Dr. Gary J. Martin, a cultural anthropologist and ethnobotanist, is founder and director of Global Diversity Foundation, Global Environments Summer Academy and Global Environments Network. Gary was a lecturer in the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent from 1998 to 2011 and a Fellow of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society from 2010 to 2012. Twice a Fulbright scholar, he has a PhD in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and an undergraduate degree in botany. His applied research and teaching on conservation and ethnobotany has taken him to more than 50 countries over the last 30 years.

Gary lives in Marrakech with his wife, designer and hotelier, Meryanne Loum-Martin. He is a native speaker of English, speaks Spanish and French, and is currently learning Moroccan Arabic.