Mary A. Orinda is a senior lecturer and researcher at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST-Kenya) in the School of Agricultural and Food Sciences. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management (BSc. AGBM) and Master of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics both from Egerton University and PhD. Agribusiness Management from JOOUST. She is also an African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Scholar and a member of Association of African Agricultural Economist (AAAE). Prior to joining Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, she worked for three years with European Committee on Food and Agriculture (CEFA) and as a Research Fellow with World Food Program. During her stint at CEFA, she co-authored the Participatory Forest Management Plan (PFMP) for Wire forest, actively participated in resource mobilization, identification and development of Income Generating Activities (ICAs) for rural communities in Kenya. Her research interests are food security, agribusiness and sustainable rural development. Besides the academic work, she is in the forefront of community outreach and is currently the pioneer chairperson of Association of Fish cage farmers in Kenya. She possesses inter-personal attributes for work delivery such as interpersonal skills; keen on knowledge generation, sharing and learning from others.