Judi W. Wakhungu

Judi W. Wakhungu is a former Executive Director of the African Technology Studies Network. She then became the Director of the Women in Sciences and Engineering (WISE) Institute at the Pennsylvania State University. She was also an Associate Professor of Science, Technology and Society whose research interests included Energy Policy and Development, Science Technology and Development, and Gender Issues in Science and Technology Policy. She received a B.S. in Geology from St. Lawrence University in New York, an MS degree in Petroleum Geology from Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and her Ph.D. in Energy Resources Management from Pennsylvania State University. She has held a number of energy sector positions in the civil service industry and higher education in her native country of Kenya. She was the first woman to be hired as a geologist in the Ministry of Energy and Regional Development, where her duties entailed exploring for geothermal energy in Kenya's Rift Valley, the first woman petroleum geologist in the National Oil Corporation of Kenya, as well as the first female faculty member in the Department of Geology at the University of Nairobi. She has served on many national and international boards and committees with the distinction of being the "designated energy expert" for the United Nations Commission of Science and Technology for Development (Gender Working Group). She is currently First Cabinet Secretary, Ministry for Environment, Water and Natural Resources of Kenya.