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Dickson Otieno

PhD
175 West Campus Dr., MC 0343
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Master of Science (MSc) in Agri-Enterprise Development – Egerton University, Kenya, 2018

Bachelors in Agribusiness Management – Egerton University, Kenya, 2013

Before joining VT, Otieno served as the Project Manager at the World Bank-sponsored Africa Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Agriculture and Agribusiness Management (CESAAM) hosted in Kenya, where he led and coordinated international collaborations, administrative and strategic leadership, program evaluation, and industry liaison. While serving in the private sector, Dickson ran several smallholder agricultural capacity and advancement programs in Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya where he has extensive research, industry, and academia networks. Dickson led youth agripreneurship bootcamps that culminated in business plan competitions and funding for agribusiness start-ups. Currently, Dickson helps with dissemination strategies for the Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP)Report and international collaboration and opportunities for students and faculty in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).

Otieno, D., & Archibald, T. (2022). Creating a Robust Evaluation System through Capacity Building for Higher Education Institutions in Africa. 10th African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) Conference.

Scherer, H.H., Otieno, D., Smilnak, D., Owen, K., McGraw, C., Alfonso, C., & Norris, M (2022). Developing Systems Thinkers: Strategies for Effective Instructional Design. 2022 Virginia Tech Conference on Higher Education and Pedagogy (CHEP).

Otieno, D., & Archibald, T. (2022). A General Punctuated Thesis of African Evaluation Ontologies and Policy Implications. 2022 Eastern Evaluation Research Society (EERS).

Otieno, D., & Archibald, T. (2021). Methodological considerations in the evaluation of positive youth development. 6th Emergent Voices in Evaluation (EViE) Conference.

Otieno, D., Mshenga, P., & Saidi, M. (2016). Agrienterprise development as pathway to youth and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa: The case of agrienterprise business prototypes at Egerton University. 5th RUFORUM Biennial Conference and Africa Higher Education Week.

Otieno, D. (2017). Sustainable Agribusiness Management as the Future of Jobs and Skills in Kenya and Africa. The 4th Partnership in skills development of Applied Sciences, Engineering, and Technology (PASET) in Africa.

Otieno, K., Otieno, D., & Owuor, G. (2018). Youths as the agents of change in achieving food security and reducing unemployment in sub-Sahara Africa: The case of CESAAM Project at Egerton University. 6th RUFORUM Biennial Conference and Africa Higher Education Week.

Otieno D, Niewolny K, Archibald T, Schenk T and Nunoo N (2023) Transformative learning to promote transformative evaluation of food system praxis. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6:1068356. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.1068356/full

Mshenga, P., Okello, D., Ayuya, O., Mwangi, Otieno, D., Jabu, J., & Mungai, N. (2020). Influence of entrepreneurship education on Egerton University’s graduates’ intention to start a business. African Crop Science Journal, 28(s1), 289–303. https://doi.org/10.4314/acsj.v28i1.22s

Otieno, D., Mshenga, P., & Owuor, G. (2019). Structure of the Small and Medium Informal Dairy Enterprises in Olenguruone and Bahati Sub-Counties. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development. https://doi.org/10.7176/jesd/10-22-05

Dickson’s professional and research interests are in program evaluation policy and international development through youth agri-entrepreneurship and sustainable food systems, with experience mostly in Africa.

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