Paul E. McNamara, Ph.D. 
Founder and Director, AgReach

Paul is passionate about extension and is committed to substantively improving the lives of smallholder farmers in the poorest countries of the world. Paul brings over 20 years of impressive international development experience to AgReach where he oversees a $22 million portfolio of international agricultural extension development activities. Dr. McNamara is well known and well respected in his field among peers, partners and the broader donor community. An accomplished academic, he is well published on rural development, nutrition and health, and extension in leading journals and publications. Under Paul’s leadership, AgReach’s work has spanned 4 continents and reached over 50 countries. With a background in international economics, agriculture and nutrition, Dr. McNamara understands the big picture and what it takes to really move the needle on food security and poverty alleviation. Dr. McNamara founded AgReach in 2016 and it now houses several large multi-country programs funded by USAID.

Ph.D. from University of Minnesota, St. Paul
M.P.P., from John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College, Illinois
Languages: English, Spanish

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anna Snider, Ph.D.
International Agricultural Development Specialist, New Business Development Specialist

Anna is a social scientist with twenty years of experience in research, education, outreach, and development projects in North America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Her work is focused on smallholder farmers and helping them make their organizations more functional, sustainable, and inclusive. Anna's multi-disciplinary research interests include the construction and destruction of social capital, agricultural systems for improved human nutrition, gender and women's empowerment, and market incentives for sustainable production. Anna's experience working as an extension educator and her background in agricultural production shape her work.

Doctor of Philosophy; Sustainable Management- Montpellier SupAgro, France 
Doctor of Philosophy; Planning Rural Development Projects, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
MS in International Horticulture, University of Essex, UK                
BS in Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Languages: English, French, and Spanish

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leon Hounnou, Ph.D.
Research Assistant 

Leon has worked with farmers on many agricultural development challenges such as crop infestation, inefficient use of pesticides, postharvest loss, food shortages due to lack of crop storage systems, and insufficient support from government during five years’ work experience as a research assistant at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), as a professional trainee at the Netherlands Organization of Development (SNV) and as an agricultural advisor at Entreprises Developpement et Territoires (ETD). He has experience working with smallholder farmers in rural areas in Benin, helping them adopt newly developed technologies and assessing the economic impact of these technologies on their living conditions. Leon also has expertise in agricultural value chain analysis and economic modelling for climate change using the Soil and Water Assessment Tools (SWAT). His research interests on the Strengthening Agricultural and Nutrition Services project are survival analysis, economic impact evaluation and spatial econometrics.

PhD in Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from Oklahoma State University
BSc in Agricultural engineering from the University of Parakou, Benin
Languages: French, English, Adja, Mina, Fon, Goun

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Annisa Collishaw, Ph.D. Student

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jingru Jia, Ph.D. Student 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

​