Tania Eulalia Martinez-Cruz is an Ayuuk indigenous woman from Tamazulápam del Espiritu Santo, Mixe, Oaxaca, Mexico. She holds a multidisciplinary background; she received a B.Sc. in Irrigation Engineering from Chapingo Autonomous University in 2009. In 2009, she became the first indigenous recipient of a Fulbright scholarship in Mexico and pursued her graduate studies in the US. In 2012, she graduated with a master’s degree in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering from the University of Arizona. In 2020 she completed her PhD in social sciences at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
She has an extensive experience in international development working on sanitary engineering, biofuels production, water management in agriculture, rural and agricultural development, climate justice, gender, and social inclusion. She has collaborated in several projects and international organisations around the world. Currently she works as a research consultant for the University of Greenwich on topic of nutrition, gender and indigenous food systems in the Peruvian Amazonas.
Tania is also a social activist promoting the conservation of indigenous knowledge as key to the biocultural diversity of indigenous peoples and to taclkle global problems. In 2018, she presented on these issues at the 1st High-Level Expert Seminar on Indigenous Food Systems at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, in 2019 in the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany and in the United Nations headquarters in New York. She also collaborates with several pro-education NGOs that support indigenous girls, women, and children, and children and youth in vulnerable situations. In 2016, she was awarded the Mexican National Youth Prize for academic achievement but also for her commitment to supporting social causes.