Temitope Olasunkanmi

I always tell young professionals that we can all achieve whatever we set our minds to. You don't need to give up on whatever you're doing now, even if you think you're not getting there. You will only know more when you do more, when you take more risks, when you keep pushing and don't give up. Don't be intimidated by the voice of any other person - just keep pushing and stand out. I had an example where we were running an analysis looking for a particular pathogen in a crop that literature said should be there, but we didn't find it. My team member became afraid because the results didn't match expectations, but I had to stand for him and explain that this is what we call science. Even if you fail now, you don't stay with your failure - you keep doing it till you get the right result. Fortunately for us, the negative result was actually what we needed because it proved that not all strains will have the same results. As I tell people, it's our world - just exploit it. Women can stand out, we can stand strong, and there is nothing women cannot do. A woman can do whatever a man can do, and it would be a better world if we push ourselves out there.

The biggest challenge in my field is competition and gender bias. When you're in a meeting or conference and you discover you have 100 men and 2 women, other men might think these people cannot do this - that's the first impression they have of us, that we are women and we don't have the tenacity or everything needed to do it. In Africa it's worse because they believe women should be basically in the kitchen. When you try to compete with the opposite sex in your field, that becomes a challenge because you need to put in more effort to prove that you can do it. You need extra time, you need to shout for your voice to be heard. That's a serious challenge. In plant breeding generally, especially in Africa, we have far fewer women doing this work, though the narrative is changing because a few of us are actually pushing it. Even here in the United States in my current school, there is no single female plant breeder, which is interesting and shows this challenge exists globally.

The most important values to me are servant leadership and helping others. In my work, I believe in being a servant leader, not a boss-like leader - someone who is always ready to lead by showing examples and doing things yourself. You don't leave it for your team to do. You want to start it, you want to do it for them to see that it's achievable and doable. They want to see you do it first, and then you will not have issues telling them what to do because you are there doing it and showing it. In my personal life, I love helping people and seeing people happy. I love nature and watching out for how beautiful nature is. I also believe strongly in empowering women and showing that women can do whatever men can do. Throughout my career, I've always wanted to be part of the few women in this field and to encourage more girls and ladies to join, to show them that we can stand out and stand strong.