Gaye Burpee

Gaye Burpee is a soil scientist and consultant in smallholder agriculture and natural resources. She has significant research and development expertise in sustainable agriculture, soils, on-farm research and extension, rural development, the environment and socio-economics.

She recently retired from Catholic Relief Services, where she held a variety of positions. Most recently she advised on rural development programs in agriculture, environment and climate change in Latin America, South Asia, and Africa. She also directed program quality across regions from headquarters and for the Latin America and Caribbean region, and oversaw cross-country programs in sustainable agriculture, watershed management, rural development, soil management, coffee production and disaster risk reduction.

Gaye has written on adaptation to climate change for agricultural extension, agriculture and microfinance for rural development, farmer-friendly tools for soil management, and the socio-economics of farmer-fishers in the Dominican Republic. She has researched cover crops for fragile environments in the Dominican Republic, soil management for hillside agriculture in Central America with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), socio-economics at the University of Michigan, and household economics in the West Indies. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Granada.

Gaye has a Ph.D. and M.S. in soil science from Michigan State University and a B.A. in sociology and Latin American studies from Scripps College.