Speaker Bio: Ivette Perfecto

Ivette Perfecto is professor of Ecology and Natural Resources at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, primarily in the tropics. She also works on spatial ecology of the coffee agroecosystem and is interested more broadly on the links between small-scale sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and food sovereignty. She teaches General Ecology, Our Common Future (a course on globalization), Food Land and Society and Field Ecology. Her most recent book is Nature’s Matrix: The Link between Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty. Dr. Perfecto received her Ph.D. in Natural Resources (1989) and an M.S. in Ecology (1982) at the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Biology (1977) at the Universidad Sagrado Corazon in Puerto Rico.