Dr. Barbara Mugwanya Zawedde holds a PhD with a major in Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology, and a minor in Environmental Science and Policy, from Michigan State University, USA. Additionally, she possesses a Master of Science in Crop Protection and a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Makerere University, Kampala.

Key Achievements: Dr. Zawedde has demonstrated exemplary leadership and management as she oversees a workforce of 132 at a NARO institute, conducting adaptive research and promoting outputs across 22 districts in Uganda since January 2020. She serves as the Principal Investigator for the NARO Youth Empowerment Project, a collaboration with Grand Challenge Africa and involving 2 countries, 5 Public Agriculture Research Institutes, and a private sector company. This initiative aims to support over 112,000 youth in 27 districts, enhancing their agribusinesses through the adoption of NARO-recommended technologies.

Furthermore, Dr. Zawedde successfully established and operationalized the Uganda Biosciences Information Center (UBIC) from August 2013 to March 2020. She collaborated with the Ministry of Education and Sports and the National Curriculum Development Centre to integrate biotechnology and biosafety into new agriculture course curricula for secondary schools. Her notable contributions include the publication of books and video clips on NARO’s 25 Years of Unrivalled Agricultural Research Excellence (2017) and NARO Successful Interventions Generated and Disseminated (2017). Dr. Zawedde actively participated in policy formulation, advocacy, and the development of policy briefs and guidelines for biosafety legislative and regulatory systems in Uganda and other Eastern African countries.