I am an Ag. Economist and Research Associate (equivalent to a non-tenured assistant professor) at Cornell University. I collaborate in the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement, where I am co-PI of the Priority Setting unit. I have expertise in participatory breeding approaches, with a focus on eliciting farmers’ local ecological knowledge and perceptions. Focalizing the attention on participatory and interdisciplinary tools and methods in my postdoctoral work, I investigate new frameworks to coordinate farmers’ and breeders’ ecological knowledge. 

Before joining Cornell University in 2021, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Life Sciences of the Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy. I hold a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Development Economics from the Institute of Economics at the Sant’ Anna School and a Double Degree Master in Economic Development from the University of Pavia, Italy, and the University of Hohenheim, Germany. In the past, I have done consultancies for organizations such the Stanford Global Center for Gender Equality, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the International Labour Organization. In love with field work, I have conducted several primary data collections in Malawi, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Italy.