Cynthia leads ILRI’s external advocacy and stakeholder engagement. She coordinates ILRI’s Global sustainable Livestock Advocacy for Development project that seeks to address three key problems: a growing negative view of livestock, insufficient attention to the sector in wider agricultural and broader development discussions and low investment in the sector.  Before this, she was a Policy Advocacy Officer at AGRA, where she led regional policy and advocacy initiatives in multiple African countries. She also led AGRA’s continental engagements with the African Union Commission – Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (AUC-ARBE), providing support to CAADP implementation – working in collaboration with AUC, AUDA-NEPAD, Regional Economic Commissions and a host of other continental organisations. She also worked as a Program Manager for the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR), a regional research think tank. She has led numerous policy advocacy engagements for regional and national civil society organisations.

Cynthia completed her bachelor’s degree at Temple University in the USA and went on to study for an MPhil at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.