BOONE—Boitshepo “Bibi” Giyose, senior food and nutrition security adviser for the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU/NEPAD) in Midrand, South Africa, will visit Appalachian State University April 20-23.

Giyose coordinates nutrition activities and provides policy direction for the African continent. She also works with the United Nations and other organizations.

Giyose is a graduate of Appalachian. During her visit, she will receive the Appalachian Alumni Associations Distinguished Alumni Award and will share her knowledge and experiences in eradicating poverty and placing African countries on a path of sustainable growth, and working to empower women.

A welcome reception for Giyose will be held Friday, April 20, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Jefferson Room at the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center on campus.

On Monday, April 23, Giyose will give two presentations in Room 114 Carol Grotnes Belk Library and Information Commons. At 11 a.m. she will present “Out of Africa:

Sustainable Development and Advocacy” and at 2 p.m. she will present “Food Security Issues in African Cultures: The Impact of Nutrition.” The public is invited to attend these events.

Giyose graduated from Appalachian in 1989 with a bachelor of science degree in food and nutrition and a concentration in general dietetics from the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Giyose began her career with the Ministry of Health in Botswana, and later attended graduate school at Cornell University. After earning a master’s degree in international nutrition, Giyose returned to South Africa to resume helping malnourished and impoverished people in her country and region.

She has been a regional project coordinator for a United Nations initiative to improve the U.N.’s HIV response in small population countries in Africa. For five years, she was the regional coordinator of the food and nutrition program at the Commonwealth Regional Health Community Secretariat for East, Central and Southern Africa, based in Tanzania.

Giyose received first prize at the Botswana International Trade Fair in 1998 for best venture in traditional foods development. In 2002, she was nominated as a board member of the Global Alliance to Improve Nutrition, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She writes a column on food and nutrition for The Monitor newspaper in Botswana, Africa, and has written more than 25 scholarly papers regarding health and nutrition issues. She has presented at international forums including the World Food Prize Conference and the USAID-Board for International Food and Agriculture Conference.

“Bibi has achieved extraordinary competence and has assumed high-profile positions of leadership, advocacy and policy development in her homeland,” said Sammie Garner, Giyose’s advisor and former professor at Appalachian. “Her depth of understanding regarding the nutrition and health issues and related economic development critical for Africa, and her keen insight regarding workable solutions, bodes well for the future of her beloved home.”

For more information about Giyose or her visit, contact Jodi (Wright) Hartley in the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Appalachian at (828) 262-7249 or wrightjl@appstate.edu.