Leena Tripathi is IITA’s East Africa Regional Director. Based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, she oversees management and operations involving scientists and other specialists. Her team includes more than 40 scientists from different disciplines and cultures, as well as more than 350 staff and students based in Kenya, Madagascar, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. 

Can you tell us a little about your professional career so far?

After receiving my Ph.D. in plant molecular biology, I began my career as a research scientist at the University of North Carolina in 1999. Since then, I have spent more than 21 years with IITA in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Since starting as a postdoc, I have been promoted to scientist, senior scientist, principal scientist, country representative, deputy director, and then to my current position as the Regional Director of the Eastern Africa Hub. I also lead IITA’s biotechnology program.

What has been a particularly memorable highlight of your career?

My biggest achievement has been to establish a robust platform for genetic transformation and genome editing. This has allowed us to develop genetically modified and genome-edited products and to transfer these technologies to national agricultural research systems in sub-Saharan Africa. 

What advice would you give to someone looking to develop and grow in our organization?

Dream high, set your goals, and put all your efforts into achieving them. Stay focused. I put this into practice when I shared my goals with my supervisor in review meetings. We discuss what support and resources I will need to be successful.  

Never be afraid of challenges. It’s normal to come across challenges in your career. These can be great opportunities to reflect and improve your skills.

Seek mentorship, especially early in your scientific career. A mentor can guide and champion you, helping you to advance. Even today I have a mentor in my own technical field and leadership role, from whom I regularly seek advice.

My group has genetically engineered bananas, conferring resistance against the deadly bacterial Xanthomonas wilt disease. This disease otherwise threatens banana production and the livelihoods of smallholder growers across East Africa. 

We are currently using the platform to develop genome-edited bananas, which are resistant to bacterial, fungal and viral diseases. My scientific contributions, which were made possible by this platform, have received international recognition, including multiple awards and honors. I have been honored to be an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for my contribution to the development of robust genetic transformation platforms for banana/plantain, cassava, enset, and yam, as well as the application of genome editing technologies.

Maria Itria Ibba, an associate scientist, joined CIMMYT in April 2019. Based in Mexico, she analyzes the processing and nutritional quality of wheat.

What resources did your organization provide that supported your personal and professional growth?

I moved to Mexico for this role, but I didn’t speak any Spanish. Getting support for the language classes had a major impact on my quality of life and my ability to get around. 

I have also received a variety of courses to help my professional growth. These have covered a range of skills from emotional intelligence to project management and leadership. I truly appreciate the organization’s investment in me.   

In particular, I found the leadership course very meaningful. The three individual coaching sessions allowed me to take a deeper look at myself and get tips on how I could lead more effectively. 

A key takeaway for me was to understand that personal leadership is the recognition that I am in control and the owner of my time. I need to focus on what truly matters.

What benefits have been most supportive for you and your family?

Home leave has been the most important. In addition to the standard number of days for holiday, home leave gives me dedicated time each year to go home and spend time with the people that I love. 

Our organization offers great benefits, which make me feel safe, protected and valued. I am recognized not just as a scientist, but also as a human with my very own wants and needs. 

Can you tell us a time when you felt particularly included and valued in the workplace?

I joined CIMMYT in the middle of a multi-year project, analyzing the quality of wheat lines. At key milestones, the senior scientist in charge of the project made the effort to recognize my contributions.

Christopher Butler is managing editor at the International Potato Centre (CIP), where he oversees production and quality control of all CIP publications. With a PhD in sociology, Christopher’s career includes 12 years of academia, including as a teacher at the University of Minnesota. Fueled by his passion for research for development, Christopher moved to Nepal in 2016. For his current role, Christopher has been in Peru since January 2020.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

What I enjoy most about my role is making science accessible. I see my role as a communicator, meaning that I take complex ideas and put them in a language that people can understand, which helps them to appreciate the value of science.

We have some very important environmental challenges ahead of us in the next 30 to 50 years and I enjoy making these topics more accessible to the general public.

What makes our organization unique?

Looking back, I’ve had opportunities to work in the private sector or to do things that might be more lucrative. However, I didn’t choose that path because I really believe in the mission of our organization to address food and water systems around the world.

Our organization has an incredible wealth of talent, intelligence, and dedication. And that makes me believe that we do have the capacity to deliver.

Even when I was a graduate student, I was impressed with the quality of research and all the people, who are dedicated to confronting these issues. I’m really proud to be a member of this organization.

What advice would I give to someone looking to develop and grow in our organization?

My advice is to reach out and to listen. We have a great diversity of people, representing a wide range of scientific interest, cultures, ages, and gender. One of the things I’ve enjoyed most and that I’ve learned to do better is to reach out to people by simply letting them know I appreciate their work, or that I’m here to listen. We can get so busy with our daily tasks that sometimes we don’t listen enough to the people we work with.

Inga Jacobs-Mata works for the International Water Management Institute and is based in Pretoria in South Africa. She has worked in CGIAR for over three years and is the regional representative for Southern Africa and the country representative for the South Africa Office. She is a political scientist and focuses on environmental governance, water governance and policy institutional arrangements. She leads a multidisciplinary team of 16 people in the South Africa and Zambia offices.

What are some of your most memorable career highlights? 

Highlights come in all different shapes and sizes – from seeing your first PhD student graduate to seeing your research being taken up into policy and witnessing the positive impact it has on community members or farmers. Some of the big highlights would be the privilege to lead Ukama Ustawi (UU), a CGIAR regionally integrated Initiative, which has kicked off this year. This project is about how we can bring about systemic change in the agrifood system in East and Southern Africa through diversification and sustainable intensification of the maize mixed systems, and in partnership with many organizations. This project also has a focus on supporting agribusiness and enterprise development, working with SMEs as a vehicle to achieve that transformation, as well as other scaling partners, to reach scale.

Could you share examples of the learning and development opportunities that you found most useful? 

There are a few things that stand out for me while working for the CGIAR. Firstly, I had the opportunity to attend one of the AWARD Women in Leadership courses in Mombasa, Kenya. This was a week-long course that was really transformative and practical. 

Secondly, I highly value the learning from WIRES, our employee resource group focused on championing and supporting women in research. This is a group of like-minded colleagues, who are interested in supporting women colleagues in CGIAR. I’ve attended events and workshops around mentorship and networking, which I found very encouraging.

Thirdly,  I’ve also benefited from executive coaching. I have found that having a coach was really useful in helping me better understand my learned behaviors and to identify which ones I needed to unlearn to help me take the next step forward in my career, particularly the step between senior and executive management. 

Lastly,  we can’t underestimate the value of having really supportive leadership. I’ve been fortunate enough to have really supportive supervisors and leaders throughout my career, and particularly at IWMI, that have been very supportive and have given me wings. 

What advice would you give to someone looking to develop and grow in the organization?

The first piece of advice I can offer is to seek out support networks (peer-mentor groups, young professional bodies and forums, etc). At the beginning of my career, I was always a bit of an odd fit for the water and agricultural sectors. I was a political scientist interested in a sector largely defined by white male engineers, some of whom are my mentors today. What truly helped me in finding my place, was having the relevant support networks at an early age. These networks brought together groups of peers from different backgrounds to share and exchange knowledge. I was able to realize the value of having different perspectives, skillsets and experiences to support the transdisciplinarity of my role today. 

On a more personal level, my advice is to treat every opportunity as if it were your last chance! What do you have to lose? The reason why I say that is because I notice so many bright young African women who still remain silent in meetings, even though they have great ideas. When I go up to them and ask why they stayed silent, I would often hear “You know, it’s out of respect for our colleagues.” I do recognize the cultural norms that shape our behavior, but I always try to encourage them to get their voice heard in these meetings. Ask questions, even if you think it is a silly question, chances are there are about five other people in the room that want to ask that same question.