As The Everglades Foundation’s Ecosystem and Resilience Scientist, Meenakshi merges advanced knowledge of Everglades ecosystem science, ecosystem services valuation, and resilience planning for the natural and built environment in South Florida. She applies that knowledge to tracking and understanding how decision-making focused on the Everglades and our communities affects ecological and economic outcomes across the ecosystem.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Meenakshi was Research Analyst with the USAID-funded Disaster Risk and Resilience in the Americas Program at Florida International University’s (FIU) Extreme Events Institute, where she performed economic evaluations of approximately 20 USAID risk reduction projects and was the program’s lead science writer. Meenakshi’s research has contributed to the fields of economic decision making in risk management, valuation of ecosystem services in policy making, and on the inclusion of sustainability, economic efficiency, and social equity in resilience planning for climate change. Meenakshi has also taught Biology and Ecology at the undergraduate and high school levels.

Meenakshi earned a Ph.D. in Earth Systems Science from FIU, a master’s degree in Environmental Studies from FIU, and a master’s in Zoology from the University of Delhi.