Dr. Nathan Bennett (nathanbennett.ca) is a freelance researcher, teacher, facilitator and consultant who works for various non-governmental, academic, and philanthropic organizations. Currently, he is a Research Consultant to the EqualSea Lab at the Universidade de Santiago do Compostela, the Principal of The Peopled Seas Initiative and the Chair of the People and the Ocean Specialist Group for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. He has published more than 70 academic papers and book chapters on the human dimensions of marine and terrestrial conservation, small-scale fisheries, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, and governance of the blue economy. His work is global in scope – with past research projects in Canada, Mexico, Thailand, and around the Mediterranean Sea. He received his PhD in Geography from the University of Victoria (2013), and has been the recipient of a number awards including a Trudeau Doctoral Scholarship, SSHRC Doctoral and Postdoctoral Awards, a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award.