Welcome!

My name is Rosario.

I am a researcher with expertise in resilient and sustainable supply chain management. I love research, teaching and science communication. I am also a strong advocate for girls in STEM education, particularly in engineering.

About my research:

Francisco Iturbide is 90-year-old small-farmer. He lives in a rural village in Mexico. Every morning, he wakes up at 5:00 am and heads up for the fields riding his donkey. At sunset, he comes back home after a long day of labour under a fiery sun. He is also my grandfather. He faces many struggles to earn a living; limited access to training and credits, insufficient infrastructure and environmental issues. Without any bargaining power, he sees himself in a squeeze between rising costs of inputs and decreasing sale prices for his products. His story is not unique; working in agriculture is closely related to poverty status in each region of the world. This is my main motivation to study short food supply chains (SFSCs) as a way for small-farmers to improve their socio-economic conditions, livelihoods, resilience and, ultimately, sustainability.

Read more about my current research projects here:

https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see/staff/11563/dr-rosario-michel-villarreal