Mr. Jake Joshua C. Garces is an Associate Professor V and currently serves as the Director of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (2022-present) and Vice- Chair of the Ethics Research Committee (ERC) (2022-present) at Cebu Normal University (CNU). As a dedicated faculty member of the Biology Department under the College of Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Sciences (CCAIS), he brings extensive experience and expertise to the field. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Biology (cum laude) from CNU in 2013 and a Master of Science in Environmental Studies from the University of the Philippines Cebu in 2017. His previous roles include Research Chair of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) (2022–2023), Members of the CNU ERC (2021-2022), CAS Quality Assurance (2021-2022), Chair of the Biology Department (2021–2022), and Division Chair of the Research Institute for Tropical Biology and Pharmacological Biotechnology (RITBPB) (2018–2020). As an adjunct faculty in the Master of Environmental Biology (MSc EBio) program, he teaches advanced courses, such as Research in Environmental Biology, Environmental Contaminants, Human Evolution, Environmental Field Study, Analysis of Population, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), among others. He is an alumnus of the Young Science Leaders Program of the Department of Science and Technology – National Academy of Science and Technology (DOST-NAST), and a Certificate Course Holder in Foresight and Futures Thinking (Batch 9) under the Scholarship Program of the Development Academy of the Philippines – Graduate School of Public and Development Management (DAPGSPDM). He has already published extensively in ACI, Clarivate Analytics, and Scopus-indexed journals. Currently, he is at the forefront of research in Philippine Mycology and Macrofungi, with a particular scientific emphasis on Basidiomycota. His work focuses on the biology, ecology, sustainable cultivation, and potential commercialization of Philippine mushrooms, contributing to both biodiversity conservation and bioeconomic development.