Courtesy Faculty

Connie Campbell

Research Interests: Environmental governance, gender, development policy, environmental management and climate change, professional capacity-building.

Geographic Expertise: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru.

Curriculum Vitae
Connie Campbell is an applied anthropologist with over 25 years of experience in tropical conservation and development programs. She has served as a strategic program leader, grantmaker, technical advisor and evaluator across varied experiences inequitable development, natural resource management and social justice with a particular emphasis on gender issues and indigenous rights. Connie’s experience focuses on the Andean Amazon region, having coordinated USAID’s multi-country biodiversity and climate change program over ten years and having lived and worked in Acre, Brazil for many years with the University of Florida. With The Nature Conservancy, Connie managed community conservation programs across Latin America and, with RARE, TNC, USAID and other organizations, has provided project management and technical advisory services in various Caribbean, Southeast Asia and East African countries. She currently resides in Peru and works independently on a variety of conservation and development projects. (BS Biology and Spanish, Virginia Tech. MA Latin American Studies with a concentration in Tropical Conservation and Development; Ph.D. Anthropology, both from the University of Florida).


Jynessa Dutka-Gianelli

Research Interests: Integrative fisheries sciences, human dimensions of natural resources, place-based management and governance, inter- and transdisciplinary research.

Geographic expertise: Brazilian Amazon region, coastal Florida.

Curriculum Vitae

Jynessa Dutka-Gianelli works on integrative fisheries sciences, exploring methodologies for stakeholder engagement and participatory research in fisheries management and governance processes.  She is one of the coordinators of the Amazon Dams Network (ADN) and a courtesy faculty in the UF Tropical Conservation and Development program, Center for Latin American Studies.

Currently, she is a research associate in the Department of Community Sustainability and the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations at Michigan State University, collaborating on interdisciplinary research exploring new approaches for hydropower energy production that would have less negative social-environmental impacts, and sustainable energy and food production. Jynessa’s research focuses on governance, institutional analysis and the impacts of hydroelectric dams on communities in the Brazilian Amazon. She also collaborates on different projects on human dimensions of small-scale fisheries and on social-ecological and environmental problems related to the construction of hydroelectric dams in the Amazon Basin. Her research applies methodologies for stakeholder engagement in management and governance processes, tools to evaluate the impacts of management strategies in fisheries and livelihoods, and initiatives to enhance local communities’ livelihoods and resilience.

Dutka-Gianelli earned a Ph.D. degree in Biological Sciences from the Florida Institute of Technology, a Master’s in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences from the University of Florida (UF), and a B.S. degree from the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Parana in Brazil. From 2012 to 2017, Jynessa was a postdoctoral research associate at the Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Program in the UF School of Forest Resources and Conservation, working on interdisciplinary projects integrating human dimension in natural resources, stakeholder engagement in coastal fisheries conservation and management, and ecological studies related to natural resources education, conservation and protection of coastal organisms and their habitats. During this time, she also completed the UF Natural Resources Leadership Institute program and acquired experience working with conflict management in water and natural resources-related issues. Previously, Jynessa worked as a marine research scientist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, working on fisheries monitoring and marine resources conservation.


Elineide Eugênio Marques

Research Interests: Inter- and transdisciplinary research, integrative fisheries sciences, freshwater management, fish and fisheries research.

Geographic Expertise: Tocantins-Araguaia Watershed, Brazil.

Curriculum Vitae

Elineide Eugênio Marques is a biologist with a doctorate in Freshwater Ecology, focusing on fish ecology at the State University of Maringá. Professor at the Federal University of Tocantins since 2003, Elineide’s research is linked to the area of environmental sciences with a focus on management and conservation of freshwater socio-ecological systems.

Since 1996, when she arrived at State of Tocantins in Brazil, Elineide has been working on studies on conservation and environmental development in freshwater in the Cerrado-Amazon transition area. Her main interests are fishing, reservoir management and the socio-environmental and economic impacts of large projects. From 2017 to 2018, she was a postdoctoral research associate in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences at the UF School of Conservation and Forest Resources, working on the impacts of dams on fish. Elineide is on the leadership team of the Amazon dams international research network (ADN/RBA/RIRA), which aims to advance inter- and trans-disciplinary research on the social-ecological impacts of hydroelectric dam construction in the Amazon.


Denyse Mello

Research Interests: Gender and rural development, conflict and management and environmental governance.

Geographic Expertise: Brazil.

Curriculum Vitae

Denyse Mello is currently working for CIAT Brazil, where she is Interim Executive Secretary to the Partnership Platform for the Amazon (PPA) and Implementation Coordinator for The Catalyzing and Learning through Private Sector Engagement for Biodiversity Conservation (CAL-PSE) program.  Over the years, Denyse’s work has focused on capacity building and training related to the topics of gender equity and rural development, gender and climate change, socio-environmental governance, socio-environmental conflict management, and rural entrepreneurism in the Brazilian Amazon region. Her past experiences have included work as a post-doctoral fellow in the Amazon Conservation Leadership Initiative (ACLI) at the University of Florida (UF) and as an instructor in the Program of leadership formation for Amazon conservation. She has been working in collaboration with TCD’s staff on multiple projects that apply TCD’s interdisciplinary approach in the Amazon region. Denyse received her BA in Agronomy at the Federal University of Acre, her MA in Family Agriculture and Sustainable Development at the Federal University of Para, and her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology at UF. Denyse coordinated the Amazon Program of technical training for technicians and producers in nine Amazonian states, which emphasized and promoted the use of sustainable practices in natural resource management and agriculture, and the use of tools and strategies of participatory methods.  Her research interests are centered on rural women’s enterprises in the Brazilian Amazon, including their role in the marketplace, and the importance in household economy. Through her research, Denyse has collaborated with governmental and non-governmental institutions to improve the gender equity promotion in public policy programs, such as the Amazon Fund program.


Jennifer Moore

Research Interests: Quantitative ecology, wildlife population ecology, protected area management, illegal activity mitigation and the use of ranger patrols, wildlife monitoring techniques and arboreal camera trapping, decision analysis.

Geographic Expertise: Africa

Curriculum Vitae

Jennifer Moore is a quantitative ecologist with over 10 years of experience working in the wildlife conservation field in Africa. Jennifer is interested in how statistical models coupled with field data can be used to inform species conservation and protected area management. She focuses on the use of technology for effectively monitoring mammal species and the utility of ranger patrols in mitigating illegal activities. Many of her research projects have focused on combining arboreal and ground camera traps for inventorying entire mammalian communities within protected areas. Jennifer has worked in many countries across Africa including projects across East, Central, and West Africa in countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Madagascar. She also has current projects in the United States and Central America. Her work has primarily focused on mammalian species including work on great apes, monkeys, pangolins, antelopes, elephants, large cats, and manatees. She has partnered with a number of government and non-governmental agencies including Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wide Fund for Nature, and Flora and Fauna International.

Jennifer is currently the lead consultant at Moore Ecological Analysis and Management, LLC. In addition, she is an associate editor for Animal Conservation. Jennifer received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, her Master of Environmental Management from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, and her B.A. in Statistics and Geographic from Northwestern University.


Carolina Rodrigues da Costa Doria

Research Interests: Ichthyology, integrative fisheries sciences, place-based management and governance, inter- and transdisciplinary research.

Geographic Expertise: Brazilian Amazon region, Madeira River basin.

Curriculum Vitae

Carolina Rodrigues da Costa Doria is a Biologist with a Ph.D. degree in Socio-environmental Science with concentration in Sustainable Development of Humid Tropics from the Federal University of Pará (Brazil). Since 1998, she is a professor in the Biology Department, Federal University of Rondônia, where she coordinates the Ichthyology and Fisheries Laboratory, and is curator of the Fish collection (http://www.gpbiodiversidade.ro.unir.br). Carolina also is a member of the non- governmental organization Ação Ecológica Guaporé (http://ecopore.org.br) and a Brazilian leader of the International Research Network on Amazonian Dams (http://amazondamsnetwork.org). As a Brazilian leader of the Amazon Dams Network (ADN), Carolina plays a key role in research and program activities that link University of Florida’s Tropical Conservation and Development program in the Center for Latin American Studies with other Brazilian, US, and South American institutions that participate in this international research network.

For more than 20 years, Carolina has worked on environmental conservation and development issues in Amazon regions in Brazil. Her research interests include ichthyology and fisheries, community-based management of natural resources, impacts of hydroelectric dams, and governance and resilience of socio-ecological systems in the Amazon. From 2014 to 2015, Carolina was a postdoctoral research associate at the Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences in the UF School of Forest Resources and Conservation, working on the impacts of dams on fisheries.


Martha Ceclia Rosero-Peña

Research Interests: Environmental Sociology, governance, environmental policy, indigenous & African descent peoples and biodiversity and conservation, resilience and climate change, training to trainers education, intercultural dialog, and capacity-building.

Geographic Expertise: Latin America

Curriculum Vitae

Martha Cecilia Rosero-Peña is the Social Inclusion Director (Afro Descendants Fellow) at Conservation International. She is an Environmental Sociologist with more than 20 years of experience coordinating socio-environmental projects with universities and national and international NGOs in regions of high biocultural importance in Latin America. Martha has considerable experience in the design and implementation of proposals within the framework of the rights-based conservation approach and intercultural dialogue. Further, she has provided national and international advice on the design of informed environmental policies and participation in international environmental summits. Martha is a Member of the Science Panel for The Amazon-SPA presented at COP26 and Author of the Chapter on “African Presence in the Amazon”. Martha has also served as a participant in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services-IPBES and has been involved in the co-creation of pedagogical strategies for intercultural dialogue to work in regions of high biological and cultural diversity. Her research has focused on participatory research approaches on the indicators of socioeconomic and cultural resilience in the contexts of Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples.


Galia Selaya

Research Interests: Impacts of global changes in tropical ecosystems, forest health, biodiversity and carbon fluxes. Landscape planning integrating field inventories, remote sensing and social data. Non-linearity, trade-offs, and uncertainties of development projects and mega infrastructures. Participatory modeling of resilient production systems. Adaptation to climate change.

Geographic Expertise: Peru, Bolivia.

Curriculum Vitae

Research and Outreach Interests: Impacts of global changes in tropical ecosystems, forest health, biodiversity and carbon fluxes; landscape planning integrating field inventories, remote sensing and social data; non-linearity, tradeoffs, and uncertainties of development and mega infrastructure projects; participatory modeling of resilient production systems; adaptation to climate change.

Galia Selaya became courtesy faculty at the Center of Latin American Studies and the Tropical Conservation and Development Program in January 2017. She obtained her PhD in Plant Ecology and Biodiversity from Utrecht University and her MSc in Ecological Agriculture from Wageningen University, The Netherlands. She is an interdisciplinary scientist working on coupled human and climate change impacts on tropical ecosystems. Her research portfolio spans from exploring vegetation dynamics after anthropogenic disturbance, to people’s engagement in natural resource management, landscape planning, and conservation initiatives. She is currently designing and implementing participatory methods for landscape planning and designation of production systems areas, special sites for biodiversity and ecosystems services conservation in collaboration with institutions and local communities in Bolivia and Peru.

From 2015-2016, Selaya was a postdoctoral research associate position in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) Department at University of Florida (UF), where she examined uncertainty and sensitivity analyses of forest biomass estimation in varying forest types of southwestern Amazonia (National Science Foundation grant, Coupled Natural and Human Systems Project). At ABE, she organized conferences for the Biocomplexity group, inviting scientists and practitioners engaged in environmental topics. From 2012 to 2014, she worked as an environmental social scientist at the Science and Action Center of the Field Museum of Chicago. She participated in a rapid inventory of Putumayo transboundary region of Peru and Colombia and designed participatory methods and use of media to support the quality of life plans and biodiversity conservation agreements of indigenous communities living around national parks of Loreto and Ucayali regions of the Peruvian Amazon (MacArthur grant, Sustainable Livelihood Strategies and Forest Stewardship: Empowering Local Communities). Between 2009 to 2011, Selaya held a postdoc associate researcher position at Universidad Autónoma de Pando, Bolivia, in partnership with UF as part of an environmental capacity building program. She implemented a remote sensing lab to monitor the impact of road building on forest cover and established a network of monitoring plots in preserved and burned forest to address degradation and species demography (ICAA II-USAID grant, Impact of the Trans-Amazonia Highway on Southwestern Amazonia). From 2009-2013, Selaya joined CIFOR, Global Comparative Study on REDD+ as a field researcher applying the BACI (Before and After Control Intervention) method to potential REDD+ projects. She implemented socio-economic surveys and workshops with local communities of the montane forest of Yungas, Bolivia and San Martin, Peru. Selaya’s previous experiences combined research and academic positions with development projects and consultancy, including certification standards evaluation of FSC, VCS and CCB in Latin America and Caribbean countries.

Selaya promotes scientific research outcomes as a foundation of a shared conservation agenda in the multi-stakeholders, social heterogeneity, and biophysical complexity of the tropical ecosystems.