Lisa Elena Fuchs

Lisa Elena Fuchs is a scientist specializing in sustainable and multi-functional landscape transitions at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. Her core research interests lie in political ecology, environmental justice, and agroecology. Lisa’s research-in-development work currently focuses mostly on designing, implementing and conducting research on processes to (1) enhance equity, agency, and empowerment among farming families, communities, and other Food Systems Actors (FSAs), (2) foster meaningful and strategic collaborations and partnerships between different stakeholders for development efficiency and sustainable impact, and (3) promote diversified pathways of knowledge co-creation and co-design to support sustainable behaviour change and agroecological transitions. Lisa is currently involved in the CGIAR Initiative on Agroecology (AE-I), and bilateral projects such as the Accelerating Agroecology through ABCD (ABCD4AE), and the Vegetable-Integrated Push-Pull Technology (VIPPT) project implemented in several countries including Kenya, Zimbabwe, Peru, Burkina Faso, India, Tunisia and Senegal. Before Lisa’s current position at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, she worked at ICRAF (now CIFOR-ICRAF) from 2013 to 2024 where she led and in other cases contributed to numerous research and research-in-development projects on agroecology, asset-based community development (ABCD), and broader sustainable land/ natural resource management and governance. Lisa earned a PhD in social and cultural anthropology from the University of Cologne, and MA and BA degrees in social and political sciences from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po) Bordeaux and University of Stuttgart.