The Migration Climate-Nexus in Central America

Dr. Valerie Mueller
Senior Research Fellow, Development Strategy and Governance Division, International Food Policy Research Institute

Prior to joining IFPRI, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. She earned her B.S. in Environmental Economics and Policy from the University of California, Berkeley (1998), and both her M.S. and Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park (2001 and 2005, respectively).

Valerie has ten years of experience working on topics related to migration and poverty dynamics and the consequences of climate variability on household welfare in developing countries. She has extensive survey experience, particularly in the area of tracking migrants from longstanding panel surveys (e.g., in Ethiopia and Pakistan). Her research has culminated into several peer-reviewed publications, notably in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Climate Change, and World Development. She also serves on the Environmental Change and Migration Thematic Working Group for the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) hosted by the World Bank.