Francesca Mancini, was born on October 31st, 1970 in Genoa, Italy. In 1995, she graduated in Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Science at the University of Florence and attained a PhD in sustainable agriculture and farmer education at Wageningen University in 2006. Since 2001, she is employed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nation to coordinate programs on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Sustainable Natural Resource Management.