Dr. Victoria Bugni

Dr. Victoria Bugni is an environmental economist with research focusing on international economics, infectious diseases, and bioeconomics. She has served as a contributing author to IUFRO’s Global Forest Expert Panel on Forests and Human Health. She has previously worked for the US Geological Survey in Fort Collins, CO on research involving natural hazards and oil and gas development. During her doctoral program, she completed an internship with Environment for Development-Tanzania in Dar es Salaam and helped generate and implement a survey in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. She has been working with Ecohealth Alliance since 2019, when she interned under Dr. Yasha Feferholtz through the EcoHealth Net program.  During this time, she worked on the Economic-Ecological Modeling of Land Use Change in Liberia project and examined palm oil development’s effects on the spread of Lassa fever in Liberia. Dr. Bugni also served as a sustainable agriculture volunteer with Peace Corps Senegal in the Kedougou region.

Dr. Bugni received Bachelors degrees in Biology and Economics from the University of Central Florida in addition to a Bachelors in Business Administration from ICN Business School in France. She also received Masters in Economics degrees from both the Barcelona School of Economics and the University of Wyoming. Her PhD in Economics was also completed with the University of Wyoming in 2021. Her dissertation focused on how ecological factors shape global trade through an empirical investigation of sustainable palm oil production on trade and a comparison of trade effects of two pandemics.