and its Financial Planning Toolkit; and supporting European guidance on drought management planning. She has also led or contributed to work on the Water Framework Directive and critical raw materials and policy coherence between mining and biodiversity protection for the European Environment Agency.
Before joining Ecologic Institute, Dr. Lindsey Hendricks-Franco led landscape-scale research on the recovery of plants and soils following wildfire in California, working with public research and land-management agencies. Her research also addressed plant invasion and grazing management. She has a strong background in education, science communication and knowledge exchange, having worked as a secondary-school teacher, science pedagogy instructor and programme lead for an international science education organisation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Goucher College, with additional studies in Spanish and international studies.
Dr. Lindsey's doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley focused on the recovery of plant diversity and soil health after wildfires. Her projects were supported by selective US grants, including the Joint Fire Science Program Graduate Research Innovation Award (GRIN), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (GRRP) and the Philomathia Graduate Fellowship in the Environmental Sciences. During her bachelor's degree at Goucher College (Maryland), she gained a broad foundation in biology, accompanied by a minor degree in Spanish and a certificate in international studies. At Goucher College, she conducted and published independent research on the ecology of an invasive plant in the Chesapeake Bay estuary.