David F. Rodriguez-Mora is a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where his research examines Indigenous knowledge systems, the political ecology of culturally significant plants, and biocultural conservation in the Andes-Amazon region. He holds an M.S. in Plant Biology (Ethnobotany) from North Carolina State University, where his thesis explored the diversity of yagé and other plants used in Cofán spirituality and shamanism, and a B.S. in Biology from the National University of Colombia.

Rodriguez-Mora is affiliated with the Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation at the Bocas del Toro Research Station, and has taught and led field-based programs in environmental anthropology, ethnobotany, and tropical ecology across the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama. His published work focuses on Indigenous plant knowledge, intellectual property and benefit-sharing in community-based research, and entheogenic plant traditions in the Andes-Amazon.