Wilder’s research focuses on the political ecology of water and development in Latin America, water policy and water governance in Mexico, water and equity, and transformations in small-scale agriculture in northwest Mexico and Central America. Her recent research examines the interconnections of climatic change and the vulnerability of water resources in the U.S.-Mexico border region, and she is a principal investigator of several projects supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research.