Biographies of WID Collection Contributors

Helen Safa         Helen Safa
Dr. Helen Safa is Professor Emerita of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. She is former Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at UF and previously taught at Rutgers and Syracuse Universities. She has been President of the Latin American Studies Association, and in 2007, received the Kalman Silvert award for lifetime achievement in Latin American Studies. She has worked in the Hispanic Caribbean for over fifty years. Her publications include numerous monographs, co-edited volumes, and over 100 articles on gender, race, development, urbanization, poverty, migration, social movements, and state policies. Several of her works are considered classics in urban and feminist anthropology, including her books The Urban Poor of Puerto Rico (1974) and The Myth of the Male Breadwinner:  Women and Industrialization in the Caribbean (1995).  All of the primary research for the latter book is in the WID collection.
     
Anita Spring   Anita Spring
Dr. Anita Spring holds the position of Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. She is affiliated with UF's Centers for African Studies, Latin American Studies, Transnational Global Studies, Women Studies and Gender Research, and the School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Dr. Spring has also worked with the USAID Office of Women in Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations where she was Chief of the Women in Agriculture Production and Rural Development Service. In her academic and professional career, she has designed, implemented, and evaluated numerous international development projects across Africa, the Caribbean, and elsewhere. Dr. Spring's research interests are broad ranging and include Cultural, Applied, and Medical Anthropology, Women/Gender in Development, International Agriculture Development and Food Security, Entrepreneurship and Micro-Enterprises, and Environmental and Resource Management. She has authored or edited 8 books, many monographs, articles, reports, and bibliographies and given numerous conference presentations on the topic of women/gender and development, particularly on the subjects of agriculture, entrepreneurship, health, and the environment.
     
Peter Hildebrant   Peter Hildebrand
Peter Hildebrand, who retired in 2003, joined the University of Florida faculty in 1979, after living abroad and working on international development projects for 15 years. Hildebrand's international background encompasses work in over 31 countries over 35 years. He developed many of the basic ideas and approaches are the foundation for the Farming Systems Research and Extension methodology. At the university of Florida, Hildebrand developed innovative methodological approaches to training research and extension programs to reach food producers in the United States and abroad. He was the founding president of the global Association for Farming Systems Research and Extension. He coordinated the university-wide Farming Systems Program and coordinated the Women in Agricultural Development Program for four years. He provided support for the Gender, Environment, Agriculture and Participation Program. His research is in the area of farming systems research-extension methods, gender analysis, small-farm livelihood systems, and tropical conservation and development.
     
Marianne Schmink   Marianne Schmink
Marianne Schmink has been a Professor of Latin American Studies and Anthropology at the University of Florida since 1984 and the Director of the UF Tropical Conservation and Development Program since 1996. Schmink has conducted research in Latin American and the Caribbean and consulted on numerous development projects in the region. Her research interests include gender, development, and tropical conservation and development. She has authored books, book chapters, edited volumes, articles, and reports on topics such as economic development, women and development, urbanization, migration, frontier settlements, tropical resource management, development policy and interdisciplinary theories and methodologies.  Since 1990, Dr. Schmink has directed a collaborative research program in Acre, Brazil , focused on community-based resource management. She has had major grants from the Mellon Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, and Moore Foundation to support collaborative research and training programs at UF.
     
   

Elsa Chaney
Elsa Chaney, who passed away in June 2000, was a pioneer in Women in Development Studies.  Her books are about working women, both professionals (Supermadre) and women in the popular sectors of Latin America (Sellers and Servants, with Ximena Buster, Muchachas no More, with Mary Garcia Castro), and migration (Caribbean Life in New York City, with Constance Sutton).  She was devoted to LASA (Latin American Studies Association) and fought for women’s participation, and held several important positions. Chaney taught at Fordham University and was Deputy Director of Women in Development in AID, in the late 70s when the unit was just beginning under Arvonne Fraser. For the last ten years of her life, Chaney was a visiting professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies at the University of Iowa.

Chaney was above all concerned with the poor, with social justice, and especially with the fate of the household workers (better known as domestics) in Latin American and the Caribbean.  The last few years of her life were devoted to research and fundraising for the international Confederation of Household Workers (CONLACTRAHO), which was founded at a panel she helped organize in 1986, in Colombia, and is still in existence.  She helped create a transcontinental network of sisterhood in Latin America that is our greatest resource in carrying forth her legacy.
     
Carmen Diana Deere   Carmen Diana Deere
Carmen Diana Deere is Director of the Center for Latin American Studies and Professor of Food and Resource Economics and Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. Before joining UF in 2004, Deere was Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst . Deere has been President of the Latin American Studies Association and of the New England Council of Latin American Studies. She serves on numerous editorial boards, including World Development and Feminist Economics. Deere’s research interests include gender issues, land policy, agrarian reform, rural social movements, agricultural development, rural labor markets, and Latin American agrarian history. She has published numerous books, articles, chapters, and reports on issues of gender, agricultural development, and land tenure issues in Brazil , the Andes, Central America, and Cuba . Her co-authored book, Empowering Women:  Land and Property Rights in Latin America, won the LASA Best Book Prize in 2002.
     
Madelyn Lockhart   Madelyn Lockhart
Madelyn M. Lockhart held the positions of Professor in African Studies and Dean of the Graduate School and International Programs at UF between 1985 and 1993. Lockhart retired from UF in 1995, but continued to serve as a consultant in economic development for governmental and education agencies. Throughout her career, Lockhart authored numerous monographs, articles, and technical reports on the topic of economic development. She also conducted research in Africa on collective decision making. In addition to her academic work, Lockhart has served on President Johnson’s Council of Social Advisors and acted as an economic consultant to several state and federal agencies.  Lockhart is a strong supporter of the Africana Studies Collection at UF and has contributed funding for the Dr. Madelyn Lockhart Book Fund in African Studies. She has also created the Madelyn Lockhart Fellowship Fund for female scholars. This endowment supports female Ph.D. candidates undertaking research related to women and economics.
     
    June Nash
June Nash is a Distinguised Professor Emerita in the Anthropology Program in the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (citation). "June Nash’s research of nearly five decades has spanned Latin America, principally Mexico and Bolivia, as well as the United States. Focusing on the links between global forces of economic change, national and international policy, and the political dimensions of race, class and gender, Nash’s work has long focused on local-level understandings of and responses to national and global processes" (citation).
     
Sandra L. Russo   Sandra Russo
Sandra Russo holds the positions of Director of Program Development and Federal Relations in the International Center and Associate Director of the Transnational and Global Studies Center at the University of Florida. Russo is also affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Ecology Program in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment as well as the Gender, Environment, Agriculture, and Participation Program at UF. Her background is in Agronomy and Animal Science and her research interests include gender, water issues, the environment, agriculture, and ecofeminism. Russo worked in Africa between 1981-1986, researching international development projects targeting women farmers in Kenya and the Gambia. More recently, she has conducted research in Botswana and Southern Africa.  Russo is a member of UF’s Interdisciplinary Water Working Group (IWWG), a collection of UF faculty interested in issues of gender and social equality that arise from development efforts around water, sustainable agriculture, and natural resource management. She also teaches courses on Ecofeminism and Gender, Development, and Globalization at UF.
     
    Abe Goldman
Abe Goldman is Professor of Geography at the University of Florida. Goldman is also affiliated with UF’s Tropical Conservation and Development Program and School of Natural Resources and the Environment.  His areas of specialization include tropical agricultural development, African geography, environment, cultural and political ecology, and ethnic conflicts. Goldman has collaborated with geographers and zoologists to conduct research on farmers, land use, and national parks in Uganda and Tanzania. He has also published on the topic of gender and soil fertility management in Uganda. Goldman teaches courses on human geography, conservation resources, food and agriculture in Africa, and population and the environment at UF.
     
Florence E. Babb   Florence Babb
Florence Babb is Professor of Anthropology, Women’s Studies, and Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. In 2005, Babb was appointed as the Vada Allen Yeoman’s Professor in the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research. Before joining UF, Babb held a joint appointment in Anthropology and Women’s Studies at the University of Iowa. Babb has served on several national editorial boards as well as the AAA committee for Minority Issues in Anthropology.  She also held the position of President of the Association of Feminist Anthropology. Babb’s research interests include feminist anthropology, gender and sexuality, cultural/economic anthropology, development studies, Third World urbanization, and work and society. She has conducted ethnographic research in Latin America, Central America, Cuba, and South Africa. She has completed two monographs based on her research in Peru and Nicaragua and published numerous articles on the topics of gender, sexuality, culture, political economy, social movements, and more recently, tourism in post-conflict areas.
     
    Paul Doughty
Paul Doughty is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. Before coming to UF, he taught at Indiana University and directed IU’s Latin American Program. Doughty was a founder and President of the Latin American Studies Association and President of the Society for Latin American Anthropology. In 2005, Doughty was awarded the Malinowski Award from the Society of Applied Anthropology.   In addition to his academic appointments, Doughty served as director of the USAID Food for Peace Program in Peru and consultant for the World Bank’s Indigenous Development Programs in Peru and Ecuador. Over the course of his career, Doughty conducted applied research and international development work in Latin American, specifically Peru, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico. His areas of interest included urban growth and migration, land reform, community development, and disaster relief. Doughty is best known for his work with the Vicos Community in Peru, which emerged from his involvement in the Cornell/Peru Project (1951-1966). Paul and his wife Polly created the Doughty Research Award, which supports graduate students in Anthropology conducting research related to international peace, human rights, and development in Latin America.
     
Lisette Staal   Lisette Staal
Lisette M. Staal recently joined the UF Water Institute as a Research Coordinator with a focus on Water and Society and is actively working with the Interdisciplinary Water Working Group.  She has worked at UF for over 20 years, most recently as the Assistant Director of UF/IFAS International Programs. She served as acting director and training coordinator of the World Women in Development Fellows Program at UF’s International Center, and was training coordinator for Managing Ecosystems and Resources with a Gender Emphasis (MERGE) in the Tropical Conservation and Development Program, and the Farming Systems Support Project in IFAS. After obtaining degrees in both Education and Geography, Lisette taught in U.S. public schools and in the Peace Corps in the South Pacific before completing her Masters degree in Geography.  Lisette has extensive experience in the design, management, coordination, facilitation and evaluation of intensive training programs, materials and approaches. Her emphasis has been on interdisciplinary approaches, participatory development, farming systems, gender analysis and socio-economic issues. As a consultant to FAO, the CGIAR and other organizations, she has addressed capacity building in several regions of the world.  She has worked in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia.
     
    Della McMillan
Della McMillan is an adjunct assistant research scientist in Anthropology at the University of Florida. Her interests include cultural anthropology, development and applied anthropology, Africa, and Latin America. McMillan has authored and co-authored monographs and articles on agricultural development, food policy, and African women farmers.
     
Susan Poats   Susan Poats
Susan Poats is an Anthropologist and Project Leader of the non-governmental organization Corporacion Grupo Randi Randi in Ecuador. Poats is dedicated to research, teaching, and project implementation in Latin America. Her interests include gender, local development, community based conservation, sustainable development, farming systems, and the environment. Her current work focuses on natural resource management through participatory research and community conservation with a gender focus. Poats draws on social science theories and methods to train and mentor conservationists in local communities.
     
    Marta Hartmann
Marta Hartmann is a lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication and Coordinator of the Gender, Environment and Participation Program at the University of Florida. She is also affiliated with the UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Her research interests include gender, education, and agriculture. Hartmann has worked on community development programs in parts of Africa and Latin America.
     
Mary Elmendorf   Mary Elmendorf
Mary Elmendorf is an anthropologist, author, and educator best known for her studies of Mayan women in the village of Chan Kom, Mexico, and for her work as a consulting anthropologist in the application of appropriate technology for community participation and involvement. Over the course of her career, Elmendorf taught at Brown University, New College, Hampshire College, and the University of Florida. She was also head of the CARE office in Mexico, consultant for the Peace Corps and the Overseas Education Fund of the League of Women Voters, and consultant for the World Bank Division of Environment and Health. Elmendorf participated in all UN Conferences on Women, the UN Water Conference, and the UN Conference on Environment and Development.  Elmendorf’s research focused on involving women in the planning and implementation of suitable technologies for community participation and involvement. She worked on development projects in Mexico, Kenya, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Thailand. She also authored many books, chapters, articles, technical reports, and conference presentations on the topics of women and community development. Elmendorf’s papers were donated to the UF Special and Area Studies Collection. (Finding aid for Mary Elmendorf's papers in UF Special and Area Studies Collections).
     
Milagros Pena  

Milagros Peña

Milagros Pena is Professor of Sociology and Director of Women Studies and Gender Research at the University of Florida. Her research interests include women and gender issues, social movements, and race and ethnic relations in Latin America. She has published a number of books on these topics, including Latina Activists across Borders: Women's Grassroots Organizing in Mexico and Texas (2007) and Theologies and Liberation in Peru: The Role of Ideas in Social Movements (1995). She has also authored numerous articles and book chapters on issues of race, class, gender, and religion in Latin American and the United States.