[3] Liverman examines the potential for reducing the effects of climate change and at the same time reaching the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals.

[4] In 2010, Liverman received the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, for "encouraging, developing and promoting understanding of the human dimensions of climate change".

[5] Liverman was a co-author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) October 8, 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C.

[15] Liverman did her Ph.D. work at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), in collaboration with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.

Her dissertation was The use of a simulation model in assessing the impacts of climate on the world food system,[17][18] with advisors Werner Terjung and Stephen Schneider.

[12] She taught at Penn State University from 1990 to 1996[12] where she was the Associate Director of the Earth System Science Center directed by Eric Barron.

[21] As of July 2019, Liverman became director of the School of Geography and Development in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona.

Having identified the limitations to modelling approaches, fieldwork in Mexico followed, examining vulnerability to natural hazards in the agricultural sector, and the potential impacts of climatic change on food systems.

[36][37] Internationally, Liverman has raised awareness of the importance of the social sciences in understanding impacts of environmental change.