Mission

Jean Paul has a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Science and an advanced diploma in Crop Production from the University of Rwanda, College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (CAVM). He has several years of very relevant experience in field data collection and in managing projects in coffee agronomy and processing with farmers and cooperatives.

Jarrod has a degree in Finance from Texas A&M University and 15 years of finance and accounting experience, primarily with non-profit organizations. He is based in Texas and is very enthusiastic about helping farmers and their communities.

Julio is a research technician in charge of the supervision and control of activities at Flor Amarailla, the WCR Research Farm located in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Julio is Salvadorian and since childhood has lived in an agricultural environment. He has a bachelor degree in Food Science at Pan-American Agricultural School, Zamorano, and has a Master’s degree on Coffee Science and Economics at University of Udine, Trieste and Fondazione Ernesto Illy

Samuel has over 12 years of experience implementing projects with coffee smallholder co-operatives and large estates across all coffee growing regions in Kenya and Tanzania. He has worked in many aspects of the coffee industry, ranging from production, processing, trade and sustainability standards. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the University of Nairobi

Alexa joins World Coffee Research with fifteen years of combined experience in nonprofit fundraising and corporate investor relations.  She is passionate about social justice issues and excited to engage more partners in WCR's work, which will benefit millions of small farmers in developing countries. Having lived and worked in Germany for five years, Alexa is particularly interested in developing global partner relationships.  Contact: alexa@worldcoffeeresearch.org

Peter provides database management, oversight, and strategy to World Coffee Research.  He graduated from McGill University with a focus in Remote Sensing, a field in which he invented and patented a method of agriculture monitoring.  Peter previously supported the Coffee Board of India on several projects assessing specialty coffee certification for tribal farm communities. Email: peter@worldcoffeeresearch.org

Maureen Namugalu holds a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Land Use and Management from Makerere University. Maureen is the lead country agronomist for the WCR Global Coffee Monitoring Program in Uganda. She is an agronomist and soil scientist by profession, with strong agricultural production background. Maureen has worked with Café Africa Uganda in collaboration with UCDA and NaCORI for the last three years focusing on coffee agronomy, coffee extension services, and the assessment of coffee seedling survival rate of Arabica and Robusta coffee in Uganda. She established experimental research trials at the National Crop Resource Research Institute in collaboration with the University of Bonn. Maureen has also carried out independent research on soil conservation practices of coffee farming systems along a slope.

Hector Santos has worked in the coffee industry for over 10 years, as both a producer and technician. He is an agronomist and has a masters degree in project management from the Technological University of Honduras. He has worked with The World Food Program as a field technician, organizing basic grain producers in the region.  He also lead and trained groups of coffee producers in the department of El Paraíso.

Most recently, he worked for the Hans R. Neumann Foundation as a technician of the Coffee & Climate initiative in the El Paraiso region, implementing demonstration and research plots with adaptation measures to climate change, working in close relationship with IHCAFE.

Jose Paiz has an engineering degree in forestry engineering and a specialization degree in agricultural production under controlled conditions. He comes to WCR with ten years of experience in agricultural and forestry farm management, especially in the cultivation of coffee, the use of forest plantations, and nurseries.

Molly comes to WCR with over 10 years of experience in the banking industry and a background in biology. Combining these skills, she administers the WCR Checkoff Program, assisting current and prospective participants with inquiries, enrollment, and best practices for implementation. Molly works in coordination with the Partnership Director, Financial and Administrative Director, and Business Manager. She is based out of Portland, OR. Contact: molly@worldcoffeeresearch.org              

Maud Nicolas joined WCR in late 2018. She provides overall administrative and financial coordination for the World Coffee Research in Europe and also assists the CEO. As WCR Europe’s Business Manager, she works closely with the Administration and Finance Director and accountant. She’s proud to join WCR and to contribute to the organization's development. She is based in Marseille, France. Contact: maud@worldcoffeeresearch.org.

James Astuhuaman is the Country Agronomist for Peru and has an agronomy engineering degree obtained in Lima. He has supported the design and management of coffee projects in South America since 2013, primarily through work as a facilitator in the counseling and training co-op members to use different methodologies in their farming. He has significant experience in value chain development in both the coffee and cocoa sector.

Elly Castro is the Country Agronomist for Nicaragua and coordinates WCR's activities in Nicaragua.  Elly earned an agricultural engineering degree in agricultural education from EARTH University in Costa Rica and a master's degree in hydrology and water resources management from Acala de Henares University in Madrid, Spain. He has experience in coffee agronomy, nursery production, natural resources management and field data collection and analysis.

Emilia is responsible for all field activities related to the coffee seed and nursery sectors under the WCR Nursery Development Program. Emilia has an agricultural engineering degree in agronomy from EARTH University in Costa Rica, and a degree as a project manager specialist from the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. She has a depth of experience and understanding of renovation programs and the coffee nursery and seed sector from her work in nurseries.

Sylvain Roulain is WCR’s project agronomist in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He earned his degree as Agronomist from ISTOM in Cergy-Pontoise, France in 2016, and his coursework focused predominantly on international development and agronomic research through experimentation. Before starting with WCR, he worked with FREDON Martinique to study Mammea Apple.

Nicole Freeman joined the World Coffee Research in 2018. Nicole has over fifteen years of progressive work experience in public institutions and non-profit advancement, with more than ten years of international experience in the business administration of international development programs and humanitarian assistance. Nicole has over ten years of experience in finance, grants, and contracts management of diverse portfolios. Ms. Freeman holds a Master’s level degree under the Public Health program from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a Bachelor of Science from Colorado State University. She is an EMBA candidate at the IMD business school.

Dr. Lucile Toniutti is World Coffee Research's molecular breeder. She is an agronomist specialized in plant breeding holding a Ph.D from Montpellier SupAgro. Her work sits at the crossroads of plant disease, genetics, and agronomy. During her Ph.D. studies she researched  the effect of plant health on reducing coffee leaf rust incidence on Arabica coffee trees. Email: lucile@worldcoffeeresearch.org

Viviana Medina is a plant physiologist who has worked extensively on drought tolerance of numerous tropical crops. Prior to joining WCR she worked with Bioversity International where she played a key role in the development, coordination and implementation of a strategy to evaluate the current state of cacao drought and heat tolerance research. Her doctoral thesis at the University of California Davis was centered on understanding physiological and genetic variations of tolerance traits that underpin/contribute to drought tolerance within the Phaseolus genus. Viviana is dedicated to helping rebuild Puerto Rico’s agriculture, recently co-fundeding Seeding Relief-Puerto Rico, a non-profit organization created in response to the Irma and María hurricanes to help in the reestablishment of agricultural production. Her work with WCR will continue to support this mission by helping restore the destroyed coffee farms in Puerto Rico.

Josue Omar Callejas is the research technician in charge of managing Flor Amarilla, WCR's experimental farm at the Central America regional office in Santa Ana, El Salvasdor. In 2016, he earned his bachelor's degree in Food Science and Technology at Zamorano Agricultural Panamerican School in Honduras. He completed internship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was a research assistant in a microbiology laboratory, a graduation research project developed with Archer Daniel's Midland Company.

Solene oversees the network of the International Multilocation Variety Trial. She also coordinates the DNA Fingerprinting analysis. She obtained a master's degree in agronomy in France and has been working on seed production and breeding. Solene believes that understanding farmers constraints is a key driver for research activities and context adapted innovations. Email: solene@worldcoffeeresearch.org

Koleen has 30+ years of experience in nonprofit management and enjoys working as part of a team to keep no-profit organizations running smoothly.  As WCR's Business Manager, she works closely with the Administration and Finance Director and Accountant to handle billing and payment, contracts, and human resources. She is based in Portland, OR.  Contact:  koleen@worldcoffeeresearch.org

Elisabeth Fillmore holds a bachelors degree from McGill University in English Literature and Arabic. She comes to WCR with several years of marketing, advertisement, and sales experience. As WCR's communications assistant she combines her love of writing, science, and coffee.

Jean Baptiste Kayigamba spent the last three years as a field facilitators for the Rwanda Agriculture Board’s coffee program, where he prepared and set up varietal trials, collected data, and managed the nursery.  He holds a BA in Agronomy from University of Rwanda College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine. 

Dr. Simon Martin Mvuyekure is WCR's Regional Coffee Breeding hub Coordinator for Africa. He holds a Msc. in crop protection from “Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and a Ph.D in plant breeding, from the University of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa).  For the last 13 years, he worked for Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB). His research focused on varietal development, coffee pests and disease management as well as coffee system agronomy. He contributed to the conception and management of outstanding coffee research projects aiming the sustainability of the coffee sector in Rwanda.

Since their establishment back in 2016, he is leading IMLVTs and the African Regional Breeding Hub hosted by Rwanda.

Francisco Anzueto is WCR's Regional Scientific Coordinator for Central America. He holds a doctorate in coffee breeding, and diplomas in biology and agronomy. For 39 years, he worked for Guatemala’s National Coffee Association (Anacafé), and was their director of research from 1986 to 2014. His research has focused on topics including plant breeding, nematology (the study of nematodes), quality and food safety, as well as different coffee environments and production systems, with experience in providing technical advice to farmers. He is the author and co-author of numerous scientific papers.

Pascal was born into a coffee farming family. His career in coffee began more than 15 years ago, when he worked as an agronomist and coffee washing station manager with Rwanda's first specialty coffee  washing station, MARABA. He has since worked as a sustainability and farmer relationship manager at KZNOIR Limited, where he supported 10,000 coffee farmers by managing certification programs and creating projects that impacting community. Pascal was involved in the SPREAD and PEARL projects with Dr. Tim Schilling in the mid-2000s as coffee quality manager. He has training in coffee cupping, export processes , and coffee marketing. He recently initiated biochar production in Tanzania (biochar is a 2,000 year-old practice that converts agricultural waste into a soil enhancer that can hold carbon, boost food security, and increase soil biodiversity, and discourage deforestation).  Pascal has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Rwanda. Email: pascal@worldcoffeeresearch.org

Sara Bogantes has worked in coffee for five years. Previously, she worked at the Doka Estate and La Hilda coffee plantations in Costa Rica. She has developed and implemented agricultural best practices,  as well as designed and created a germplasm bank to assist in the improvement of coffee plants on the farm. The latter project included evaluating different varieties, their performance in the cup, pest and disease resistance, and yield per plant. She was responsible for the entire seed exportation process that included managing a staff to collect and execute seed selection for export, quality control, and necessary documentation.