Dr. Maricelis Acevedo is Director of the Feed the Future Insect-Resistant Eggplant Partnership and an International Research Professor in in the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). In 2020 Dr. Acevedo became the Director for USAID Feed the Future Insect-Resistant Eggplant Partnership. Bt eggplant adoption in Bangladesh has significantly reduced the need to utilize insecticide in farmers’ fields while increasing crop yields.

Prior to joining Cornell, Acevedo was the cereal rust pathologist and assistant professor in the Plant Pathology Department at North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND. In 2010, she was among the first recipients of the Jeanie Laube Borlaug Women in Triticum Early Career Award.