Speakers

• Alex Gerard Executive Director, Tiyeni
  

  Alex Gerard

  Executive Director, Tiyeni

  Tiyeni’s Executive Director Alex Gerard is a Birbeck alumni and passionate about advancing opportunities for farmers in Malawi with Tiyeni’s team:

  “The impact is most apparent when you see subsistence farmers start to diversify their crop and even grow cash crops. Not only are they improving nutrition through a more balanced diet, but they are able set up businesses or sell excess produce in local markets. The knock-on effects of this are incredible. Within a few years of applying our techniques, we’ve seen former subsistence farmers being able to afford to send their children to school. We’ve seen amazing all-female cooperatives become real powerhouses in their community. Tackling food poverty can really help break the cycle.”

• Colin Andrews Chair of Tiyeni
  

  Colin Andrews

  Chair of Tiyeni

  Colin was brought up in many countries and had lived in 18 different homes before he left home. Starting his career in surveying in Iceland, he trained in Estate Management and became a Chartered Surveyor and later a member of the Australian Institute of Valuers. In Australia he worked on a number of farms and on return to the UK became a partner in an established firm of Chartered Surveyors which specialized in Estate and Farm management.

• Dr. Adrienne Godschalx (Host) Researcher and Instructor at the Soil Food Web School
  

  Dr. Adrienne Godschalx (Host)

  Researcher and Instructor at the Soil Food Web School

  Dr. Adrienne Godschalx studied Biology for both her Bachelor of Arts and her Ph.D. degrees. Her career as an ecology professional began over a decade ago, throughout which she taught, designed courses, led and managed teams, as well as researched and presented scientific findings around the world. This enabled Adrienne to become fluent in Spanish and learn intermediate French. Adrienne did post-doctoral research at the Université de Neuchâtel in Switzerland, which is a leader in chemical ecology and plant-insect-soil interactions. Her publications stretch back to 2013, when she researched co-variation of chemical defenses in the lima bean, through to 2021, when she researched spatial and temporal heterogeneity in pollinator communities. Currently, Adrienne serves as a Soil Food Web School Instructor for the Consultant Training Program and hosts Educational Webinars and the Annual Soil Regen Summit.

• Isaac Monjo Chavula Country Director, Tiyeni
  

  Isaac Monjo Chavula

  Country Director, Tiyeni

  Mr. Isaac Monjo Chavula (MSc., BSc., Dip. Agric.) oversees Tiyeni’s work in Malawi. Isaac brings over 20 years of working with international NGOs implementing food security, sustainable livelihoods, water and sanitation and natural management projects with Concern Universal (now the United Purpose) and the Feed the Future – INVC donor funding from USAID, EU, IrishAid, AusAid, and others. He has also lectured at the Natural Resources College (a constituent college of the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources) and the Malawi Adventist University as Adjunct lecturer and as resident Lecturer at the University of Lúrio in Moçambique for a total of 3 years. Prior to this, Isaac served as a civil servant in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

• Nathan Deboer Green Manure & Cover Crops Agricultural Consultant
  

  Nathan Deboer

  Green Manure & Cover Crops Agricultural Consultant

  Nathan Deboer grew up in Canada and began working in Conservation Agriculture on the African continent where he became convinced that Green Manure/Cover Crops (gm/ccs) is the champion way to revive dead soils, stop droughts, and end hunger. Nathan works with one of the world’s top gm/ccs specialists, started a gm/ccs movement in rural Malawi, developed the first-ever gm/ccs teaching curriculums and has now consulted with five organizations on how to adopt gm/ccs.