Sylvia Adisa
MDP student in the Sustainable Development Practice program, Centre for African Studies and Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida; B.Sc. in Project Planning and Management (PPM) from Moi University in Kenya.
In her academic journey, Sylvia is actively engaged in earning graduate certificates in the areas of Sustainable Development Practice (SDP), Tropical Conservation and Development (TCD), and Gender and Development.
Under the guidance of Dr. Renata Serra, Sylvia’s ongoing research centers on investigating the gendered roles of individuals in fisheries within the western Indian Ocean (WIO) region. Her thesis work is concentrated on evaluating women’s contributions to the production of blue foods in the Western Indian Ocean. This involves a specific case study that examines artisanal billfish fisheries along the Kenyan coastline. The aim of her research is to provide insights that can aid in the effective management and sustainability of these fisheries.
Sylvia’s commitment to environmental causes spans over a decade, during which she has been actively involved in environmental restoration programs. She has demonstrated her dedication by involving young individuals to partake in environmental conservation efforts. Additionally, Sylvia has taken the lead in initiating fundraising campaigns, fostering robust networks within the sectors of community development and conservation in western Kenya.
In her previous roles, Sylvia served as a data manager, focusing on community development and sustainability issues. Her responsibilities centered around skillfully managing and utilizing data to implement appropriate interventions aimed at enhancing the quality of life for vulnerable communities throughout Kenya.
Joshua Benjamin
Ph.D. candidate in Department of Biology, University of Florida; M.S. in Limnology and Wetland Management, BOKU University, Austria and IHE-Delft, The Netherlands; B.Sc. in Environmental Studies, Karatina University, Kenya.
Joshua is working towards a TCD graduate certificate and a Ph.D. in Zoology at the University of Florida. He also doubles as an avid freshwater ecologist. He holds a M. Sc. degree in limnology and wetland management from BOKU University and IHE-Delft and a B.Sc. degree in Environmental Science from Karatina University, Kenya. Additionally, Joshua holds certification in climate change and sustainable development from Amirkabir University of Technology in Iran. He is also a macroinvertebrate expert and SASS practitioner with training from Ground Truth, South Africa.
His current research work focuses on assessing the longitudinal changes in fish assemblages, macroinvertebrate communities, and trace element concentrations in an Afrotropical River. Joshua is interested in freshwater biodiversity in the face of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors such as land use change and emerging pollutants.
Laura Botero
M.A. student in Latin American Studies, University of Florida; B.A. in Psychology from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela.
Laura is a psychologist doing ethnography in the Venezuelan Amazon together with Uwottüja Indigenous people from the middle Orinoco and Sipapo basins. Her work unfolds in a context shaped by extractive mining economies and surrounding armed governances. She places her research in the interstices of this context by approaching the intimacies of life in the local communities of a territory disputed over its natural resources. In this sense, she is interested in understanding how bodies, territories, and relations are produced, both materially and symbolically, while striving to sustain life within the forest. Her aim is to develop participatory action research in the Amazon region by engaging in collective processes of social and environmental justice for local Indigenous peoples.
Her research interests include Indigenous and gender studies, natural resource governance, community-based conservation, and socio-environmental justice.
Ana María Garrido Corredor
Ph.D. student in the Anthropology Department, University of Florida; M.Sc. in Environmental Anthropology at the University of Kent, United Kingdom; B.A. in Anthropology and B.Sc. in Biology from Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Ana María is working towards a TCD graduate certificate and a Ph.D. in Anthropology student under advisement of Dr. Catherine Tucker. For the past eight years, she has been working on various projects concerning socio-environmental conflicts, resource governance, and community-based conservation. Her research has focused on understanding the impacts of extractive economies, particularly gold mining, on the livelihoods of afro-descendant communities inhabiting the Pacific Region of Colombia. Additionally, during the last three years, she has been working in the Science-Policy interface in Colombia, designing and implementing environmental policies to strengthen local initiatives for the sustainable management of natural resources. From these experiences, she developed her current research interests, which focus on understanding how global conservation agendas, coupled with national and international economic processes, intersect with the everyday politics of resource management and use and shape the cultural and symbolic meaning of human-forest interactions.
Ana María is interested in conducting interdisciplinary research, combining qualitative methods such as participant observation and interviews, and methodologies of economic botany, mainly ethnobotanical inventories, as complementary ways of understanding the relationship between plants and people in agroforest landscapes.
Jennifer Quartey
MDP student in the Sustainable Development Practice program, Center for Latin American Studies and Center for African Studies, University of Florida; B.A. in African Studies and Philosophy from University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
Over the past two years, Jennifer worked with Non-Governmental Organizations on improving the educational systems and empowering young girls in rural communities in different regions of Ghana
Jennifer is currently working towards a TCD graduate certificate and a MDP degree. For her master’s research, she hopes to examine how environmental issues such as climate change affects the well-being of women and girl’s education in rural communities in Ghana and how human conservation education can help improve the quality of life of all.
Viviana Rojas
Ph.D. Candidate at the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department; MSc in Interdisciplinary Ecology, School of Natural Resources and Environment and B.Sc. in Biology from the Universidad Nacional de Asuncion, Paraguay.
Viviana (Vivi) is a biologist from Paraguay who graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Asunción. Vivi was awarded with the Fulbright scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in the Molecular Ecology Lab at University of Florida working with Dr James Austin. Her Masters research focused on small mammal (rodent) dispersal in sub-saharan Africa, where she worked in Swaziland at the Savannah Research Centre. Vivi returned to her country and worked in several conservation projects led by a national NGO and soon after she became the Species Conservation Program Coordinator. Now, she is pursuing her PhD in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation with a concentration in Tropical Conservation and Development. She is now looking forward to incorporating more interdisciplinary approaches to link her research to conservation practice and decision making.
She works in protected areas of the Paraguayan Chaco Forest, a deforestation hot spot, looking to better understand medium and large mammal communities and how they respond to the current anthropogenic threats.
Natalia Uribe-Castañeda
Ph.D. Candidate in Interdisciplinary Ecology in School of Natural resources and Environment, University of Florida; M.Sc. in Water and Coastal Management at University of Bologna, Italy, University of Cadiz, Spain, and University of Algarve, Portugal; B.Sc. in Biology with a major in Marine Biology at University of Valle, Colombia.
Natalia is a Colombian Fulbright Scholarship recipient with a background in marine management and over 13 years of experience collaborating with coastal communities. Her work and studies have spanned diverse marine ecosystems across countries such as Colombia, the United States, Belize, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. She currently pursues an Interdisciplinary Ecology Ph.D. at the University of Florida, focusing on Community Engagement in Coral Reef Restoration.
Natalia’s research centers on identifying motivational strategies for communities to actively participate in coral reef restoration efforts while addressing potential barriers. Her assessment encompasses community-based coral reef restoration programs within two marine protected areas: the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve in Colombia, and the Laughing Bird Caye in Belize.
Mirian Yadira Molina
MDP student in the Sustainable Development Practice program, Center for Latin American Studies and Center for African Studies, University of Florida; B.Sc. in Environmental Science from California State University, Chico, USA; Forestry from the National School of Forestry Sciences (UNACIFOR), Honduras.
Yadira is working towards the TCD graduate certificate and a professional Master’s degree in Sustainable Development Practice. Yadira has worked in the Honduran forestry sector for over 25 years in a highly challenging political, economic, and social context. In 2004 she co-founded Fundación Madera Verde (FMV), a Honduran nonprofit committed to sustainable community development in Honduras, making and selling high-quality wood and non-wood forest products, adding value to forest resources, and creating incentives to protect biodiversity. In 2014 FMV and her team were recognized with the first-ever Innovation Award in forest finance from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and an award from the Vidanta Foundation of Mexico for their contribution to poverty reduction. For her Master’s, she also received grants from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) for her work toward advancing gender equity in indigenous peoples and traditional communities.
Her current research focuses on identifying policy incentives to encourage the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation restoration practices in the Atlantic Honduran region to increase the engagement and participation of communities and social actors prioritized in the National Adaptation Plan of Honduras.