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Margarita Fernandez

Affiliate

About Margarita Fernandez

Margarita Fernandez is an Affiliate at Meridian Institute based in Richmond, Vermont. She is the Executive Director of the Caribbean Agroecology Institute (CAI), a small non-profit that catalyzes knowledge exchange, builds capacity, and supports transitions to agroecological systems that are resilient to climate change and provide for a sustainable livelihood rooted in justice and equality in the Caribbean. She has supported Meridian’s work with the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.

Beyond serving as the Executive Director of CAI, Margarita also coordinates the Cuba-US Agroecology Network, which builds alliances between farmers, academics, and NGOs in both countries. She joined CAI in January 2015 after nearly 20 years working on transdisciplinary research and the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of international cooperation projects in the Global South including Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Venezuela. She specializes in agroecology and food systems, sustainable livelihoods, and climate change resilience, with a focus on participatory based approaches. Margarita has worked with multistakeholder teams at the research-practice-policy nexus to link results-based evidence with action and policy change.

Margarita lives in rural Vermont with her husband and two daughters, where she loves to cook colorful meals, spend time with friends, and connect with the beauty of the Green Mountains and Lake Champlain.