Dr. Margaret A. Rugadya is a natural resource economist, rights activist, and scholar, with more than twenty years of contributions to land tenure, resource governance, and gender equity. Currently, she serves as the Global Practice Leader on Gender, Land, and Resource Tenure at Resource Equity, a US-based INGO. Dr. Rugadya coalesced land rights activists, civil society organizations, and rural populations into a countrywide movement for pro-poor land law reforms, benefiting women and rural communities in Uganda. For this groundwork, she received two distinguished awards for outstanding contributions to law and policy reforms from the government and civil society organizations in Uganda.

As a researcher and scholar with expertise in natural resource governance, Dr. Rugadya has authored a compelling collection of authoritative research papers, journal articles, and book chapters focusing on socio-economic groups with fragile property rights. She serves on several Ph.D. committees as a reviewer and as a judge for candidates’ final oral examination. She edits and peer reviews for academic and professional journals. She has designed courses to train government agencies and non-state actors on land and natural resource policies that impact native communities and women. She holds a Ph.D. (Economics) from Maastricht University and a Master of Arts (Sociology) from Makerere University.