Assistant Professor, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver

Dr. Linda Estelí Méndez-Barrientos directs the Environmental Policy & Justice Research Group (EPJR) and the s2e-Science to Empower environmental justice initiative. Her research and advocacy aim to understand and shape how inequality and power asymmetries influence institutional change, public policy processes, and justice in the context of environmental governance and natural resource conflicts. Born and raised in Nicaragua, Dr. Méndez-Barrientos earned her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California Davis, and holds two master’s degrees, one on Water Management from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and the other on Tropical Agrarian Systems from Montpellier SupAgro in France. She served as an environmental policy analyst for several years with the Environmental Defense Fund and is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards.