Two faculty members from Texas Tech’s Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources have been selected to join an international research and development team as part of the 2026 Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange, a program administered by the U.S. Department of State and the International Research & Exchanges Board, a Washington-based nonprofit focused on global education and development.
‘The Mandela program has led a number of these cooperative relationships. These activities are critical to the international impact goals for Davis College.’
The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, launched in 2014 as the flagship initiative of the U.S. government’s Young African Leaders Initiative, was created to invest in emerging leaders across Africa. Its Reciprocal Exchange component enables U.S. citizens to extend the partnerships forged during the Fellowship through collaborative projects with alumni, fostering long-term professional ties and mutual understanding between the United States and African nations.
“We’re very excited about this exchange program,” said Darren Hudson, Davis College’s Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives. “The Mandela program has led a number of these cooperative relationships. These activities are critical to the international impact goals for Davis College.”
Selected as reciprocal exchange participants are Jason Headrick, an assistant professor of leadership and community development in the Department of Agricultural Education & Communications, and Conrad Lyford, a professor in the Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics.
Working alongside Nigerian partners Kani Khalid, Public Health Physician at the Federal Teaching Hospital Katsina, and Abdulrahman Ahmed, director of the Sokoto State Nutrition Intervention Program, the team will co-design and implement a community-based initiative aimed at improving child nutrition and health outcomes in northern Nigeria. Also participating in the project is Lena Zappia, director of commercialization programs at Texas Tech’s Innovation Hub, a Lubbock-based startup incubator and research facility supporting entrepreneurs, students and faculty.
The seven-day intervention, to be conducted this summer in Katsina State, Nigeria, is designed to address severe childhood malnutrition and unhealthy caregiving practices through an integrated approach combining nutrition education, behavior change strategies, and public health messaging. The project will train 30 community health workers and volunteers to deliver coordinated educational materials and will engage 50 caregivers in structured dialogues focused on child feeding, hygiene, and health care–seeking behaviors.
Headrick, a native of Kentucky, holds a doctorate in human sciences with an emphasis in leadership studies from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His scholarship explores the intersections of rural development, civic leadership, and leadership education theory, areas he teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
In recent years, he has received several national honors, including being named a 2024 E. Kika De La Garza Education Fellow through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and receiving the Association of Leadership Educators’ 2025 Early Career Leadership & Service Award and Outstanding Program Non-Credit Award.
Lyford brings decades of international experience to the project, most recently through a Fulbright Award to Ghana in 2023, where his work focused on expanding agricultural productivity and market access for disadvantaged female smallholder farmers in the country’s northern regions. He previously received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant in 2014, traveling to Hawassa University in Ethiopia to collaborate with educators and researchers on agribusiness development and agricultural value-chain improvement.
Currently, Lyford’s research centers on behavioral economics, health, quality, development, and marketing. In the United States, he has led or contributed to multidisciplinary teams addressing issues ranging from obesity and cancer prevention to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy through community-based and social media–driven approaches. He earned his doctorate in agricultural economics from Michigan State University.
Fellowship officials noted that they look forward to the results of the collaboration and their hope the experience will help all participants form lasting partnerships, expand markets and networks, and increase mutual understanding between the U.S. and Africa.
CONTACT: Scott Burris, Chair, Department of Agricultural Education & Communications, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-8689 or scott.burris@ttu.edu
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