Dr Erika Valério joins as our third keynote speaker

Dr Erika Valério, senior gender and agrifood systems expert at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), will be joining the Women in Tea & Coffee conference as a keynote speaker.

Erika is a gender and rural development researcher with 12 years of international experience managing and advising projects across multilateral organisations, applied research programmes, and the private sector. Her primary research interests include gender and innovation, women’s economic empowerment, inclusive value chains and agribusiness, and qualitative and mixed-method research methodologies.

Erika has extensive field experience across Latin America, Southern Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. Her current role as a senior gender and agrifood systems expert at the FAO sees her supporting projects and investments on women’s economic empowerment.

Erika holds a PhD in Gender and Rural Development from Newcastle University.