Xavier is a Bass Chair for Excellence in Teaching and Research Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at the Nicholas School of the Environment and director of the Coasts and Commons Co-Laboratory at Duke University. Prior to Duke, Xavier was a Visiting Associate at the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University. He obtained a Ph.D. in Environmental Policy with a minor in cultural anthropology, and two master degrees from the University of Arizona. A native from Mexico, Xavier has more than 20 years of experience studying why some small-scale fishing communities succeed and others fail to conserve their fishing resources? His empirical research program is grounded in long-term comparative studies based in Baja California and Northwest Mexico. He co-designed the first large-scale diagnostic study of the performance of fishing cooperatives in Mexico in full partnership with local practitioners, fishers, and government. Xavier is also co-principal investigator of the Illuminating Hidden Harvests Research initiative in partnership with FAO and WorldFish. IHH put together data from 58 countries with support of about 800 collaborators around the world to generate the needed knowledge base on the contributions of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development and galvanize transformative change in this space. Xavier has published more than 84 articles in a diversity of outlets. He is member of several scientific editorial boards, and has been of other scientific and practitioner organizations including the Scientific Committee of the Socio-Environmental Synthesis National Center (SESYNC), Comunidad y Biodiversidad (CoBi) in Mexico, and the Council of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). His work has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and a diversity of philanthropic organizations based in the U.S. and Europe.
PhD, Management, minor in Cultural Anthropology, University of Arizona, 2007
MPA, School of Public Administration & Policy, University of Arizona, 2004
MS, School of Natural Resources, University of Arizona, 2002
BS, Marine Resource Management, ITESM Campus Guaymas, Mexico, 1997