Student Profile

 Blessings holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science obtained at Bunda College of Agriculture in 2010. She has a 7 years professional experience working with Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM) where she has served as a Project Coordinator, Environmental Education Officer, Research and Conservation Manager and currently she is the Programmes Manager. She has worked in several projects under the auspices of CEPF, JICA, USAID, MBZ, JRS, TEARFUND/JOA among others.

Blessings successfully piloted community mobilization in COSMA-DFR project (JICA funded) for 1 year that saw the organization receiving a 3 years grant. She championed formation of Key Biodiversity Areas National Coordination Group (KBA-NCG), became its first chairperson and focal point. WESM holds so much historic biodiversity data in grey literature. Blessings championed the extraction of this data and publish 16 biodiversity datasets with an open access platform called Global Biodiversity Information Management Forum (GBIF). She also is part of the National Redlist Working Group which is undertaking National Redlist Assessments of species of economic importance in Malawi, and Blessings is leading the assessment of edible orchids.

The integral part of her professional journey has been discovering her area of interest that is biodiversity which has become her passion. Blessings has developed interest in species research and biodiversity data management. The introduction of MSc in Biodiversity Informatics has perfectly aligned with her prospects of becoming a leading human resource in Key Biodiversity Areas Assessments in Malawi. Consequently, she has developed research interest in applying the KBA global assessment criteria to delineate KBAs for policy and decision making.