Marie C. Fleming

postdoctoral associate, cornell university

Marie’s research focuses on participatory, community-based agroecology to support just and equitable agricultural transitions. As a transdisciplinary agroecologist, their work advances biocultural approaches to land restoration by centering the knowledge, rights, and agency of local and Indigenous communities in restoration efforts across agroecosystems. Their PhD research examined land histories, social–ecological change, land-use decision-making, and agroecosystem biodiversity in collaboration with vanilla farming communities in Northeast Madagascar to develop community-centered pathways for restoration. Their scholarship also extends to agroecological pedagogy and reparative approaches to farming futures in the United States. Marie holds a PhD in Ecology, with a Designated Emphasis in African American & African Studies, from the University of California, Davis. They are a recipient of the Dean’s Distinguished Graduate Fellowship, the Environmental and Climate Justice Scholars Fellowship, and the Global Fellowship in Agriculture and Development at UC Davis. Following Peace Corps service in Madagascar (2017 - 2019), Marie received the Peace Corps Paul D. Coverdell Fellowship at Cornell University. Marie now serves as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Critical Agroecologies Lab, where they contribute to cross-disciplinary, community-engaged agroecology research supporting smallholder farming systems in Malawi and across the African continent.

Anjana Ramkumar

PhD CANDIDATE, Development Sociology, Cornell University

Anjana is broadly interested in the nexus between agroecology and postcolonial development. Her work explores the eco-social dimensions of agriculture and seeks to understand how agroecological practices contest dominant narratives of development by embracing alternative economies and ecologies of cultivation. Anjana’s dissertation project focuses on the cultivation of heirloom rice varieties in Tamilnadu, India within an agricultural landscape that has been, and continues to be, dominated by high-yielding varieties of the Green Revolution. Her research uses heirloom rice as a lens through which to engage with questions of food sovereignty, decolonisation, and repeasantization. Prior to joining Cornell, Anjana served as an officer in the Climate Change Division of Singapore’s Foreign Service. She subsequently obtained a master’s degree in Geography from the National University of Singapore in 2019.

Jarvis Fisher

PhD CANDIDATE, Development Sociology, Cornell University

Jarvis is interested in agroecology, the food sovereignty movement, and the history of economic and social thought. Through his work, he hopes to better understand the manner by which large-scale sociopolitical and economic conditions and altruistic development interventions contribute to inter-and intra-household differentiation within rural communities.  

As a PhD student in Development Sociology, Jarvis is currently researching the political economy of rice and groundnut production in Senegal. His work explores the impact that Senegalese state agricultural policy has had on agrarian social relations and rural laborers’ perspectives on the comparative value of industrial and agroecological farming methods. Prior to his time at Cornell, Jarvis received his MSc in Development Studies from SOAS in 2015. In the years following his master’s degree, Jarvis managed and supervised anti-trafficking programs in West Africa and developed grant proposals to support international gender equality advocacy projects. 

Mai Ichihara

PhD Student, Development Studies, Cornell University

Originally from Monument, Colorado, Mai is a PhD student in Development Studies researching how farmers, businesses, and institutional expertise are shaping regenerative agriculture in international supply chains. Her work examines a range of approaches to measuring, verifying, and incentivizing soil health and agrobiodiversity, and explores how these activities—and the inequalities they may (re)produce—are unfolding in parts of the U.S. and Latin America. She hopes to understand the governance changes needed for regenerative agriculture to improve socioecological conditions at local and global scales. Mai earned a joint M.E.M. in water resource management and M.A. in global affairs from Yale University, and a B.A. in international relations from The George Washington University.

Kristina Sokourenko

PhD student, Development studies, Cornell University

Kristina’s research examines how informal food systems sustain urban life under conditions of ecological and economic precarity. Her work focuses on Lagos, Nigeria, where she studies small-scale fisheries and informal waterfront settlements to understand how food environments, gendered labor, and governance shape access to affordable and nutritious diets.
Through an ethnographically informed and systems-oriented approach, Kristina situates fisheries within broader questions of food sovereignty, climate adaptation, and urban metabolism. Her work aims to illuminate the resilience and structural importance of informal seafood networks in securing protein access for rapidly growing coastal megacities. At Cornell, Kristina contributes to global efforts to measure and monitor diet quality and the cost of a healthy diet, working with partners across the Food Systems Dashboard, the Food Prices for Nutrition project, and the Global Diet Quality Project.

Amanda Vilchez

PhD student, Communications, Cornell university

Originally from Peru, Amanda Vilchez is a transdisciplinary scholar with a background in biology and social science. Over the years, she has examined participatory research processes and outcomes focused on human-wildlife relationships, working hand-in-hand with rural and urban communities across Peru. She is currently studying the interaction between Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Western science in collaborative spaces to co-create an understanding of traditional agricultural practices. For her dissertation, she is working with Peruvian farmers from the Inca Sacred Valley and scientists on the participatory analysis of vampire bat guano use for maize seed treatment.

Françoise Cattaneo

Françoise is a Ph.D. student in International Nutrition in Dr. John Hoddinott’s Lab. Her dissertation research focuses on food choices and diet quality of adolescents in Bangladesh, using mixed methods approaches. Prior to joining Cornell, she worked with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) on the Innovation for Health and Planet team. She holds a M.Sc. degree in Nutritional Epidemiology and Public Health at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) (The Netherlands, Kenya) and a B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences and Global Health from Boston University (USA, Switzerland). Françoise speaks English, French, Italian, and is learning Bangla.

Hanna Lighthall

Hanna Lighthall, from Croghan, New York, is a junior at Cornell University majoring in Global Development with a concentration in Food Systems and Agriculture and minoring in Horticulture. Her research interests focus on agroecology, food security, and improving food accessibility worldwide. In winter 2025, she participated in a faculty-led program in Malawi with Dr. Rachel Bezner Kerr, visiting and collaborating with the Soils, Food and Healthy Communities organization (SFHC). She is currently contributing to AGILE for Climate (Agroecology Gender-Transformative Living Labs for Climate Resilience, AGILE4Climate), conducting a literature review and supporting research aimed at strengthening climate resilience and equitable, sustainable food systems. Connect with her on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hanna-lighthall.

Lea Hostetter-Habib

Lea Hostetter-Habib is a senior at Cornell University, double-majoring in Environment & Sustainability and Global Development, and pursuing a minor in Indigenous Studies. Her research interests lie at the intersection of gender equity, social inclusion, and decolonial approaches to sustainable development. She is particularly passionate about the nonprofit sector and has gained experience through internships with WWF, IISD, and EDF, contributing to initiatives focused on forest conservation and climate-smart agriculture. Her previous research examined the impacts of marketization and environmental degradation on small-scale fishers on the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. Currently, she is conducting qualitative data analysis on a gender-transformative approach for SFHC as part of the broader SAGE (Scaling out Agroecological Pest Management & Gender Equity) project.