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 Grace Jones
Grace Jones has several years of experience
working on sustainable agriculture and food security projects
in Central America. She spent one summer as a member of an
interdisciplinary team conducting an evaluation of food security
and nutritional status among indigenous people in El Quiche,
one of Guatemala’s poorest regions.
Grace graduated with a BA in International Relations from
San Francisco State University in 1992. Wishing to pursue
her interest in international agriculture, she completed a
residential apprenticeship program at the Center for Agrotechnology
and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California,
Santa Cruz. Following her completion of this program, she
joined the Peace Corps, and worked as a hillside agriculture
extensionist in Honduras. Grace helped local farmers increase
their yields on hillside plots, and she also developed a network
of women’s groups engaged in the production of vegetables
for household consumption. Following her return to the US,
Grace served as a research intern at California FarmLink,
an NGO dedicated to promoting family farming and conserving
farmland. Grace holds a MS in International Agricultural Development
and a MS in Agronomy from the University of California, Davis.
She speaks fluent Spanish.
Her field placement is with Counterpart International in
Alta Vera Paz, Guatemala, where she educates farmers about
sustainable agriculture and agroforestry methods in six rural
communities. She also helps women’s groups to plant a
variety of fruits and vegetables, and promotes the use of
locally available medicinal and edible plants, improving families’
access to nutritious food. Grace’s project is part of
a larger Counterpart-led effort to raise incomes and train
local people to work as guides in the developing eco-tourism
industry.
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