Stepha McMullin is a Senior Scientist with the Tree Diversity and Productivity Theme at CIFOR-ICRAF.
Her research involves assessing food production and consumption in complex ecological and socialsystems, to devise context-appropriate solutions. Central to this research is understanding the role of tree-based systems in food provision; harnessing agricultural and wild biodiversity; and promoting the importance of orphan or forgotten food crops as central to more nutritious and climate suitable food systems.
Stepha co-leads the Nutri-scapes Transformative Partnership Platform, which is working towards nutrition-centred landscapes that can simultaneously support food security, nutrition and livelihoods, while conserving biodiversity. Through this platform, Stepha and her collaborators generate evidence on the interconnections between the environment and food systems, exploring how wildand cultivated landscapes can be better integrated to support healthy, sustainable diets.
Stepha currently leads or contributes to projects in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. She also serves as an advisor to the Nutritional African Foods Initiative (NAFI) project of the African Women’s Collaborative for Healthy Food Systems.
Stepha holds a PhD from the School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Ireland.She has authored or co-authored many publications focusing on food systems, biodiversity and nutrition, highlighting the role of trees and underutilized crops in improving diets and food security.
Mieke Bourne is a specialist in stakeholder engagement and evidence-based decision making. She leads Regreening Africa, a UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration World Flagship initiative, and co-leads Knowledge for Great Green Wall Action (K4GGWA), a programme supporting restoration efforts in the Sahel and Horn of Africa.
Mieke is deeply committed to cross-sectoral collaboration, working across disciplines and stakeholder groups to develop solutions that improve both livelihoods and landscapesat the local level throughout the Global South.With over 17 years of experience, she has worked across Africa, Asia and Australia, focusing on sustainable land management, community-based approaches and facilitation.
She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, and holds a master’s degree in rural science as well as a bachelor's degree and honours in environmental science.Mieke co-developed the Stakeholder Approach to Risk-Informed and Evidence-Based Decision-Making (SHARED) methodology – an interactive, tailored and demand-driven process that fosters collaborative learning and joint decision making to achieve shared development outcomes.
Ruguru Karanja (Alice) is an Associate Research Scientist in the Nutrition and Food Systems (NFS) Unit with expertise in food systems, sustainability, and community engagement. Her research explores the interlinkages between climate change, food systems, and health, focusing on promoting the adoption of social innovations and nature-based climate solutions. These include clean cooking technologies, agroecology, agroforestry, and the use of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) and wild foods among smallholder farmers.
Alice is the Project Manager for the “Visibilize4ClimateAction in Eastern African Drylands” project, which aims to make visible the impacts of climate change on the health (nutrition and mental health) of vulnerable populations in drylands through research, public engagement, and policy advocacy. She also contributes to the Zero Hunger Initiative and the Public Engagement Infrastructure Strengthening (PEIS) project, which promotes meaningful community participation in research and policy processes through participatory approaches.
Alice holds a PhD in Sustainability Science from the University of Tokyo. Prior to APHRC, she was an Associate Scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF, where she focused on promoting healthier diets in developing countries by linking food production systems to diets, food choice behavior, and food environments across rural-urban landscapes.
