Mission

Jorge is the Breeding and technical manager at WCR. He holds a B.Sc. in Agronomy from the Instituto Tecnológico de Conkal, a M.Sc. in Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. in Horticulture and Agronomy and postdoc from the University of California at Davis. Between receiving his master's and doctoral degrees, he served as a researcher at INIFAP in Mexico. His expertise includes genetic resources, plant breeding and cultivar development. He lives in Yucatán, México. Email: jorge@worldcoffeeresearch.org

José is originally from Costa Rica, but considers himself as a “traveling agronomist” since he has studied and worked in Guatemala, Honduras, the United States, Switzerland, Brazil and El Salvador. José graduated from the Pan-American School of Agriculture – Zamorano – with postgraduate degrees in crop production and physiology from Iowa State University and in integrated crop management from the University of Neuchâtel.  He has fourteen years of international experience in agriculture, data development, monitoring, evaluation, extension and research.

Contact: josemaria@worldcoffeeresearch.org

Remy Rodriguez has 10+ years experience in the coffee industry in PR and USA. He earned his degree as an Agronomist from the University of Puerto Rico- Mayagüez Campus, with specialization in soil fertility and natural resource conservation. He has worked as a consultant with different coffee producers, mills, nurseries, roasters and is also a board member to the local coffee producers cooperative (PROCAFE) in Puerto Rico. He is now proud to call himself a first generation coffee producer in the municipality of Guayanilla, PR.

Ana is the Accounting Manager of World Coffee Research and among her responsibilities are the analysis of financial information and the preparation of financial reports within the organization. She has a master's degree in accounting from Texas A&M university, is a Certified Public Accountant and is fluent in English and Spanish and has a working knowledge of French. She is excited about being part of the first collaborative agricultural R&D organization for coffee.

Kristin comes to WCR after managing R&D and policy programming for USAID where she oversaw the planning and execution of programs under the Feed the Future Research Strategy. Prior to joining USAID, Kristin was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar where she worked as a small enterprise development volunteer supporting farmers and artisans to expand their businesses. Kristin holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs, and a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Iowa. Kristin is excited to join the team in support WCR’s mission.    

Donnel Jun Tiedra is an agronomist who has worked in agriculture for the last 9 years in the Philippines. He has a BSc in Plant Breeding and Genetics from University of Southern Mindanao, and an Masters in Public Administration from Cor Jesu College. Prior to joining WCR, he worked as Technical Advisory and Marketing Supervisor of Agriculture, Food and Life Department at SGS Philippines. He also worked as Coffee Agronomist for 6 years at Nestle Philippines. He was responsible for implementing the Nescafe Plan, ensuring sustainable supply of good quality green coffee and helping the Filipino coffee farmers increase their yield and income from coffee farming. He also did multi-location trials for new clones of Robusta coffee to assess performance on yield, pest and disease tolerance.

Jesslin Zeledón holds a degree in Administration of Coffee Farms and is currently completing a Master's degree in Business Management. She has five years of experience working on sustainable rural development projects. She also worked with small coffee producers and cooperatives, providing technical assistance and developing experimentation processes to improve productivity, as well as improve quality of life.

Nuzul has spent more than 18 years working in both the private sector and non-profit organizations in Indonesia. His first experience in non-profit began 15 years ago when earthquake and tsunami disaster hit his hometown in Aceh on 2004. Since then he has managed several sustainable agriculture projects, which aimed to increase productivity and quality, as well as to promote alternative income streams for smallholders. These projects also aimed to strengthen farmer organizations in order to increase the income for smallholders in different provinces. His experience spans from on-farm smallholder support to national level coffee and cocoa initiatives in the region. In 2018 he was elected as chairman of General Assembly of Cocoa Sustainable Partnership in Indonesia. He is based in Banda Aceh. Contact: nuzul@worldcoffeeresearch.org

Square K. Nyasulu is an agronomist at Mzuzu Coffee Planters Cooperative Union, situated in Mzuzu city of Northern Malawi. He also works with WCR to establish and run OFTTs in Malawi. His major role at Mzuzu Coffee is to coordinate extension and training for over 2,600 farmers. His main interest is to foster sustainability of the coffee industry through technologies that mitigates the growing challenge of climate change.

Before joining Mzuzu Coffee, Mr Nyasulu worked as an Agronomist at the Tea Research Foundation where he helped to develop simple and efficient labor saving tea harvesting methods. He also worked at Agricultural Trading Company in Malawi and has a vast knowledge of agricultural input chain.

Jimmy More is the Country Agronomist for Peru. He holds a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Universidad Nacional Agraria de la Selva and a master’s degree in environmental management and sustainable development from the “Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann”, both in Perú. His research was focused on soil area and plant growth. He has worked in coffee projects and has experience training producers in coffee agronomy and nursery production.

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 focuses on helping private sector companies expand their sustainability investments to include a new collaborative, multi-stakeholder tool, World Coffee Research.  She is excited to engage more coffee industry partners in WCR's work, which will benefit millions of smallholder farmers in developing countries.   Alexa has a range of experience in nonprofit fundraising and corporate investor relations, in both the U.S. and Europe. She has a degree from Babson College and is based in Munich, Germany.  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.

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.

Elly Castro coordinates WCR's<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Source Sans Pro"; panose-1:2 11 5 3 3 4 3 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:1610613495 33554433 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;}size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSec activities, programs, and projects in the Latin America South region, covering Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico.  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. He is based in Nicaragua.

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.

Josue Callejas coordinates WCR's activities, programs, and projects in the Latin America North region, covering Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. 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 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 non-profit 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 Finance Team to handle billing and payments, contracts, and human resources. She is based in Portland, OR. Contact:  koleen@worldcoffeeresearch.org

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.