Dr. George O. Kegode, Ph.D.

Dr. George O. Kegode, Ph.D.

Lead IPM Advisor

Doctorate in Crop Production and Physiology specializing in pest biology. He has developed integrated methods for weed control for several crops including maize, soybean, dry bean, canola, sunflower, and wheat.

Dr. Kegode has authored 25+ peer-reviewed articles on weed management and has made 50+ professional presentations on pest biology, ecology, and integrated pest management to farmers, peers, policy makers, and regulators.

In addition, Dr.Kegode successfully conducted pesticide assessments in Ethiopia and Mozambique for the development of safe use action plans for USAID programs within those countries.

George Kegode began his career as an agricultural extension coordinator from 1983 to 1986 for the Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of Kenya. He left this position to pursue further education and earned a doctorate in agriculture with an emphasis in pest biology and management from Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Dr. Kegode then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with University of Minnesota prior to joining the faculty at North Dakota State University (1999 – 2006) and then Northwest Missouri State University (2006 – 2014). During this time, Dr. Kegode conducted original research, taught and mentored graduate and undergraduate students, served in numerous roles within the agriculture and pest management scientific community, and authored 27 peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. Kegode served as a Board Director of the Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR) NGO from 2003 to 2009. RSWR empowers women in India, Kenya, and Sierra Leone by providing seed money to selected microenterprises. He chaired the proposal screening effort that provided funding recommendations, and he was instrumental in helping RSWR establish in Kenya. As a volunteer consultant for the USAID Farmer to Farmer program managed by CNFA (2010 and 2011), Dr. Kegode helped two Malawi entrepreneurs increase their revenues by improving their understanding of their respective value chains.

In 2014, Dr. Kegode became an independent consultant focusing on agriculture and food security and was a Senior Advisor at Africare where he conducted value chain analysis, and helped develop agriculture and agribusiness programs targeted at poor and vulnerable African farmers. In September 2015, Dr. Kegode served as a USAID-funded Farmer to Farmer administrative volunteer for the Catholic Relief Services to evaluate pesticide use in Ethiopia and develop a safe use action plan for future USAID-funded programs.

With a passion for empowering the neglected and vulnerable within our society, Dr. Kegode has an AS degree in Extension Agriculture from Egerton University, Kenya; a BS degree in Agriculture from Wilmington College, Ohio; a MS degree in Agriculture from Alabama A & M University; and a PhD in Agriculture from Iowa State University. He has also won numerous awards from the Weed Science Society of America and American Society of Agronomy, and was honored by Wilmington College in 2014 with the ‘Alumni Citation Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education’.