We are pleased to announce that Mallika Sardeshpande and Opeyemi Adeyemi (Yemi) have joined the CATE team remotely as Editorial Board Members for a one-year appointment! As contributors to the editorial board, Mallika and Yemi bring urban social-ecological research expertise, knowledge of academic publishing, and extensive international experiences spanning multiple countries and continents. More information about Mallika and Yemi’s professional backgrounds and biographies can be found below.
A primary goal of bringing on two international fellows is to grow CATE’s readership and contributors from academics and practitioners in the Global South. With Mallika based out of South Africa and Yemi based out Nigeria, CATE has expanded its digital footprint through an international audience and continues to provide critical publishing opportunities and open access to a wide community of scholars and practitioners.
CATE’s new Editorial Board members are supported through a partnership between Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Urban Resilience and office of Global-Local Affairs.
Opeyemi Adeyemi (Yemi)
Opeyemi Adeyemi (Yemi) holds a doctorate degree in Forest Science from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, a master’s degree in Sustainable Environmental Management from the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom, and a Bachelor’s degree in Forestry (First-Class Hons) from the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Nigeria. Yemi has interdisciplinary and participatory research experience that covers several areas, including food security, forest products utilization, ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, forestry education and land-use science.
Yemi’s current research interests center around understanding how harmonious relationships between people and nature can be achieved to address global environmental problems and contribute to a sustainable life. Presently, Yemi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, South Africa. His postdoctoral research aims to understand urban foraging practices and perceptions in African cities to provide insights that could help landscape managers redesign urban landscapes for better human-nature relationships.
In addition to his research activities, he has also gained practical experience in international policy and multicultural environment through consultancy jobs, fellowships, and internships with the European Forest Institute (EFI), International Union of Forestry Research Organization (IUFRO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Yemi also lectures at the Department of Forestry, FUTA. He is a recipient of several prestigious scholarships, including Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, NRF-TWAS Doctoral Scholarship, University of Pretoria Research Bursary, Richard Shuttleworth Remembrance Trust Grant, and 2020 UNESCO MAB Young Scientist Award.
Mallika Sardeshpande
Mallika Sardeshpande is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and Research Affiliate at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in India. She works on multidisciplinary research and implementation in the environment-food-health nexus. Her work relates to urban ecology, greening, and restoration, indigenous and wild food spaces and foraging, food environments and food systems policy, and indigenous forestry. She engages with communities and policymakers to translate science into actionable impact on the ground.
Mallika’s work portfolio includes seven peer-reviewed articles in accredited journals, as well as several policy briefs, articles on popular websites, reports to institutions and communities, and posters, presentations, webinars, and workshops at various fora. Her work spans the continuum between biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration, agroecological transitions, environmental and food policy, human health and well-being, and urbanization.
Mallika earned her Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Fergusson College, and her Master’s degree in Conservation and Rural Development from Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent where she studied natural sciences, multidisciplinary perspectives, protected area management, and the economics of conservation. Mallika went on to earn her PhD in Environmental Science from Rhodes University. She was recognized by British Council and the University of Kent with the GREAT Scholar Award and JN Tata Scholar Award for her outstanding scholastic achievement. Mallika’s other interests include the outdoors and the arts.