Graduate Student Photo Directory

Kevin Thierry Affoukou is a doctoral candidate who is passionate about rural households’ welfare in developing countries. He also investigates how education, communication, and information and communication technology (ICT) contribute to alleviating critical issues such as food, nutrition, and revenue security. Affoukou has an MS in Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University and has worked for more than five years as a research assistant on issues related to technology adoption, food security, and gender in agriculture. He has contributed to writing many scientific reports and papers and has participated in several conferences.

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Mavis Akom is a doctoral student under the supervision of Dr. Julia Bello-Bravo. Akom's research interests are in communication, program development for farmers, and promoting youth interest in STEM. Akom has an MS in Agroforestry and has more than fourteen years of experience in agricultural research. She has written and contributed to various scientific publications and participated in several conferences.

Kelsey is a Doctoral student in Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Science Education and Communication. She is specializing in science communication and is advised by Dr. Linda Pfeiffer. Kelsey is passionate about how to improve the function of interdisciplinary and demographically diverse teams of experts and publics in the development of climate change solutions. She has a Master’s in mechanical engineering and has worked at Argonne National Laboratory for a year aiding in the assessment of hybrid vehicles and alternative fuels. Her current research involves understanding the role of Responsible Research and Innovation in the development of emerging technologies for rural and agricultural contexts.

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Zachary C. Brown is a doctoral candidate. In addition to his academic pursuits, he is Assistant Director of Student Recruitment and Retention for Purdue Agriculture's Office of Multicultural Programs. His dissertation research is centered on exploring the sense of belonging among Black undergraduate students within agricultural disciplines. He employs narrative inquiry as his methodological approach.

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Hema Lingireddy is a doctoral student under the advisement and supervision of Dr. Rama Radhakrishna and Dr. Linda Pfeiffer. Lingireddy is passionate about extension education, needs assessment, program design and evaluation, and science communication. During her master’s at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Dairy Research Institute, she assessed farmers’ perspectives on digital technologies. Later, she was a research intern at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India, where she was involved in training farmers on various digital tools. Lingireddy is a 2023 Andrews Graduate Fellow awardee for the Purdue College of Agriculture, which recognizes the academic excellence of outstanding PhD-track students. Lingireddy is a student member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education (AIAEE).

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Aimable MUGABO is a P.h.D student under the supervision of Dr. Julia Bello-Bravo. Aimable’s research interest lies in interdisciplinary approaches to rural farming, informal and formal youth engagement, leadership building and mediums for effective communication and education. Aimable holds a master's in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, Massachusetts. Aimable has over a dozen years of experience working with rural farmers to improve their agricultural practices and increase their income. Aimable plans to focus on developing educational programs for future agricultural leaders that enhance management and community engagement skills.

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Spanditha Muppidi is a doctoral student under the supervision of Dr. Casey D Mull. She is a graduate research assistant in a 4-H project focusing on developing a digital agriculture curriculum for middle and high schools. She is interested in understanding smallholder farmers' behavior toward climate resilience agriculture in the context of indigenous knowledge and stakeholder engagement and in exploring the farmer-led extension scenario among horticultural crops in developing countries.

Muppidi’s career goal is to become a communicator who collaborates with farmers and designs technologies that cut across social and cultural barriers to achieve agriculture sustainability. She has an M.S. in agricultural extension, focusing on agricultural education from Kerala Agricultural University. She worked as a senior research fellow at ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research for two years in millets extension education and communication. She has experience conducting demonstrations and training farmers and designing information and communication technology-based communication and educational tools for millets promotion.

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Olivier Ntaganzwa is a master's student who is passionate about using food systems projects to engage high school students, and about integrating food systems to promote balanced nutrition and sustainable livelihoods in rural areas of East Africa. He has a BS in crop science and has worked in community journalism and youth literacy. He also has worked in advertising, focusing his copywriting skills on brands that targeted farmers and rural communities. As a research assistant at Purdue, Ntaganzwa works for a mentorship project that promotes enrollment and retention of underrepresented minorities in food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences majors in 11 land-grant universities across the United States. He has contributed to writing five research abstracts and has participated in four conferences.

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Elizabeth Ogar is a PhD student who specializes in agricultural education under the supervision of Drs. Hui-Hui Wang and Neil Knobloch. Ogar’s interest lies in youth motivation in agriculture through learner-centered teaching, STEM integration, teacher professional development, curriculum, and instruction. As a research assistant in the IN-VISION (INdustry-driVen Integrated STEM and Systems Approach to Innovative incubatION) project, she is interested in evaluating the impact of the project on teachers’ motivations to teach integrated STEM and students’ outcomes. Ogar has an MS in Agricultural Extension from University of Ilorin, Nigeria, with seven years of experience working in extension.

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Favour Ojike is a doctoral student in Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication where she previously completed her master’s degree in the same field. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science and Technology from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria. With more than five years of professional experience, Ojike has worked extensively in agricultural extension, education, and international development, with a focus on youth and farmer engagement. As a research assistant under Dr. Casey D. Mull, Indiana 4-H program leader, Ojike studies the impact of 4-H college readiness programs, supports the 4-H Military Partnership, and evaluates 4-H-related programs.

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JJ Sadler is a doctoral student and has been an associate director in the Purdue Office of Undergraduate Research since 2017. In the associate director role, he supports undergraduate students to locate, apply, and succeed in research; oversees the various research events; and teaches multiple courses. Sadler is interested in the quality and quantity of experiential learning activities undergraduate students conduct, especially students from marginalized populations at predominantly white institutions. He has an MS in environmental horticulture with a focus on experiential learning from the University of Florida. At Florida, he was a research assistant and mentor to multiple undergraduate students and managed an invitro plant biology lab. Sadler has presented his work at multiple conferences on in vitro biology and undergraduate research.

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Mathew Smith is a doctoral candidate whose research has focused on understanding how agricultural educators learn to develop curricula to understand better how to support and improve the quality of agricultural education preservice programs. In so doing, Smith hopes we can better support current and future agricultural educators. Smith has an MS in agricultural education from Tennessee State University and has taught hundreds of students secondary agricultural education for three years.