Victoria C. Ramenzoni

Victoria C. Ramenzoni is an Assistant Professor in Marine Policy and Social Science at Rutgers University, leading the Coastal Communities Adaptation Lab. Her research focuses on socioecological systems, adaptation strategies, and environmental policy, with fieldwork in the U.S., Cuba, and Indonesia. She investigates how households adapt to environmental and socioeconomic uncertainty, emphasizing resource governance and nutritional health. Ramenzoni has secured grants from the NSF and NOAA, including a 2021 Coast and People grant studying climate adaptation in Northeast U.S. marginalized communities. She previously served as Executive Secretary of the Interagency Working Group on Ocean Social Sciences (IOSSWG) and contributed to NOAA’s socioeconomic indicator frameworks. Her work bridges anthropology, ecology, and policy to address climate change impacts on coastal livelihoods.

Her research spans multiple regions: in the Northeast U.S., she examines commercial fishing adaptations during the pandemic and urban development pressures. In Cuba, she collaborates with Universidad de La Habana on dietary health and hurricane resilience in Yaguajay. In Indonesia, her studies in Flores and Kalimantan explore overfishing, peatland degradation, and traditional ecological knowledge. She employs ethnographic methods, nutritional assessments, and institutional analyses to evaluate long-term adaptation pathways.

Ramenzoni’s grants include a National Academies-funded study on offshore extractive activities’ impacts in the Gulf of Mexico and a Texas Commission-backed project on socioecological indicators. She advocates for co-governance models and has published extensively on adaptation frameworks, socioecological monitoring, and the paradoxes of development in oil-dependent regions.