ILCI - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Forum
- Member of the ILCI Partnership Committee
Alioune Fall is the Chairperson of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) Board of Directors and the former Director General of Senegal's National Institute for Agricultural Research (ISRA). He is also a member of the Scientific council of CIRAD (France) since 2016 and was appointed as President of the council in 2019 for a 3-year term.
He holds a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Agriculture from the Sam Houston State University, Texas, United States, and a Doctorate degree (PhD) in Agricultural Engineering from Michigan State University, United States. Dr. Fall's career in research spans three and a half decades. He joined ISRA in 1984 as a researcher and rose quickly to become Regional Coordinator of Farm Mechanization and Post-harvest Technology projects. Dr. Fall served as the Scientific Director of ISRA from 2008 to 2013 when he was appointed the Director General. He served as the Chairperson of CORAF's Board of Directors from 2014 to 2018.
Job Titles:
- Operations Manager
- Operations Manager for the Feed
Anna Garber Hammond serves as operations manager for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement. She joined Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2010 when she moved to the United States from her home country of Ukraine. Back in Ukraine, Anna had broad experience working both in the education and business fields. She earned her master's degree in psychology and linguistics from Donetsk National University, Ukraine. Anna enjoys her meaningful work in the area of international agriculture and loves her active lifestyle in Ithaca, NY.
Brandon Monier's research interests lie in bioinformatics, software development, and education. Currently based at the Buckler Lab at Cornell University, he is working on methods to efficiently assemble and annotate several hundred wild grass relatives of maize and sorghum through the PanAnd Project. Monier is also the creator and maintainer of various R packages and web applications, including rTASSEL, an R front-end for TASSEL.
Before coming to Cornell, his research focused on bioinformatics approaches to microbial interactions in next-generation lignocellulosic feedstocks and their impact on biomass development. Additionally, he has studied cytotypic variation and established tools for downstream functional genomics analyses in prairie cordgrass, a potential next-generation biofuel.
Monier's role on the genomics team at ILCI includes working with Centers of Innovation to develop genomic analytical pipelines to be used with cloud computing, and improving TASSEL to work with plant breeders across the ILCI network.
Brenda Boonabaana is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment, College of Liberal Arts, the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Her research focuses on feminist geography, sustainable development, social equity, women empowerment and sustainable agriculture/tourism, environmental justice, and climate change resilience.
Ciara Coughlin is the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Advisor for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement, as well as with RTI International. She coordinates the Innovation Lab's monitoring data collection, reporting, and analysis; working to provide data for decision-making, knowledge-sharing, and learning. She comes to this position from working as a MEL Specialist at USAID's Global Development Lab with experience in strategy development, cross-team learning, and budget formulation. Coughlin holds a M.P.P. in Public Policy from Duke University and a B.A. in International Development from Boston University.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director of Cultural Practice
Deborah (Dee) Rubin the co-director of Cultural Practice, LLC. She co-founded Cultural Practice determined to use anthropology, with its focus on context and cultural knowledge, to improve outcomes in international development. Dee works closely with groups leading the gender and agriculture development agenda, including USAID, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She is a core team member of the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project (GAAP2), led by IFPRI, and has shaped the qualitative research supporting the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) and WEAI for Value Chains (WEAI4VC).
Devon Jenkins is the program manager for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement.
Previously, Devon worked as the project manager for two gender-related projects in Cornell's Department of Global Development, ‘Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation' (GREAT) and ‘Advancing Women in Agriculture through Research and Education' (AWARE). With GREAT, Devon worked closely with colleagues at Uganda's Makerere University through a joint management structure, and ran communications, reporting and the group's Community of Practice. With AWARE, Devon managed a weekly global newsletter, graduate travel grants, and a campus speaker series. He joined the department in 2014, working first on a 13-country project ‘Improving and Scaling up the System of Rice Intensification in West Africa' (SRI-WAAP) project, where he led communications, designed and developed project websites, created a mobile data collection and GIS-based monitoring and evaluation system, led technical field trainings, led donor reporting, and co-wrote project technical manuals.
Devon has a Master's Degree in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University (2013), a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College (2001), and is working on a Master's Degree in Regional Planning at Cornell University, with a focus on municipal climate change mitigation. He served as an agriculture volunteer with the Peace Corps in Benin (2012-2013), where he worked with the Songhaï Center testing and developing new agricultural training packages, and coordinated a rice training for Feed the Future West Africa Food Security Partnership, and in Niger (2004-2005), where he worked on agriculture and public health projects in a small village, and organized a 60-village garden seed purchasing cooperative.
Devon lives in Ithaca with his wife and small child, and enjoys biking, hiking, gardening, and caring for fruit trees.
Dil Thavarajah is currently leading Clemson University's pulse biofortification research program to combat malnutrition and obesity. Thavarajah co-leads the Phenomics component of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement.
Thavarajah started the first USA Pulse Quality and Nutrition Laboratory at North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, in 2010. Before these positions, Thavarajah worked at the Canadian lentil biofortification program at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Thavarajah is internationally recognized as a leader in lentil biofortification, especially for iron and selenium. Thavarajah advises graduate and undergraduate students and serves as an honorary visiting lecturer, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and an advisor to the ICARDA Lentil Biofortification program.
Thavarajah holds a PhD in Plant Physiology and MSc in Soil Science from the University of Saskatchewan and a BSc in Soil Science from the University of Peradeniya.
Job Titles:
- Co - Principal Investigator, Crop Innovation in West Africa ( CIWA )
Dr. Cyril Diatta is a plant breeder at the Regional Center for the Study of Crop Adaptation to Drought (CERAAS), Thies, and at Bambey Agronomic Research center (CNRA), both belonging to the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research (ISRA). He has experience in breeding scheme optimization, population development and phenotyping, drought resistance phenotyping and breeding, grain mold resistance phenotyping and breeding, Striga resistance phenotyping and breeding, breeding for grain and forage quality, molecular breeding, quantitative genetic, and seed system. In the last five years, his research focused on the development of stable high yielding dual purpose sorghum varieties that are resistant to drought, grain mold, striga and adapted to the different agroecological zones of Senegal. He released with his research mentor several tannin-free dual purpose sorghum varieties in Senegal. Currently, he leads the sorghum breeding program of ISRA, and the Cereale program of ISRA/CNRA of Bambey. He also participates in the teaching and training of students in plant breeding and quantitative genetics at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) of Dakar and at Iba Der Thiam University (UIDT) of Thies, Senegal. He also supervises student activities on research and thesis preparation.
Job Titles:
- Fellow at Corteva Agriscience
Dr. David Meyer is a Fellow at Corteva Agriscience. During his 38-year career he has worked in diverse areas of R&D with a passion to contribute to the optimization of holistic, customized, sustainable cropping systems for large and small holder farmers.
His 27 years of breeding experience includes: applied sorghum and maize breeder, regional maize breeding leader for NA Western Corn belt and global precision phenotyping leader for drought stress.
His applied genomics experience includes leading the global applied molecular marker labs. In partnership with breeding, emerging DNA tools were leveraged to accelerate genetic gain and realized yield for many crops.
In the Predictive Ag function, he led the global field efforts to harness and de-risk emerging digital and precision phenotyping technology.
Currently as a Corteva Agriscience Fellow he is contributing to the re-imagining and bringing to life of novel cropping systems aimed at increasing customer profitability and sustainability.
In addition to his technical roles David has also contributed to food security issues and helping the small holder farmer reach their full potential. He has led internal food security employee networks in his company and contributed externally in an advisory role with Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, USAID and CGIAR.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Principal Scientist, Central American and Caribbean Crop Improvement Alliance ( CACCIA )
Pressoir currently serves as the Dean for the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (FSAE) at Quisqueya University and senior scientist of the Chibas Foundation (Haitian Center for Innovation in Biotechnology and Sustainable Agriculture) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He is a Haitian national trained as a sorghum breeder and applied plant geneticist with the French Research Institute for Development (IRD), CIMMYT, and Cornell University, where he co-first-authored and developed one of the most widely methods used in association mapping (Yu, Pressoir et al. 2005, Nature genetics, 38(2), 203-208).
Pressoir founded Chibas in 2010 with sorghum and edible Jatropha breeding programs. He has steadily expanded Haiti's crop improvement research portfolio into the current FSAE/Chibas team of more than 40 staff members led by seven new research faculty members at Quisqueya now also working on maize, common bean, cowpea, peanuts, pigeonpea, rice, sweet potato and cassava in plant breeding, agronomy, animal nutrition, economics, and food science. Chibas is undergoing full integration into Quisqueya University to ensure the long-term viability of this progress.
Pressoir continues to rapidly diversify and expand FSAE's position as the leading agricultural research innovation hub in Haiti. Recent awards from the Haitian Ministry of Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Rural Development (supported by the Interamerican Development Bank) and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will facilitate a doubling of FSAE research faculty members at Quisqueya in the 2020-2021 academic term. His research team currently collaborates with crop scientists around the world, including partnerships with CIAT, CIP, CIRAD, Cornell University, Kansas State University, Laval University, and the School of Agriculture of Montpellier.
Starting his sorghum breeding program in 2010, he began selection for an aphid-resistant sorghum cultivar. Therefore, he was able to immediately respond, in 2015, when the sugarcane aphid was introduced to Haiti. Less than 10 years old, this sorghum program's impact has already made considerable contributions to the productivity of Haitian agriculture. Pressoir responded by releasing the aphid-resistant variety, Papèpichon, in 2017, currently estimated to be 90% of Haiti's current sorghum acreage. Three new cultivars-Baton Moyiz, 2kabès, and Tinen-2-were released in 2019 and 2020 to respond to regional farmer preferences and diversify the sorghum product profiles available for Haitian growers. The sugarcane aphid introduction cut Haiti's national sorghum production down from over 100,000 metric tons a year in 2014 to an estimated productivity nadir of only 14,000 metric tons in 2017. With the introduction of Papèpichon in late 2017, Haitian sorghum production has been steadily recovering and has multiplied five-fold to 70% of pre-infestation levels.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer for Bill & Melinda
Dr. Joe Cornelius is the chief executive officer for Bill & Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations, known as Gates Ag One, which aims to ensure high-quality, cutting-edge crop innovations are available and accessible to small holder farmers in developing countries. Joe began his career on a small family farm and now brings more than 30 years experience and a continued dedication to improving the world through agricultural advancements.
Prior to leading Gates Ag One, Joe served as a director for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Growth & Opportunity Division and as program director for the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the U.S. Department of Energy, where he led transformational platform efforts in computational agriculture, smart-farm technologies and the sustainable management of carbon, nitrogen, and water to improve terrestrial and marine ecosystems while mitigating greenhouse gas fluxes into the atmosphere.
Joe has led cutting edge life-science research and development for companies like Bayer, Monsanto, Pfizer, and BASF. Notably, Joe collaboratively developed and launched over 75 new product inventions and 8 Ag-Tech start-ups across 60 countries.
Joe holds a PhD in plant genetics and molecular biology and a MS in plant physiology and biochemistry from Michigan State University.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Executive Director of INTA
- Principal Investigator, Central American and Caribbean Crop Improvement Alliance ( CACCIA )
José Roberto Camacho is executive director of INTA and a plant breeder dedicated to the development of new and better plant varieties for improving the livelihood of Central American farmers. Along with his work is a cereal breeder, he works on the development of rice varieties for multiple environments, using conventional and molecular methods. In addition to his breeding responsibilities, he is the current Coordinator of Costa Rica's Integrated Rice Research and Extension Program.
Dr. Camacho firmly believes in education as the fundamental means of self-improvement, a philosophy of life that he transmits daily to his co-workers, interns, and students. From a small rural community of Costa Rican Caribbean region, he obtained his B.Sc. in Agronomy at EARTH University, an internationally recognized non-profit university located in Costa Rica. He obtained his Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Louisiana State University in 2017, where he worked in their world-renowned rice breeding program.
Job Titles:
- Dean of the Graduate School
- Partnership Advisor
Dr. Levon Esters is dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education at Penn State. He provides leadership and oversight across all of Penn State's more than 200 graduate fields of study, including 109 research master's degree programs, 99 professional master's degree programs and 95 research doctoral programs. A nationally recognized scholar on mentoring, equity, and diversity in the STEM-based agricultural and life sciences disciplines, he also serves as adjunct professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University.
Prior to joining Penn State in 2023, he served as professor and associate dean for diversity, equity & inclusion and faculty affairs in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute at Purdue University. At Purdue he served as director of the Mentoring@Purdue (M@P) program which was designed to increase the representation of students from marginalized and minoritized backgrounds receiving advanced post-secondary STEM-based agricultural and life sciences degrees in Purdue's College of Agriculture.
As the Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) Partnership Advisor at the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement, Levon leads the Thomas Wyatt Turner Fellowship, a graduate fellowship and faculty mentorship program that promotes collaboration between MSIs and Cornell University.
Levon's research focuses on issues of educational equity and access to education for marginalized and minoritized students with a concentration on the mentoring needs of Black graduate students; STEM career development of students attending Historically Black Land-grant Colleges and Universities; and educational and professional mobility and development of Black graduate students and faculty. In addition to being selected as a Fulbright Scholar, Levon also serves as a Senior Research Associate at The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) at Rutgers University which has afforded him opportunities to engage in research related to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Levon earned degrees in Agricultural Business (B.S., Florida A&M University), Agricultural Education (M.S., North Carolina A&T State University) and Agricultural & Extension Education (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University).
Job Titles:
- Director of Agriculture and Agro - Industry at the African Development Bank
- Member of the ILCI Partnership Committee
Dr. Martin Fregene is Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry at the African Development Bank. He is a plant geneticist and molecular breeder with 25 years of experience in genetics and breeding of cassava. Dr. Fregene developed the first molecular genetic map of cassava and started the first cassava molecular breeding program to accelerate development of improved cassava varieties for various agro-ecologies of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He began his career at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1991 as a cassava breeder. While at IITA, he was a recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation post-doctoral fellowship on genetic mapping (1993 - 1996) that took him to the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia. After CIAT he joined the BioCassava Plus project at the Danforth Center, a multi-national development program funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he rose to the position of Director of the project. Dr. Fregene received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, graduating at the top of his class. His Ph.D. in plant genetics and breeding, also from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, was in collaboration with IITA, the John Innes Center, Norwich UK, and CIAT.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of the Tata
Dr. Mathew Abraham is the Assistant Director of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) in the Department of Global Development at Cornell University and the co-lead of the Institutional Evaluation component of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement
TCI is a long-term research initiative focusing on the design and evaluation of innovative interventions linking agriculture, food systems, human nutrition, and poverty. Abraham is responsible for coordinating the research and offering strategic guidance and support for project implementation at TCI.
Previously, Abraham joined TCI as a post-doctoral associate in August 2015, after completing his PhD from the Department of International Economics and Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark in 2015. His research focuses on evaluation methodologies, agricultural value chains and markets, food security in developing countries, technology and institutional innovation for agricultural development.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Co - Principal Investigator
- Principal Investigator and Director, Center of Innovation for Crop Improvement for East and Southern Africa ( CICI - ESA )
Dr. Michael M. Chipeta is a Plant Breeder and a Lecturer in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), Malawi. He holds a PhD in Plant Breeding from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Dr Chipeta is a 2018 Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellow at the University of Tennessee, USA, a Fellow of the African Science Leadership Programme, an affiliate of African academy of Sciences and an African Plant Breeding Academy scholar. Dr Chipeta teaches Plant breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology courses and supervises research projects for both under graduate and postgraduate students. Apart from teaching, he manages Cowpea and Bambara Groundnut Breeding Programmes in Malawi and his research is focused on selection and development of high yielding, disease resistant, drought tolerant, nutritionally rich and stable varieties for improved food, income, climate resilient and nutrition security in Malawi. To date, he has published eight research articles in the field of plant breeding and genetics.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Research Officer
- Principal Investigator, East African Center of Innovation for Finger Millet and Sorghum ( CIFMS )
Scovia Adikini is a senior research officer, plant breeder and geneticist at the National Semi arid Resources Research Institute (NaSARRI). As team leader of the dry land cereal research program she ensures that appropriate technology is generated, promoted and disseminated to the right stake holders in order to reduce poverty and hunger, improve income and health and ensure environmental sustainability. Scovia also doubles as a breeder, where her current research focuses on improving finger millet and sorghum productivity for food and nutritional security and income through breeding for varieties that are well adapted and has required market traits. She is currently evaluating over 1000 lines of finger millet for various traits.
Previously, Scovia worked as plant health specialist at the National Crops Resources Research Institute where she managed to develop and operationalize the first cassava seed system inspection and certification standards of its kind for Uganda. Scovia also worked with IITA and contributed in genetic transformation of banana for nematode resistance. She has authored five publications in peer reviewed journals. Scovia holds BSc. Agriculture, MSc and PhD in crop science, all from Makerere University. Scovia also attended gender training by Gender-responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) and next generation genomics and breeding for crop improvement by ICRISAT India.
Ed Buckler is a Research Geneticist with the USDA-ARS and an Adjunct Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University. He serves as the Genomics lead for the Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement.
Ed began his career studying molecular evolution and archaeology, which got him interested in using natural diversity to improve crops and increase sustainability. He developed association mapping approaches and germplasm to pinpoint genes and find natural variation controlling many maize traits. Ed's group has also developed a wide range of big data, bioinformatic, and molecular tools that have been used to characterize and tap diversity in over 2,000 species.
Currently, Ed's group is developing approaches to use multiple sources of biological knowledge to design sustainable energy efficient crops that are adapted to numerous environments. He has also served in numerous leadership positions within the crop and genetics communities and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ed holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Missouri, Columbia and a B.A. in Biology and Archaeology from the University of Virginia.
Job Titles:
- Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement
Eric Yirenkyi Danquah serves as the Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, established in the University of Ghana (UG) in 2007 as a consequence of his shared vision and leadership to train a new generation of plant breeders to develop improved varieties of the staple crops of West and Central Africa. Danquah is a Professor of Plant Genetics at the Department of Crop Science of the College of Basic and Applied Sciences, UG, an adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia, and a visiting scientist at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University.
Danquah earned the 2022 Africa Food Prize in recognition of extraordinary efforts to change the reality of farming in Africa. He is a recipient of the University of Ghana Distinguished Award for Meritorious Service, a member of the IAEA's Standing Advisory Group on Nuclear Applications, the 2018 Laureate of the Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences (GCHERA) World Agriculture Prize and the President of the African Plant Breeders Association. He has over two decades of experience leading and advising genetic diversity and crops research.
He holds a BSc. degree in Agriculture (Crop Science) from the University of Ghana, and, an MPhil degree in Plant Breeding and a PhD in Genetics from the University of Cambridge, UK.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Crop Quantitative Genomics at Colorado State University
Geoffrey is an Associate Professor of Crop Quantitative Genomics at Colorado State University. As Trait Discovery lead for ILCI, he helps partners achieve their goals on discovery and delivery of useful new traits. He provides training and tools that empower partners with an applied scientific method.
Greg Traxler is a member of the institutional capacity research team. He is an economist with expertise in the areas of agricultural science and technology policy, the impact of crop improvement and biotechnology in agriculture, human capital in developing countries, and the economics of genetic resources. He has authored studies measuring the impacts of genetically modified crops in the U.S. and globally, the effect of monopoly power and economies of size in technology generation, and on the value of pre-commercial germplasm.
Traxler has served on the faculty at the University of Washington Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, and in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Auburn University. From 2008 - 2014 Traxler was a Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation where he developed and managed a portfolio of grants to support building the capacity for agricultural policy analysis and implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Traxler has a Ph.D. from Iowa State University, an MSc. from the University of Minnesota and a BBA from the University of Portland. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economics and served as a member of the National Academies of Sciences committee, Global Challenges and Directions for Agricultural Biotechnology.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor in Cornell University 's School of Integrative Plant Science
Hale Ann Tufan is associate professor in Cornell University's School of Integrative Plant Science. In her work with plant breeders, social scientists, and research institutions, Tufan explores how agricultural research processes and outputs can positively contribute to gender equality and social inclusion. Through her research to develop methods and approaches she enables gender+ analysis in agricultural innovation, while advocating for inclusive agricultural research by challenging power and norms in the research ecosystem.
Tufan serves in leadership positions of several grant-funded projects aimed at food security, crop improvement, seed systems, and gender relations. She is currently the priority setting co-lead of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement, principal investigator of the Gender Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) project, principal investigator of Muhogo Bora: Cassava for All, survey division lead of NextGen Cassava, and gender research lead of the Feed the Future Insect-Resistant Eggplant Partnership.
Tufan brings a multidisciplinary background to her research spanning Ph.D.-level research in molecular plant pathogen interactions, plant breeding with CIMMYT, international agricultural research for development program management, and gender research and capacity development across sub-Saharan Africa.
Tufan is the 2019 recipient of the Norman Borlaug Field Award. She completed her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the John Innes Centre, UK.
Job Titles:
- Professor at King Adbdullah University of Science
Jesse Poland is Professor at King Adbdullah University of Science and Technology and serves as Director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics and as the Director of the Wheat Genetics Resource Center Industry-University Cooperative Research Center. Poland co-leads the Phenomics component of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement.
Job Titles:
- Co - Principal Investigator, Center of Innovation for Crop Improvement for East and Southern Africa ( CICI - ESA )
- Lecturer of Social Work
Jessica Kampanje-Phiri (PhD) is a social anthropologist specialized in understanding the socio-cultural dimension of food systems in Malawi and beyond. Her specific areas of academic and research expertise include: food and nutrition policy analysis, the natural, social, political, institutional, economic, cultural, and technological aspects of food, poverty and livelihood security, power and gender relations, social-cultural inequalities, humanitarian interventions and development assistance.
Kampanje-Phiri is a Lecturer of Social Work and the former Deputy Head for the department of Human Ecology at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR). In CICI-ESA, Kampanje-Phiri is one of the researchers for Malawi and will bring her above stated expertise to understanding complexities and dynamics of human interactions, gender and policy issues in the context of cow-pea value chain in order to inform the priority setting and uptake phases of this research project.
Job Titles:
- Co - Principal Investigator, ILCI - Caribbean - Atlantic Seed Systems Initiative
Joe DeVries has been at the forefront of African agricultural development for over 30 years. In the 1980s he built irrigation schemes in the drought-ravaged Sahel. In the 1990s he designed and led agricultural relief and recovery initiatives in Mozambique and numerous other countries experiencing conflict, war, and complex humanitarian emergencies. He earned a PhD in plant breeding and genetics at Cornell University in 1994. In 1997, he joined The Rockefeller Foundation, and turned his focus to breeding and seed systems development as a long-term, sustainable solution to hunger and low crop productivity among smallholder farmers. In 2006, he co-founded the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, designing and then leading AGRA's flagship initiative, the Program for Africa's Seed Systems (PASS). By 2017, 114 private, independent seed companies supported by AGRA were annually producing 143,000 MT of certified seed annually, serving the needs of approximately 15 million smallholder farmers. As Vice-President for Program Development at AGRA, DeVries led in the establishment of many ground-breaking initiatives, including the impact investment funds, Pearl Capital Ltd. and Injaro Agricultural Capital Holdings, Ltd., the African Seed Investment Fund, the Seeds for Impact Fund, the Fund for the Improvement and Adoption of African Crops, the African Center for Crop Improvement at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, the West African Center for Crop Improvement at the University of Ghana, and the Seed Enterprise Management Institute at the University of Nairobi. In 2019, he established Seed Systems Group (SSG), which is dedicated to developing sustainable seed supply systems in countries which have so far missed out on Africa's emerging Green Revolution. SSG currently works in eight countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Haiti, Madagascar, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, and Togo.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at Cornell University in the Plant Breeding
Kelly Robbins is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University in the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science. Robbins is the lead of the Breeding Informatics component of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement and is the lead of the Bioinformatics, Biometrics and Data Management Module of the Excellence in Breeding Platform. His expertise is in quantitative genetics, plant breeding and animal breeding with 7 years of private sector experience working in seeds and traits R&D.
The Robbins Lab conducts research to develop and implement advanced modeling and informatics capabilities to increase understanding of complex traits and improve the efficiency of breeding programs. Current research projects are focused on bioenergy, genomic selection, proximal sensing and plant phenotypic plasticity and adaptation. The Robbins Lab is involved in multiple collaborations to improve the efficiency of breeding programs in Africa and South Asia.
Robbins holds a BS from the University of Tennessee and a MS and PhD from the University of Georgia.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator
- Senior Research Scientist at the National Root Crops Research Institute
Lydia Jiwuba is a senior research scientist at the National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Nigeria and a research associate for the Nextgen Cassava breeding project. At the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement, Lydia is the PI of the taro leaf blight project based in Nigeria. Her research interests include the use of biotechnology tools in the genetic improvement and production of cassava and cocoyam and also implementation of genomic selection.
Professor Mark Cooper is Chair of Prediction Based Crop Improvement at The University of Queensland, and a global leader in quantitative genetics and plant breeding. His work involves integrating genomic prediction and crop growth models into an ‘end to end' framework for crop improvement.
Professor Cooper has pioneered the development of novel genetic modelling methodologies, based on gene networks, to study important properties of quantitative traits in biology, and demonstrated how this new genetic modelling framework can be successfully used in plant breeding to improve prediction of important traits under the influences of selection. Professor Cooper's work at DuPont Pioneer on drought adaptation in one of the largest maize breeding programs in the world led to the AQUAmax hybrids that presently cover millions of hectares worldwide.
A quantitative geneticist by training, Professor Cooper spent 20 years working with industry in the United States and as CEO of his own consultancy firm Zenrun42, before returning to UQ to build upon the critical mass of predictive agricultural expertise in QAAFI and the wider university.
He holds a PhD from the University of Queensland and a Bachelors of Agricultural Science from the University of Queensland.
Martina Occelli has expertise in participatory breeding approaches, with a focus on eliciting farmers' local ecological knowledge and perceptions. Before joining Cornell University, Martina was a postdoctoral research fellow in Agricultural Economics at the Institute of Life Sciences of the Sant' Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa, IT). Since 2021, she is also an official affiliate of EMbeDS (Economics and Management in the era of Data Science) at Sant' Anna.
Martina obtained a Double Degree Master in Economic Development from the University of Pavia (IT) and the University of Hohenheim (DE). She holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Economics at the Sant' Anna School, with a thesis focused on the role of local ecological knowledge on resilience of marginal agroecosystems. Focalizing the attention on participatory and interdisciplinary approaches in her postdoctoral fellowship, Martina's research aims at creating new frameworks to merge farmers' and breeders' knowledge. In love with field work, Martina has conducted several primary data collections in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Italy.
She is continuing these efforts with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement (ILCI). Martina closely works with ILCI's Priority Setting team to develop and implement an impact centered priority setting framework for crop improvement programs. Further, she provides research support to partner programs, and collaboratively develops and adapts priority setting tools and methods tailored for National Agricultural Research Institutions in ILCI target countries.
Job Titles:
- Principal Investigator, Crop Innovation in West Africa ( CIWA )
- Specialist at the Institut Sénégalais De Recherches Agricoles
Mareme Niang Belko is an agronomist and gender specialist at the Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA) in Senegal. Mareme co-leads Crop Innovation in West Africa, helping breeders connect with the center's gender team to ensure that their activities are gender sensitive while taking into account themes of resilience and nutrition that will benefit much women and youth. She is a graduate of the African Plant Breeding Academy (AfPBA) Class V.
Marème's current research activities focus on "Crop Improvement under Sahelian conditions." Her team characterizes sesame production systems (TPE) in order to provide management options to farmers to both adapt to and mitigate climate change, and also identify the mechanisms of sesame adaptation to drought and use the knowledge generated in breeding and processing technologies.
Job Titles:
- Communications
- Director for Communications
- Managing Editor for the College of Agriculture
- Strategic Communications Expert and Content Strategist
Matt Hayes is a strategic communications expert and content strategist with experience in international agriculture, food security, global development and higher education. He manages all communications and marketing efforts for the Department of Global Development and a portfolio of more than two dozen programs and projects totaling $185+ million in funding. He is responsible for designing and implementing branding, editorial, social media, public relations and leadership communications strategies for the department and projects across its global network.
Matt joined Cornell in 2015 as managing editor for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences where he directed editorial strategy and content creation for the college. Through advanced communications practices he helped promote the scientific discoveries and expertise of Cornell's faculty and the unique student experience at Cornell CALS. In 2017 he was part of the core team that launched the college's new brand identity. His work spanned writing, magazine editing, social media, student storytelling, photography, video production and more.
Matt is fascinated by the world's complexity and has a passion for telling stories that impact the way people understand the world around them. As a communicator, he places great value in the powers of language and imagery to shape understanding and influence change. As a person, he prizes attributes like courage, empathy and determination for creating a more just world.
Michael (Mike) Gore is a professor of molecular breeding and genetics for nutritional quality and Liberty Hyde Bailey professor at Cornell University, where he is a member of the faculty in the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section in the School of Integrative Plant Science. Gore co-leads the Phenomics component of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement.
He holds a BS and MS from Virginia Tech, and a PhD from Cornell University. Before joining the faculty at Cornell in 2013, he worked as a Research Geneticist with the USDA-ARS at the Arid-Land Agricultural Research Center in Maricopa, Arizona from 2009-13.
Overall, the Gore lab combines quantitative genetics, genomics, analytical chemistry and remote sensing to elucidate the genetic basis of complex trait variation in various crops, including maize, oat, cassava, cotton, sorghum, industrial rapeseed, and guayule. Gore's expertise is in the field of quantitative genetics and genomics, especially the genetic dissection of metabolic seed traits related to nutritional quality. Gore also develops and applies field-based, high-throughput phenotyping tools for plant breeding and genetics research.
In addition to his course teaching responsibilities at Cornell, Gore teaches two short courses at the Tucson Plant Breeding Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and throughout the world, served on the editorial boards of Crop Science (2012-17), Theoretical and Applied Genetics (2012-19), MaizeGDB (2015), The Plant Phenome Journal (2017-present), and Plant Breeding and Biotechnology (2014-present), and served as the Chair for the Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee (SCC080)-the USDA-sponsored advisory group of representatives from land grant universities.
Gore's career accomplishments in plant breeding and genetics earned him the National Association of Plant Breeders Early Career Scientist Award in 2012, the American Society of Plant Biologists Early Career Award in 2013, the Maize Genetics Executive Committee Early Career Excellence in Maize Genetics Award in 2016, and the Virginia Tech Distinguished Alumnus in Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences in 2017.
Miguel I. Gómez has a MS and a PhD in Applied Economics from the University of Illinois. He is the Robert G. Tobin Associate Professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. He is Director of the Food Industry Management Program, which is globally recognized as the premier food industry education and research program. Gómez is the co-lead of the priority setting component of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement.
Professor Gómez concentrates his research program on two interrelated areas under the umbrella of food marketing and distribution. The first is Food Value Chains Competitiveness and Sustainability. His work in this area involves multi-disciplinary collaborations for the development models to assess supply chain performance in multiple dimensions - economic, social and environmental. The second is Food Value Chain Negotiation. Here he combines theory and outreach methods to analyze food markets from farm to table, emphasizing key concepts such as demand response, consumer behavior, buyer-seller negotiations, market power, and retail performance. In addition, his research extends to economic development and environmental economics, examining incentives and barriers of smallholder farmer participation in food value chains and sustainability of food systems, with emphasis in Latin America. In addition, his applied research efforts aim at enhancing market opportunities fruit and vegetable products, benefiting producers, food processors/distributors and consumers worldwide.
His work has been published in top journals including Science, Management Science, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, World Development and Food Policy, among others. His research program has been funded with over 100 research grants, including the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has won several prestigious teaching and research awards, Including the Rising Star Faculty Award of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. He has consulted for multilateral development institutions such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the Interamerican Development Bank.
Prabhu Pingali is a Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, with a joint appointment in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and the Department of Global Development, and the Founding Director of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI). Pingali is the lead of the institutional evaluation component of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement. Prior to joining Cornell, he was the Deputy Director, Agricultural Development Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, from 2008-May 2013. He was director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Agriculture and Development Economics Division from 2002-2007. In addition, he worked with the CGIAR for 15 years from 1987-2002, first with IRRI in the Philippines and then with CIMMYT in Mexico. Pingali is a member in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and an AAEA Fellow. He has over three decades of experience working with some of the leading international agricultural development organizations as a research economist, development practitioner and senior manager. Pingali has written 13 books and over 120 refereed journal articles and book chapters on food policy.
Job Titles:
- Head of Gender and Inclusiveness at AGRA
Sabdiyo Dido Bashuna is the Head of Gender and Inclusiveness at AGRA. With over 20 years of experience in international development, she is a thought leader on inclusive agriculture, value chains and market systems with a special lens on gender, women and youth, other disadvantaged groups. Sabdiyo is a senior professional credited with crafting winning strategies and innovative programmes, advocating for equitable access to opportunities and benefits for women and youth in agriculture and agri-food systems. She has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, specializing in agribusiness strategy and Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Agriculture Economics.
Sergio Puerto is a doctoral student in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. At ILCI, Sergio is part of the Priority Setting research team where he studies how breeders and farmers can work together to make informed breeding decisions.
Before joining Cornell, he studied Economics and worked as a research assistant at La Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. For four years, Sergio participated in several academic projects in the field of agricultural economics, including coffee, dairy, and artisanal gold production in Colombia, cocoa farming in Ecuador, and small-scale fishing in Mexico.
He is currently working in agricultural technology development and diffusion in low-income countries, focusing on supply-side constraints affecting the ability to breed programs to deliver varieties that meet farmers' demand for new varieties.