She is an ethnobiologist who researches food harvesting in Costa Rica. For the past decade, her research program has focused on access to food in Costa Rican national parks. Specifically, her emphasis has been on Indigenous rights to access and harvest cultural food. Olivia is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the International Society of Ethnobiology, the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage Project, and the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance. Being active within these networks allows her to work at the interface of policy and practice regarding food harvesting and access.