Emma Quilligan is a Senior Manager for CGIAR’s System Council, where she manages the work of the Council’s Strategic Impact, Monitoring and Evaluation Committee and Assurance Oversight Committee. She ensures that Council members receive information in a way that enables efficient and effective decision-making. From 2020 to 2023, Emma served as Special Assistant to IFPRI’s Director General and Secretary to the Board of Trustees, providing strategic support to senior management during a period of immense organizational change. Emma also worked in IFPRI’s Business Development Unit from 2018 to 2020.
Before joining IFPRI, Emma worked for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico and served as Head of Project Development for a small NGO in remote southeast Madagascar. Emma holds a master’s degree in International Development from Cornell University, where she was an Atkinson Center Sustainability Fellow, received the Hollingshead Award for agricultural study in Myanmar, and conducted research for The African Seed Access Index (TASAI). She also holds a master’s degree in Science Communication from Imperial College, London, and a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Bristol, UK.
