Hailu Tefera Wordofa has worked as an Agriculture Development Officer in the Bureau for Resilience, Environment and Food Security (REFS), USAID, for 10 years. Prior to joining REFS/USAID, Hailu served as a Soybean Breeder at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). As a soybean breeder, Hailu led the development and release of 10 soybean varieties in several African countries. Before joining IITA, Hailu served as a Senior Researcher and National Tef Research Coordinator in the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Ethiopia. Under his leadership more than a dozen tef varieties were developed and released for various agroecological zones of Ethiopia. Moreover, he was engaged in post-graduate training activities of universities in Ethiopia. Hailu has authored and co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications. Hailu holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of London, U.K.; M.Sc. in Agronomy from Alemaya University of Agriculture (now Haramaya University), and B.Sc. in Plant Sciences from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Hailu also received specialized training at Texas Tech University in 1997/98 and at Cornell University in 2001/02 under the McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program.