Dr. Sheila Ochugboju is a futurist, knowledge management, international development expert, and communication specialist who has been working in research science and international development for more than 15 years. She most recently served as head of strategic communications for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). In addition to senior management roles in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. She has worked with international think tanks, various United Nations agencies (UNDP, UNEP, UNREDD+ and UNHabitat), multilateral institutions, and philanthropic organizations across Europe, Africa and Asia. Sheila is an inaugural TED Africa Fellow and winner of the 2016 Women of Discovery Award in Humanity, from the Wings World Quest “Women of Discovery”.

Dr. Sheila is the co-founder of two knowledge management and media consultancies – Africa Knows and The Center for Development Intelligence (CDI).

She earned a Bachelor of Science in medical biochemistry and a Ph.D. in plant biochemistry from the University of London and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in baculovirus expression at the University of Oxford. Sheila has been working at senior levels in Kenya for over 10 years. In 2016, she was appointed Global Roving Ambassador for the County Government of Kisumu, with a portfolio of Transformative Science and Urban Resilience.

ABOUT ALLIANCE FOR SCIENCE

The Alliance for Science (‘the Alliance’), is a global communications initiative based at The Boyce Thompson Institute (‘BTI’) – a non-profit institute independently affiliated with Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The Alliance for Science empowers science supporters around the world with the tools and skills needed to communicate effectively about scientific topics and promote evidence-based policies and decision-making.

Alliance for Science challenges and corrects anti-science conspiracy theories and provides credible, factual, science-based materials primarily on the topic of agricultural biotechnology, but with a growing focus on climate change, vaccines, synthetic biology, food innovations, and other emerging science issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Alliance recently launched its Global South Hub to provide a platform that will enable the science community to leverage its expertise, and advance conversations on common science-based solutions to the crises of climate change, food and nutrition insecurity, global health, and misinformation on biotechnology. It will help to drive a multi-stakeholder and human-centered design process for interventions that will cater to a dignified and prosperous future for both people, and the planet.

The Global South Hub is co-convened by the Alliance for Science, and Thunderbird School of Global Management, a part of Arizona State University and has its offices in Nairobi Kenya.