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Cornell University

Emerging Markets Program

Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program

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18010121208_56022fa53d_z (2)Ralph Christy

Director, Emerging Markets Program

Professor Ralph D. Christy is Director of the Emerging Markets Program and Professor of Emerging Markets at Cornell University, where he teaches and conducts food marketing research and leads various educational programs focused on the economic performance of markets and distribution systems. Christy has advised industry leaders and public policymakers on food marketing strategies, economic development, and the organization of the global food economy. He is past President of the American Agricultural Economics Association and currently serves as a Board Member of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Winrock International, and the Agribusiness Capital Fund. Christy has authored numerous publications, including three books: A Century of Service: Land Grant Colleges and Universities, 1890-1990(1992); Achieving Sustainable Communities in a Global Economy (2004); and Emerging Markets (2020). His most recent research calls attention to the role of creating an enabling environment for accelerating agro-industries contributions to sustain economic growth and development. Christy holds a Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics.

Fridah Mubichi-Kut

Executive Director, SMART

Fridah is the executive director of the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program and Professor of Practice in Applied Economics and Management at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. Perplexed by the paradox of the hungry farmer, her research is focused on understanding the role economic development policies and social networks play in the promotion of new agricultural innovations. Fridah values and understands the responsibility multidisciplinary teams have in solving complex problems and developing sustainable solutions. Trained first as an international business administrator and later social scientist, she has taught, worked, and supported various organizations and projects internationally. Most recently, she worked as director of monitoring and evaluation within a USDA agricultural commodity research program and previously as a social scientist within two USAID- Feed the Future innovation projects. Fridah holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Missouri Division of Applied Social Sciences.

Lin Fu

Research Fellow, Emerging Markets Program

Lin Fu is a research fellow with the Emerging Markets Program and the director of the Cornell-Walmart Foundation China Food Safety Research Project. She was previously a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her research interests include political economy, economic development, entrepreneurship, and food and agricultural policy. She has been a consultant on projects for various organizations, including the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Asian Productivity Organization, and Control Risks. Prior to Cornell, she worked for a number of years in finance and project management consulting. Lin holds graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and Cornell University.

Edward Mabaya

Program Advisor

Ed Mabaya is a scholar and a development practitioner with more than two decades of experience working on development, agribusiness value chains, and food security issues with a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. He is Research Professor in the Department of Global Development where his teaching, research, and outreach work focuses on economic development in Africa. He previously served as the Division Manager of Agribusiness Development at the African Development Bank where he managed continent-wide investments, partnerships, and research in support of the Feed Africa strategy. Mabaya’s applied research work is anchored around food marketing and distribution, enabling environments for agribusiness, seed systems, digital agriculture, and the role of efficient agricultural markets in Africa’s economic development. Mabaya holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Zimbabwe and a Ph.D. degree in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University.

Christie L. McDowell

Senior Lecturer of Marketing, Nolan School of Hotel Administration

Dr. McDowell is a senior lecturer of marketing and management communication at Cornell University, in the SC Johnson College of Business Peter and Stephan Nolan School of Hotel Administration. Her research interests start with communicative engagement and emphasizes actively investigating social, civic, economic, and moral problems in the areas of corporate communication, integrated marketing communication (IMC) as well as communication ethics by people and organizations. She has professional experience teaching business/corporate communication and marketing related courses, serving in academic administration roles, delivering professional presentation and workshops in industry, and working in an integrated communication agency setting.

Nneka Esther Osadolor

PhD Student, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Benin, Nigeria

Nneka is a Ph.D. candidate of Economics under the AERC Collaborative PhD Programme (CPP) at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She lectures in the Department of Economics at the University of Benin, Nigeria, and is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Policy and Development Research (CEPDeR), Covenant University, Nigeria. Growing up in a developing economy, Nneka directly experienced the challenges of poverty and inequality, driving her to seek solutions for these pressing social issues. Her research interest focuses broadly on Development Economics and Applied Microeconomics including labour markets, financial inclusion, poverty, inequality and gender issues. In 2022, she was a visiting fellow at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, and a fellow in Cornell’s Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces (STAARS) Program. Currently, Nneka is a visiting fellow at the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at UC Berkely. Nneka holds a MSc in Economics from the University of Ibadan, a MicroMasters in Data, Economics, and Development Policy from MIT, and a BSc in Economics and Statistics from the University of Benin.

Hongdi Zhao

PhD Student, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University

Hongdi is a Ph.D. Student in Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. Her research interest is the intersection of development economics and machine learning. Hongdi holds an MPA in international development from Cornell University and a B.S. in Statistics from China. She worked as a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, a research associate at Yale Economic Growth Center, and a research analyst at IFPRI before coming back to Cornell to pursue her Ph.D. study. Previously, she worked and lived in Tanzania, Kenya, and conducted research in India.​

John B. (JB) Babadara

Fulbright Fellow, Agrifoods System, Humphrey Fellowship Program, Cornell University

John Babadara is a development professional with over six years of experience leading community-based and climate-smart agriculture initiatives in Nigeria. He has managed programs focused on food security, agribusiness, climate planning, agro-processing, and farmer’s capacity building. His projects have involved digital extension, value chain development, access to postharvest technology, financial inclusion, insurance onboarding, and agri-food investment strategies. John is currently the Nigeria program associate for the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), running the rural poor stimulus facility (RPSF) project. In addition to leading PxD-Nigeria’s project strategy, he is involved in pioneering the human-centered design (HCD) approach to developing innovative and scalable products that could transform the food system and agriculture landscape in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). Furthermore, John is a co-founder of AceAgric, an agri-tech startup leveraging technology to transform agriculture in Nigeria. He holds a BSc (ED) in Biology from the University of Ilorin and MSc in Plant Genetics & Molecular Biology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. In 2021, he earned his second Master’s degree in Development Studies with a specialization in agriculture and rural development at the Federal University Dutsin-MA, Katsina, Nigeria.

Dr. Iwan Azis

Professor, Applied Economics and Policy, Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

Iwan is Professor of Emerging Markets within the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and was the Director of Graduate Studies, Regional Science program (2005-2010), Cornell University where he has taught since 1992. Prior to that, he was the Chair of the Department of Economics and the Director of the Inter-University Center for Economics at the University of Indonesia. Iwan has served as a consultant to several governments and organizations in Asia and taught as a visiting professor in Japan, Australia, Singapore, and Indonesia. He previously served as the appointed Head of the Office of Regional Economic Integration at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), during which he became the Interim Chair of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund-Credit Guarantee Investment Facility (CGIF), and member of the International Policy Advisory Group. He is currently advising the Indonesian Central Bank and the Deposit Insurance Corporation, and a member of the International Advisory Panel of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Dr. Lorraine Francis

Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Public and Ecosystem Health, College of Veterinary Medicine

Lorraine Francis is a public health professional with extensive knowledge of health systems from over twenty years’ experience in several public health areas including epidemiology, surveillance, emergency and outbreak response, laboratory systems, environmental health and research. In her current role as Associate Professor of Practice with the Master in Public Health Program, she brings her interest in Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Environmental Health and Health Systems strengthening given the public health challenges in Small Island Developing States and Developing Countries. Lorraine holds a DrPH, MPH and BSC from the University of the West Indies and a MHA from the University of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health.

David Sossa

Technician IV, McArt Lab Department of Entomology, Cornell University

David is an expert beekeeper with a Master’s degree in beekeeping from Cornell University. As a researcher and beekeeper enthusiast, he is highly knowledgeable and interested in honeybee and bumble bee management in field and laboratory settings. As a lab technician, he is involved in sample extractions and preparations for pesticide residue analysis; data collection from agricultural fields; bee sampling and dissections; DNA extraction, and PCRs among other tasks. Likewise, he is knowledgeable in pollinator research activities such as grafting, queen rearing, pest and pathogen control, and pathogen inoculation. As a lab manager, he is responsible for maintaining the Mc-Art beekeeping warehouse as well as implementing and overseeing field and laboratory safety protocols. David is originally from Colombia, where he worked with Africanized bees.​

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