Mrs. Mercy Afua Adutwumwaa Derkyi [BSc. MSc. PhD] is an Associate Professor at the Department of Forest Science and the Head Centre for Professional Development (CePDev). She graduated with a BSc in Natural Resource Management (Forestry Option) in 2000 from KNUST, Ghana and MSc in Agroforestry from the same University. In 2012 obtained her doctorate in social sciences with a specialty in Forest Governance and Conflict Management at the University of Amsterdam with a scholarship from Tropenbos International. Prof. Derkyi’s scope of research and practice has been in the forest landscape, endowed her with 22 years of working experience across the state forest sector, non-governmental organizations, and academia. Prof. Derkyi co-founded the Conservation and Development Foundation (CONDEF), where she supported fundraising and proposal development for the organization. In 2013 Prof. Derkyi joined academia and won some career and professional development fellowships. She was a visiting scholar at the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA), a 2014 Fellow of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), of which she was the president of GhaWARD and in 2015 was a post-doctoral fellow of Climate Impact Research Capacity and Leadership Enhancement Programme for sub-Saharan Africa (CIRCLE) under ACU/UKAID/AAS. In the past ten years, her research focus has centered on climate change, Nature-Based Solutions (forest landscape restoration, rainwater harvesting), conflict management, governance and gender in the agriculture and forestry sectors. She established the Centre for Climate Change and Gender Studies at the University of Energy and Natural Resources. She was the gender expert of a feasibility study on Renewable Energies for Pilot Project Implementation in Ghana, 2018. She was also the Dean of the School of Natural Resources from 2019-to 2021. She is involved in some collaborative national and international projects and consultancies. She is a member of national and international organizations such as GIF, OWSD, and IUFRO and facilitated workshops, international conferences and short courses. She is a social research methodology visiting scholar at the WASCAL Doctoral Research Programme on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, University of Lome. Prof. Derkyi has authored over forty (40) journal publications, book chapters, manuals, newsletters, info sheets, policy briefs and research reports. She has also supervised undergraduate and graduate students. In all these working trajectories, she has been fortunate to be mentored by renowned scientists and practitioners and has and still is mentoring early career researchers and students.