About

As CABI’s Global Lead for Digital Advisory Services, I am responsible for ensuring CABI provides farmers, advisors, students and policymakers with the digital tools and services to make informed agricultural and environmental decisions. Through online learning, decision‑support tools, digital skills training, and sharing locally relevant advisory content, my team improves the accessibility and quality of agricultural advice available to stakeholders. We prioritise inclusive design and delivery in the Global South through projects such as PlantwisePlus, while also exploring emerging technologies such as generative AI through the Gates Foundation and FCDO-funded Generative AI for Agriculture (GAIA) project. Our work relies on strong partnerships with in‑country implementing organisations and third-party digital tool developers to support sustainable, long‑term adoption of our digital advisory solutions.

Prior to my current role, I worked in a variety of roles managing knowledge and data and delivering actionable information to those who need it. I joined CABI in 2005 in the Publishing department working on primary journals and CAB Abstracts. As coordinator of the Distribution Maps of Plant Pests and Diseases, I worked closely with the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO), the Natural History Museum London, the US Department of Agriculture, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Biosecurity Australia. I then joined CABI’s global Plantwise programme (now PlantwisePlus) when it launched in 2011, developing the Plantwise Knowledge Bank, compiling and editing the most relevant evidence-based diagnostic, management, and distribution information on crop pests and diseases. During this time, I worked in a number of different countries, including implementation in Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka, and carrying out a secondment at the International Plant Protection Convention secretariat at the FAO in Rome. Following this, I managed the knowledge and data component of CABI’s flagship invasive species programme, Action on Invasives, during which we developed tools to support diagnosis, management, risk analysis and regulation of invasive species.

Before joining CABI, I volunteered on a microfinance development project in Tanzania, empowering women to set up community businesses in Mbeya area. I have an MSc in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation from Imperial College, studying the effects of heathland management on carabid beetle communities.