Keene State’s motto of “enter to learn, go forth to serve,” has had a profound effect on many of its students, Amy Sullivan ’89 among them. A few years after she graduated with a degree in Political Science, Amy joined the Peace Corps, arriving in Senegal in 1994 as an agricultural extension volunteer.

“I was attached to the Winrock Rice Productivity Enhancement Project that was meant to increase productivity of small-scale rice producers by introducing improved varieties, bred to be highly suited to local conditions,” Amy explained. “Women were the rice farmers in that part of the country, so they were my primary contacts, farmers, and connections. I had to learn enough of the local language, Fulani, in order to live and work and have some fun.”

“My job was pretty straightforward agricultural extension work,” Amy recalled. “I was responsible for disseminating improved variety seeds, along with the relevant technical training, to women rice farmers. … In other words, I pedaled my Peace-Corps-issue Trek mountain bike and around the southern Senegalese countryside, meeting with women rice growers, doing technical training and weekly or bi-weekly follow up in the field.”

When her hitch was up in ’96, Amy enrolled in an MSc program in Farming Systems Research and Extension at the University of Florida. She followed that with a PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology, with a concentration in Women’s Studies, also from UF, in 2004.

But the lure of Africa was strong, and she soon moved to Pretoria, South Africa, where she lives and works today. “I am a researcher, focusing on agricultural water management and gender. At the moment, I lead the Challenge Programme for Water and Food research in the Limpopo River Basin, which covers parts of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa. At present, my main responsibilities are research management, communication, ensuring relevance of the research, and establishing pathways for uptake of research for impact.”