Ndunge Kiiti

Ndunge Kiiti is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Global Development, with over 30+ years in the international development field. In the last three years, she has served as a Visiting Associate Professor and the Director of the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program at Cornell University in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Johnson College of Business. She also serves as an Adjunct Faculty at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, Department of Global Health, in Atlanta, GA. Prior to returning to Cornell in 2015, Ndunge was a Professor of International Development at Houghton College, in Houghton, NY where her work spanned across Africa and Latin America.

Ndunge’s work involves research, teaching, and service in communication, education, health, entrepreneurship, and development. Her collaborative research projects have highlighted the use of mobile money technology by women’s micro-credit groups and the ‘Jua Kali’ or informal business sector in Kenya. In collaboration with Cornell's Institute for African Development (IAD), Ndunge has carried out research on the use and impact of mobile money technology among smallholder farmers in Rwanda and Ethiopia. She has served on the boards of MAP International, a global health organization (Brunswick/Atlanta, GA), the CORE Group (Washington, DC) and Jericho Road Community Health Center (Buffalo, NY). Ndunge has a PhD in Communication from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, which included a one-year study in International Health at the John’s Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.

Awards

• L.A. Potts Success Stories Award (focus on SMART Program), 77th Annual Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, Tuskegee University, AL, 2019
• Mobile Money Research displayed at British Museum, London, UK (April-September, 2013)
• Excellence in Teaching Award, 2011
• Outstanding Teaching Award, 2001

Interests

• Communication & mobile technologies
• Public health & international/community development
• Business & entrepreneurship