V. Ernesto Méndez is a Professor of Agroecology at the University of Vermont (UVM), where he is the faculty co-director of the Institute for Agroecology. He has over 30 years of experience working and collaborating in agroecology efforts in Latin America and around the world. Since 2022, he serves as vice-president of the board of directors of the Latin American Scientific Society for Agroecology (SOCLA). Ernesto obtained a BS in Crop Science from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, an MS in Tropical Agroforestry from the Tropical Agriculture Research and Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica, and a PhD in Agroecology and Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Ernesto was born and raised in El Salvador and migrated to the United States in 1987. After moving back and forth between the U.S. and Central America, he settled in the green mountain state of Vermont in 2006, where he currently lives with his partner, son, and daughter.