Cecilia Rocha

Dr. Cecilia Rocha is the Director of the School of Nutrition, Ryerson University, where she is an Associate Professor of Food Security and Food Policy. From 2004 to 2010, Dr. Rocha was the Director of the project Building Capacity in Food Security in Brazil, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency, and developed in partnership with the Reference Centre for Food and Nutrition Security in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dr. Rocha is also an Associate Researcher and past Director (2005-2010) of the Centre for Studies in Food Security, and an Associate Researcher of the Centre for Global Health and Health Equity at Ryerson University. She was an active member of the Toronto Food Policy Council from 2006 to 2011, and participated in the development of the Toronto Food Strategy (2009-2010).

Her current research interests are on assessing the social efficiency of food security initiatives and programs, the role of market failures in food insecurity, and the effectiveness of markets as policy tools. Dr. Rocha has participated in research of food security conditions among immigrant populations in Toronto, urban food insecurity in South Africa, and the manifestation of food sovereignty in an indigenous settlement in Brazil.

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