Fay Rola-Rubzen

Dr. Fay Rola-Rubzen is an agricultural economist and development economist affiliated with the University of Western Australia (UWA) since 2018. She holds the roles of Deputy Director of the Center for Agricultural Economics and Development and Adjunct Associate Professor in the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. Her expertise spans farming systems research, farmer behavior under risk, gender and poverty analysis, agribusiness supply chains, and socio-economic impact assessments.

Education: BSAgEcon (Hons-cum laude) from University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and MEc PhD from University of New England (UNE). She has extensive international experience leading projects in Asia and Africa, including ACIAR-funded initiatives and collaborations with UN-FAO, ADB, and IRRI.

Research Interests: Agricultural economics, sustainable development, poverty alleviation, behavioral economics, farmer technology adoption, gender mainstreaming, and economic modeling.

Recent Projects:

• Project Leader for Understanding Farm-Household Management Decision making in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (ACIAR, 2018–present)
• Co-investigator for Smallholder Dairy Cooperatives and Climate Change Resilience initiatives (WUN & UWA)
• Leads behavioral science team in RiskWi$e (GRDC-funded national risk management initiative)

Grants & Leadership:

• Over $30M in project funding across 10+ active grants
• Prior roles include Deputy Dean at Curtin University and leadership in Desert Knowledge CRC

Labs/Teams: Core member of UWA Center for Environmental Economics and Policy and collaborator in worldwide networks addressing SDGs.