United States
With a strong background in agricultural sciences, specifically food security and nutrition (FSN) and applied economics, I research sustainable consumption, minimum-cost diets as FSN indicators, ag-tech, and coffee. As a researcher, I am leading a project to reduce plastic pollution produced by take-out and delivery foods in Honduras and most recently served as the principal investigator in the Fontagro Project of Digitalization of small-scale agriculture in Colombia, Honduras, and Nicaragua. I have also worked on financed research projects related to the impact of COVID-19 on the Latin American Agrifood value chain, the cost structure of producing specialty coffee and living wages for coffee farm workers in Central America, and sustainability indicators for coffee farms in El Salvador. My most recent endeavor at Zamorano University is the creation of the "Consumer-Driven Sustainability Laboratory", to reduce the knowledge gap between the supply and demand of sustainable goods using experimental economics, biometrics (eye-tracking and facial expression analysis), and traditional market research methods. As of 2023, the laboratory has conducted five research projects (undergraduate and graduate thesis) and one peer-reviewed publication. I am also passionate about scientific communication, having published several peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed journal articles, frequently reviewing submissions to scientific journals, and serving as section editor for Ceiba (the scientific journal of Zamorano University).
To foster research at Zamorano University.
Teaching responsibilities For the Agribusiness Management Department at Zamorano University, at the undergraduate level, I teach General Statistics (Sophomore), Business Statistics (Junior), and Econometrics (Senior) courses. In the past, I taught General Economics (Sophomore). For the Master of Science in Sustainable Agriculture, I taught Applied Regression. For the Executive Master in Agribusiness, a joint program between Zamorano University and INCAE Business School, I teach Agricultural Economics. Research As principal investigator, I have participated in the following projects: (1) Randomized Control Trials to reduce plastic pollution from restaurants´ packaging In Honduras, (2) Digitalization of small-scale agriculture, (3) Estimation of Sustainability indicators for coffee farms in El Salvador. As a researcher, I have participated in the following projects: (1) the Impact of COVID-19 in the Latin American and the Caribbean Agricultural Value Chains, (2) the Cost structure of specialty coffee farms and worker perceptions in El Salvador and Honduras. As of August 2023, I have brought USD 307,921 in research funding. Advising Every year I advise between four and seven students in the development of their special graduation project. Next to advising them, I also encourage them to submit their work to academic conferences and peer-reviewed journals. Administrative roles I have served in the roles of (1) Special graduation projects coordinator, (2) Special Learning-by-doing coordinator, and (3) technical chief of the Management Consulting Practice and the neuromarketing learning-by-doing modules. Special achievements I wrote the white paper and business case for creating the Consumer-Driver Sustainability Laboratory, which aims to reduce the knowledge gap between the supply and demand of sustainable goods. The laboratory uses biometrics technology to study consumers, specifically eye-tracking and facial expressions analysis.
Conduct research in food and nutrition security, agricultural policy and consumer demand. Assist main advisor in teaching (econometrics and statistics), grant writing and undergraduate advising. Research projects: -Measuring prevalence, profiling and evaluating the potential of policy impacts using two food security indicators in Guatemala. -The nutritional impact of policies: reduced from models versus consumer demand systems. -Food demand and food security in El Salvador. -The effect of traffic-light supplemental nutritional labelling in Ecuador. -Use of the minimum cost of a nutritious diet as food security indicator in El Salvador. -Analysis of the impact of dollarization and CAFTA-DR on El Salvador's trade flows.
Managed sales operation, corporate marketing, new product development and distribution logistics.
Provided nutrient and integrated management advice to coffee farmers using precision agriculture technologies. Sales of specialty fertilizers and agricultural chemicals.