With a PhD in Environmental Sociology, Prof. Fadzilah Majid Cooke has been involved in research in the design of policy and processes in natural resource governance especially forests and land as well, more recently, in coastal and marine resources. She is member of a team designing free and prior informed consent processes in the oil palm production chain in Sabah, Malaysia. As a researcher she specialises in the design of social change, livelihood and entitlements in changing socio-ecological systems. In 2017 she has published as lead editor, a book on coastal livelihoods: Fisheries and Aquaculture Development in Sabah Implications for Society, Culture and Ecology. She is a member of the editorial council for the Southeast Asian Social Science Journal, National University of Malaysia (UKM), a fellow of the Asian Public Intellectual Programme, a member of the international steering committee for the Regional Initiative for Marginal Seas of East and South Asia (SIMSEA), based in Manila.