Farmworkers harvesting summer squash in Costa Rica
Food Systems and Sustainability Lab

Galt Lab

Natalia Pinzón Jiménez, M.A.

Natalia Pinzón Jiménez, M.A.

Natalia2

Position Title
Ph.D. Candidate

she/her/hers
One Shields Avenue, Davis CA 95616
Bio

Natalia specializes in the agroecology as a means to reduce on-farm and global climate risk. Her doctoral research focuses on how California farmers are preparing for, responding to and recovering from wildfires. Her action-research project involves the development of an hybrid (online and in-person) course “Farming through wildfire season”. This multi-sector collaboration, includes a guidebook for farmers on how to evaluate agricultural risk to wildfires.

In partnership with her advisors Dr. Clara Nicholls and Dr. Miguel Altieri, she developed the Climate Resilience via Agroecology Course for California farmers in 2018. Now she is developing a UC wide online course supported by UCOP-ILTI with Professor Mark Cooper “Climate Change and Agriculture". They are partnering with the USDA California Climate Hub, with support from AFRI, to expand this course and create multiple pathways to climate resilience for California agriculture through research, extension and education.

Natalia partners with community organizations across the state and the Americas who serve structurally disenfranchised farmers. This includes work to serve Latinx farmers and farmworkers in California; organic seed producers in the United States; urban BIPOC farmers; and agroecology more broadly throughout Latin America.  She is the co-founder of Farmer Campus, an online school for farmers. Leaning on seven years of experience, she currently writing on effective pedagogies for virtual farmer education.
 
Natalia is a Colombian immigrant and has a background in microbiology, cell biology, microscopy and science education. She has an A.S in Biology and Chemistry from Raritan Valley Community College, a B.S in Conservation and Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. in Geography at UC Davis. She has diverse field research experience in mycology, soil microbiology and diversified farming systems. She loves farming and spent three years working in vegetable production and five years running a small goat dairy. Currently living in San Francisco as she completes her dissertation, she hopes to someday start a homestead and continue to serve farmers through action-research.
 
 
Publications:
 

Book Contributions

  • Galvis, Ana Cecilia, Brooke Porter, Paul Roge, Leah Atwood, and Natalia Pinzon Jimenez. 2020. “10. Holistic Pedagogies for Social Change: Reflections from an Urban Agroecology Farmer Training.” In Urban Agroecology: Interdisciplinary Research and Future Directions, edited by Monika Egerer and Hamutahl Cohen, 1st ed. CRC Press. 
  • Auer, M., Pinzon, N., Howard, GC. “Introduction to Part I: Imaging the Molecular Inventory”. Imaging Life: Biological Systems from Atoms to Tissues. Eds. Howard, Gary C., Brown, William E., Auer, Manfred. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014. 7-14. Print.
  • Auer, M., Pinzon, N., Howard, GC. “Introduction to Part II: Imaging Cellular and Tissue Structure”. Imaging Life: Biological Systems from Atoms to Tissues. Eds. Howard, Gary C., Brown, William E., Auer, Manfred. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014. 169-178. Print.
  • Auer, M., Pinzon, N., Howard, GC. “Introduction to Part III: Modeling of Complex Biological Functions”. Imaging Life: Biological Systems from Atoms to Tissues. Eds. Howard, Gary C., Brown, William E., Auer, Manfred. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2014. 391-396. Print.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Public Science Writing

Honors and Awards
  • AFRI Predoctoral Fellowship - 2021 - 2024
  • Switzer Environmental Fellows, Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation - 2021
  • Outstanding Project Award: The USDA Western ERME - 2020
Courses
  • SAS 98X : Climate Change and Agriculture (UC Davis), 2019 - 2026
  • Farming Through Wildfire Season (Farmer Campus), 2018 - 2024
  • Organic Seed Production (Organic Seed Alliance), 2016 - 2022
  • SAS 025V: Global Glimate Change (UC Davis), 2018
  • ESPM 117: Urban Agriculture and Food Justice (UC Berkeley) 2017-2018
  • Climate Resilience via Agroecology (Farmer Campus), 2017-2018
Research Interests & Expertise
  • ⬧ Agroecology ⬧ Socio-ecological research ⬧ Climate change resilience
  • ⬧ Agricultural Education ⬧ Distance Education
  • ⬧ Grant Writing ⬧ Impact Evaluation ⬧ Non-profit Development ⬧ Project Evaluation & Management

Who we are

We are a group of researchers looking at how to make agriculture and food systems more just and sustainable. We study the ways that political, economic, and social structures influence the resiliency and fairness of our food systems throughout the value chain from production to consumption. Our work has a particular emphasis on California and Latin America.