• PhD in Sustainability, Arizona State University, 2023 (expected) 
• Master of Science in Human-Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University, 2003
• Bachelor of Science in Psychology & Communication Design, Carnegie Mellon University, 2002

Marisa Manheim is an interdisciplinary sustainability scientist whose research sits at the intersection of environmental health, sustainability transitions, and community engagement. Her work examines how people experience and respond to environmental risks—and to proposed interventions to manage these risks—with a particular interest in how these experiences shape environmental knowledge and decision-making. Trained as an interaction designer, she brings participatory design and ethnographic methods into action research aimed at developing more equitable and effective responses to environmental challenges.

Manheim co-leads the Urban Soil Co-Lab, which works with community organizations to develop accessible ways to understand and address soil pollution in cities. Her work with the Co-Lab explores how communities understand and respond to lead exposure and uncertainty in changing urban environments. Her earlier research examined why people may hesitate to adopt practices like drinking water recycling and recovering nutrients from human waste, and how hands-on experiences and collaborative planning can build trust and support transitions towards more resilient water and food systems.

She holds a PhD in Sustainability from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. Her research has been published in Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability,Gastronomica, Health and Place, The Journal of the American Water Works Association, with forthcoming articles in Geography and Environment and Sustainability Science. Manheim is currently a UB Humanities Institute Faculty Fellow. Her work has been supported by two National Science Foundation grants and awards from several private foundations. 

• Manheim, M. & Spackman, S. 2022. Embodied rationality: a framework of human action in water infrastructure governance. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 56: 101170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2022.101170
• Spackman, C., Manheim, M., & Barua, S. 2022. Tasting Water at Canal Convergence 2021: An Experiment in Embodied Remembering. Gastronomica, 22 (4): 54–70. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2022.22.4.54
• Eaton, W.M., Burnham, M., Robertson, T. et al. 2022. Advancing the scholarship and practice of stakeholder engagement in working landscapes: a co-produced research agenda. Socio Ecol Pract Res 4, 283–304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42532-022-00132-8
• Eakin, H., Parajuli, J., Yogya, Y., Hernández, B., & Manheim, M. 2021. Entry points for addressing justice and politics in urban flood adaptation decision making. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 51, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2021.01.001