Gary Álvarez Mejía is a Bolivian researcher and Fulbright alum pursuing a PhD in Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. With a Master of Public Policy from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

His research examines the political economy of natural resource governance focusing on the critical minerals sector, with an interest in energy transition and extractive governance in developing countries, how voters and firms form preferences over foreign direct investment in extractive sectors, and how resource nationalist policies adopted by states affect economic outcomes in those sectors.