Christopher M. Bacon
Christopher M. Bacon (Principal Investigator) is an environmental social scientist, agroecologist and human geographer, currently serving as an associate professor in Santa Clara University’s Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences (ESS) and a member of the Environmental Justice and Common Good Initiative. He received a PhD in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz (2005), and completed postdoctoral studies in Geography at UC Berkeley, before joining ESS in 2010. Chris specializes in climate resilience, livelihoods, food systems sustainability and change, and food security in Central America, and environmental and food justice in California. As the lab lead, he has served as the Principal Investigator on projects supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Switzer Foundation, as well as the Agropolis and The Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundations. Dr. Bacon and a colleague recently secured a NSF grant to conduct a participatory study on how farmers and cooperatives are learning resilience, diversifying, and adapting to climate change, COVID, and other hazards in Nicaragua. Dr. Bacon’s work often takes a community-based and participatory action research approach to generate knowledge that informs both theory and social change. He has mentored more than 30 undergraduate students, and co-authored publications with several of them. Chris teaches introductory and upper division classes related to environmental policy, politics and planning, political ecology, and food justice.
William Sundstrom
William Sundstrom is a professor of economics at Santa Clara University. He received his BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts and his PhD in Economics from Stanford University. His research applies data analysis to study the determinants of poverty and inequality, the impact of government policies, and the economic history of labor markets, education, and related institutions. He is particularly interested in interdisciplinary research and is currently working with research teams that include scholars in geography, urban planning, and law. Recent research projects include the determinants of food and water insecurity and the impact of climate change in rural Central America; housing and development policies in Silicon Valley; the collateral consequences of criminal records and policies intending to mitigate those impacts; and the causes and effects of public libraries in the United States. He has published articles in a number of peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic History, Explorations in Economic History, the Industrial and Labor Relations Review, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Information and Culture, Global Environmental Change, Regional Science and Urban Economics, and World Development, and has been co-investigator on two National Science Foundation grants. He teaches courses in data analysis and econometrics; the economics of race, ethnicity, and gender; and MBA microeconomics.
Maria Eugenia Flores Gómez
Maria Eugenia Flores Gómez is a social psychologist with over 20 years of intercultural experiences in organizational leadership, conflict resolution, community development and community-based participatory action research (CB-PAR), working with residents and universities from Central America, Mexico and California. She was born in Nicaragua and grew up during a time of social conflict, struggle and changes. She studied popular theater as a tool to help communities recover from the impact of war and environmental disasters, and graduated in 1998 from the Universidad Centro Americana (UCA) in Managua, Nicaragua with bachelors’ degrees in social psychology and humanities. She also has post-graduate certificates in anthropology, community development, and sustainable organizational management. In the last 10 years, she has worked with academics, farmers, and cooperative organizers using agroecology and CB-PAR to address pressing issues, such as food security, women’s rights, climate change adaptation, and inclusive economic development
Raúl Díaz
Raúl Díaz is a researcher, academic and, above all, committed to human development. He is the director of the Information and Innovation Center of the Nicaraguan Social Development Association (ASDENIC), where he promotes initiatives in Food Security, Productivity, Safe Water, Social Entrepreneurship and other actions that focus on improving the quality of life of people and the sustainable strengthening of environments to eradicate impoverishment and favor a society where all people have the same opportunities.
From ASDENIC and supported by national and international centers, he promotes social entrepreneurship, involving young people from the rural sector and university students, developing solutions to problems in a creative and innovative way. He believes that entrepreneurship is the key that makes us different and not the same as others.
Raúl is involved in the Food Security and Income Cluster, an initiative that brings together 30 organizations and directly impacts 10,000 families in the dry corridor of northern Nicaragua.
Since 2004 he has collaborated with Dr. Bacon and since 2008, he participates in the Community Agroecology Network, including ethics, a series of values and thinking about how to live sustainably, combining science with practice and maintaining a social movement of change directly with the communities of northern Nicaragua and other territories, respecting the environment, culture and above all…the land to live sustainably.