Alicia holds a BSc in Conservation Biology and an MSc in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Alberta. She has spent the last three years as a Research Fellow for Agua Salud at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. She was part of an interdisciplinary project investigating connections between land use and hydrologic ecosystem services in the Panama Canal Watershed. She was responsible for the on-the-ground work necessary to answer questions relating to the cost of land use change on agricultural lands. In particular, the work addressed the cost of agroforestry payment for ecosystem service schemes capable of improving dry-season water used in the operation of the Panama Canal. Most recently Alicia is an incoming PhD student at Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. As part of the school's Environmental and Resource Economics group, Alicia will be supervised by Dr. Eli Fenichel. Her work will focus on natural capital asset pricing, environmental valuation and welfare theory as it relates to sustainability.

Her work with SPI focused on conducting background research in support of the Greening Growth Partnership’s objective to examine the policy tools and measures needed to promote more efficient, productive, sustainable use of Canada’s natural capital. This work was completed under the supervision of Vic Adamowicz and Nancy Olewiler.