Kelsey Larson is a PhD student in MIT’s economics department. She grew up in Bozeman, Montana, where she developed her love for the outdoors and commitment to conservation. After graduating summa cum laude from Yale University with a Bachelor’s in economics, she worked at Innovations for Poverty Action as a research analyst, rigorously testing the impacts of anti-poverty interventions. Today, she researches the impact and optimal design of policies to conserve environmental value on private land, such as agricultural soil carbon credits and conservation easement tax incentives. She also researches rangeland protections in Mongolia, where her work has helped inform legislation around livestock insurance for nomadic herders. She has received grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Tax Association, and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to support her work.