Robin Marsh

Robin Marsh joined ISSI in 2014 as a Senior Researcher. She is a socio-economist with over 25 years of experience in sustainable agriculture, rural development, and rural women’s empowerment.  Marsh received her PhD from the Food Research Institute, Stanford University.  She subsequently worked for the World Vegetable Center on socio-economic and nutritional benefits of home/community gardening, and for the Food and Agriculture Organization on local institution strengthening for food security and sustainable rural livelihoods.  Marsh continues to work organic home and community gardening as a sustainable and cost-effective means to achieve multiple goals of food security, family nutrition, and women’s increased autonomy.She recently completed a randomized control study on Women-Led Organic Gardens in Western Uganda. Marsh joined UC Berkeley in 2000 as Academic Coordinator of the Center for Sustainable Resource Development and Co-Director of the Beahrs Environmental Leadership Program (2000-2013).  She was a lecturer at UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources from 2003-2014, teaching in the field of Population, Environment & Development, and is Affiliate Faculty with The Blum Center for Developing Economies and the Berkeley Food Institute. Robin Marsh is a founding leader of the The MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program (MCFSP) at UC Berkeley, a major partnership to provide high-achieving, economically disadvantaged youth from sub-Saharan Africa the opportunity for quality university education and leadership development.  Since 2013, Marsh was lead researcher on the multi-university study, "Career and Life Trajectories of African Alumni of International Universities".  Marsh has also co-authored several articles comparing sustainable agriculture practices and policies in Norway, Spain, China, and the United States with Norwegian colleagues and Peder Sather Center support including, "Diversified Farming Systems: Impacts and Adaptive Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States, Norway and China."  More recently, she was the lead author of the research report: Building an equitable future with generational renewal in California Agriculture.