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.

Elizabeth, a Public Health Nutrition Specialist and a Senior Research Scientist, leads the Nutrition and Food Systems Unit and the Health and Wellbeing Theme at APHRC.

She is a dynamic and impact-oriented African research scientist and leader. She transforms lives in Africa and promotes human rights through research, public engagement, policy influence, and capacity-building. She champions research on maternal and child nutrition and zero hunger in Africa. Her current work focuses on food systems transformation and the interlinkages between climate change, food systems, nutrition, and health. She is leading a large, Wellcome-funded project on the interlinkages between climate change and health in Eastern Africa to catalyze policy and practice action at scale.

She holds a PhD in Public Health (2010), focusing on the double burden of malnutrition in South Africa, from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and a Master of Public Health degree (2004) and a BSc. in Environmental Health (1999) both from Moi University, Kenya. She is also an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya with a special interest in human rights law, holding a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree from the University of Nairobi and a Postgraduate Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law.