Gayatri Ganesh

Gayatri has 22 years of professional experience as an independent qualitative researcher and grant writer in the areas of community development, public health, social welfare, policy evaluation, and environmental mitigation in the UK and India. She has secured over $5 million in funds from USAID's American Schools and Hospitals Abroad program for grassroots organizations. For the past six years she has practiced regenerative farming in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve, Western Ghats, South India, where she lives. She co-founded a non-profit for the ecological restoration of the Nilgiris connecting with schools, indigenous tribes, businesses, and residents to re-wild the native ecology of the Nilgiris.

In 2003 Gayatri earned her Masters in Culture, Globalisation and the City from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on public health policies. At UC Davis she plans to specialize in regenerative agriculture, biodiversity, soil health, and equitable food systems. Gayatri takes an intersectional approach to her research. She believes that we need to reconnect with the natural world in order to walk lightly on this planet. Gayatri is an avid gardener, budding ecologist, and published nature writer. A list of her published materials is available on her LinkedIn profile.