María Dolores Pitarch is a lecturer in the Department of Geography at the Universitat de València since 2002 and has been teaching since 1996. She was awarded with the Extraordinary Doctorate Award in 2008 and has been a guest lecturer at the Research Centre for Nature and Man (Cuba), the University of Trier (Germany), the University of Grenoble (France), the London School of Economics (United Kingdom) and the University of Massey (New Zealand).  She has participated in research projects financed by the sixth and seventh framework programme of the European Union, Ministry of Science and Innovation and by the Generalitat Valenciana, among other organisations. She has published in prestigious journals such as the Bulletin of the Association of Spanish Geographers, or the European Journal of Geography, Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning, Sustainability. She is vice-dean of Economy and Infrastructures of the Faculty of Geography and History and is a member of the IIDL since its foundation.  

The IIDL is a research centre with theoretical and practical specialisation in the field of local development, in its broadest sense. It is made up of researchers from Universitat Jaume I and the Universitat de València, experts in the various topics covered in the concept of sustainable development, the implementation framework of policies and strategies of the local approach to development.