Mukankusi Clare Tekla Mugisha

Clare Mukankusi Mugisha (PhD Plant Breeding, University of KwaZulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg, Republic of South Africa), MSc Crop Science (Plant Pathology) and BSc Agriculture, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. Senior Scientist working as the Global Breeding Lead, Common Bean at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.
She leads the implementation of systems, procedures and guidelines for effective product development for the global bean breeding program and supports breeding operations that range from trait discovery to population improvement focusing on prioritized market segments and target product profile.
She has over 20 years of research experience in plant pathology, plant breeding, and legume seed systems. She leads the Uganda common bean breeding program of the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT and leads the breeding theme of the Pan Africa bean Research Alliance (PABRA) a task that involves supporting National bean breeding programs under the PABRA umbrella and actively developing bean varieties for key demanded and prioritized traits in collaboration with the regional breeders. She also oversees the maintenance and distributions of regional breeding lines developed by NARS and the Alliance and other collaborators. She has authored and co-authored over 70 publications and holds the Distinguished Achievement Award (2017) in recognition to her outstanding scientific accomplishments relating to bean improvement from the Bean Improvement Cooperative (BIC). She served as the Co-Lead of the Accelerated Breeding Initiative of the OneCGIAR and is an Executive member of the African Plant Breeders Association (APBA). Her research interests is in improving resistance to key disease affecting beans with keen interest to adopting proven breeding approaches to improve market demanded traits for beans. Clare is keen to collaborate with anyone interested in addressing key constraints to bean productivity and consumption through breeding and has and is currently working with the NARS in Africa, ARI's in the USA, UK, Germany and Australia on specific projects that contribute to this goal.