Sara E. Alexander

Biography

I am an applied social anthropologist working in Central America (most recently Belize and Costa Rica), in West and East Africa, and in Appalachia. My research interests broadly focus on the Third World development process with emphases on livelihood security and vulnerability, food security, ecotourism, natural resource management, human dimensions of climate change, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I recently completed a two-year field study (funded by NOAA) in several coastal communites in the Meso American Barrier Reef System to examine resilience of vulnerable households to climate-related events and shocks. These data are being used to develop a Resiliency Index. The project continues fieldwork this year to facilitate new coalitions within and outside communities to identify linkages that could be enhanced to increase resilience at household and community levels. I have also been an advisor to a number of NGOs ’ Save the Children, CARE, World Vision, and the World Food Programme ’ on various programs and projects over the last fifteen years. I recently completed a review of CARE’s new Rapid Environmental Assessment method and am currently writing Guidelines for WFP addressing sustainability issues around food aid programming for the use of food aid to address impacts of HIV/AIDS in eastern and southern Africa.

Research Interest

food security, human dimensions of climate change, ecotourism, natural resource management, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic