Canaan Boyer earned the 2022 CALS Core Value Staff Award for Inclusion for exemplary contributions to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). She was recognized for her commitment to inclusion as project manager for NextGen Cassava, called "one of the most successful crop breeding projects in the world."
Boyer joined Cornell CALS in 2017 as project manager for NextGen Cassava, an action-oriented global project working to empower smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa through innovative and sustainable cassava breeding. Managing a highly complex, multicultural and multilingual project spanning 13 time zones in Africa, Europe, North America and South America requires a deft touch, said Ronnie Coffman, Ph.D. ‘72, principal investigator for NextGen and professor emeritus of plant breeding and genetics.
“NextGen Cassava is a shining example of the impact agricultural science can produce for people around the world, and Canaan has been an essential part of NextGen’s success,” Coffman said. “Canaan encourages diversity in all dimensions. She is adaptable beyond the call of duty and manages to cope with the quickly changing priorities and demands that are characteristic of our project.”
Working with global partners, NextGen employs advanced plant breeding tools to produce elite varieties of cassava that provide higher yields, superior disease resistance and preferred end-user characteristics. The project has received $60 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
