Kailey Kornhauser

Meet Kailey Kornhauser. Kailey is an avid cyclist, a cycling organization co-founder (@allbodiesonbikes), and a Ph.D. candidate in Forestry Ecosystems and Society (major professor: Dr. Reem Hajjar). Her research focuses on forest collaborative power dynamics and policy outcomes in Oregon.

Kailey’s journey to Oregon State University started in Utah while working on her master’s. She worked with a professor studying collaborative natural resource management and climate change adaptation planning. During this time, she learned how to co-facilitate natural resource collaborations in Zion National Park.

Kailey chose OSU for her Ph.D. because she knew Oregon would be an excellent place to study public engagement and collaborative governance on public forested lands. Kailey said, “I also was searching for an advisor that would provide me with critical feedback and a lot of support. Dr. Reem Hajjar’s research on community forests and justice was of great interest to me, and she has been such a fantastic advisor.”

To pay for school, Kailey has used several approaches. At first, she was funded as a McNair Scholar and later as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and a Graduate Research Assistant. She now works part-time as a facilitator for a forest collaborative.

While pursuing her graduate studies, Kailey co-founded All Bodies on Bikes with Marley Blonsky in 2020. Kailey described it this way: “Our organization focuses on making a more body size-inclusive cycling community. Both Marley and I are fat women who have been riding bikes recreationally for many years. We didn’t see a lot of representation of bodies like ours in biking media. We ran into a lot of similar equipment issues finding the right bikes and clothing. Now we work with cycling brands to increase the weight limits of bikes, increase clothing size options, and change the culture around who gets to move their bodies because they want to vs. who is supposed to move their body to change the way it looks.” She added that it hasn’t been easy having a side-project while in her Ph.D. program, but it’s also helped her have something else to be passionate about outside of school.