Dr. Innocensia F. John is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Business at the College of Agriculture and Food Technology, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She has been a faculty member at the University of Dar es Salaam since 2019 and has served in several academic leadership roles, including College Postgraduate Coordinator (2020–2024) and Member of the College Board since December 2020. She holds a PhD in Economics jointly awarded by the University of Copenhagen and the University of Dar es Salaam (2017), an MA in Economics (2012), and a BA in Economics and Statistics (2010) from the University of Dar es Salaam. She undertook postdoctoral research at Michigan State University (2019–2020) and was a Fellow at the University of Pretoria (2021–2023).

Dr. John has extensive experience in applied research, policy analysis, and development practice, having previously worked as a Research Associate at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a Programme Officer under the Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair in Development, and an Assistant Research Fellow at REPOA. She has led and co-led numerous nationally and internationally funded projects on climate-smart agriculture, indigenous and orphan crops, food systems transformation, gender and intra-household decision-making, fisheries and the blue economy, and agricultural policy reform. She has supervised and mentored undergraduate and postgraduate students in quantitative and qualitative research methods, data analysis, and academic writing.

Dr. John has received advanced leadership and professional training and has actively contributed to high-level policy processes, including the review of Tanzania’s National Agricultural Policy. She has published extensively in internationally reputable journals and books, including Science, World Development, Sustainability, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Journal of Rural Studies, and Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. In recognition of her contributions to agri-food systems research and policy, she was awarded the World Food Prize Foundation Top Agri-food Pioneer (TAP) in 2024.