Lia Kelinsky-Jones

Ph.D. Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education, Virginia Tech

M.S., Agricultural and Extension Education, Virginia Tech

B.S., Psychology, Hollins University

Dr. Kelinsky-Jones’ research focuses on sustainable, and resilient food systems using an agroecological lens. Her scholarship is both domestic and international in nature. She advances this work via two primary domains:

1) Praxis focusing on the role of university-based community development, engagement, civic science, and education in advancing agroecology and resilience

2) Policy including how collaborative and participatory governance approaches shape regional and local food systems and resilience.

Currently, she is working on a USDA NIFA-funded postdoctoral fellowship with the overarching goal of supporting resilience in the Central Appalachian regional food system. She is using Joint Fact Finding, a participatory policy identification methodology alongside an agroecological lens to identify policy levers with food system organizations within the region. 

Kelinsky-Jones, L. R., & Levine, A. S. (2025). Local Sustainability Officers’ Desire to Collaborate for Climate Action. Sustainability and Climate Change, 18(1), 39-53.

Kelinsky‐Jones, L. R., Niewolny, K. L., & Stephenson Jr, M. O. (2025). “Magic concepts” and USAID: Framing food systems reform to support the status quo. Development Policy Review, 43(1), e12823.

Kelinsky-Jones, L. R., Niewolny, K. L., & Stephenson Jr, M. O. (2023). Building agroecological traction: Engaging discourse, the imaginary, and critical praxis for food system transformation. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 7, 1128430.

Kelinsky-Jones, L. R., & Niewolny, K. L. (2021). Whose journey to self-reliance? Participation in the Journey to Self-Reliance and the land-grant imaginary. Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education, 28(4), 2.