Dr. Cornelia Flora
Iowa State University

Biography:

Dr. Cornelia Flora currently serves as a Professor of Sociology and Director of North Central Regional Center for Rural Development at Iowa State University.

She received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley; and her MS and PhD from Cornell University

Dr. Cornelia Flora's research interests include international and domestic development, community, and the sociology of science and technology, particularly as related to agriculture and participatory change. Her current research includes work on the generation of social capital in community development, community, sustainable agriculture and natural resource management, with particular attention to how class, gender, and ethnicity influence and are influenced by technology and policy. Current research on rural poverty includes action research with persistent poverty communities responding to state and federal development programs (EZ/EC Champion Communities) and on indicators of sustainability. Current research on sustainable natural resource management focuses on linking social indicators of context, process and impact to information on the threats to environmental quality.