College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Community Sustainability

Program: CSUS

Academic Focus Area: Agricultural value chains

Home Country: Burkina Faso

Advisor: John Kerr

Awa completed her PhD in the department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. She used an interdisciplinary approach in her work through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research tools and collaborations with researchers from other fields.

Her research investigates sustainability issues among agricultural enterprises including growth and climate adaptation strategies. She also examined incentive mechanisms for the enforcement of food safety regulations in agricultural value chains. Moreover, she worked on research projects testing mechanisms which can increase productivity along agricultural value chains. This means that she explored risk management strategies as well as adaptive technologies which are capable to foster resilient and sustainable practices from the farm to the market.

Prior to pursuing her PhD, Awa earned a Master’s in Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics from Michigan State University. She also worked for two years at the World Bank where she provided technical support to the monitoring and evaluation teams and undertook stakeholder consultations to improve the design of projects. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Middlebury College.