Martina is the Associate Director of Research at the Research Institute for a Sustainable Environment (RISE, formerly known as the Desert Development Center) of The American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt. She is a geographer by training, specialized in sustainable community development and resource management. Martina has been working in Cairo for 10 years, researching communities in Egypt's rural areas and implementing community sustainability projects across the country. She has also taught gender and women's studies courses on environment, development and participatory research methodologies at Graduate level at AUC. Martina's previous research experience includes work on the concept of sustainability, participatory governance, and sustainability education in Australia, Indonesia and Germany. She holds a PhD in Human Geography from the Australian National University.