Gillian Summers

Gillian is Senior Editor at ICIMOD. This role, which she took up in February 2023, incorporates managing the editorial team and external editors, and overseeing written content produced by ICIMOD, from blogs to project proposals, funders’ reports and a range of articles for the media. Her focus on the quality and language of ICIMOD’s written work aims to improve readability and better take-up of our research.

Prior to this, Gillian was based in the UK, where she had been Communications Specialist at the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) – a specialist research, development, and education organisation of the University of Greenwich, with a focus on food, agriculture, environment, and sustainable livelihoods. In this role, she worked with a wide range of researchers, partners and students, writing, editing, and advising on the best way to share their work with a variety of audiences. This role took her to many locations in rural Africa, where she met with farmers, scientists and the private sector to produce case studies on projects that helped to improve agronomic practices and to develop the value chain of the tropical root crop, cassava. Her work at NRI also involved working on successful multi-million-dollar project proposals, and two prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Further and Higher Education.

Previously, she worked in communications in a range of organisations in Mexico, including at the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme (GCP), based at the Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in the private sector and in education. Through these diverse roles, Gillian has honed her skills and passion for language and storytelling in science for development and enjoys working with ICIMOD’s diverse communications and scientific teams to create engaging content about our work.