BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CELEBRANT

This is a personal reflection on life’s providence that took a kid born to a school teacher in Lagos, Nigeria over five decades ago to global recognition as a world class climate scientist, researcher, teacher, education leader, senior policy adviser and international consultant. My improbable journey began as a child with curiosity about the unknown and quest after knowledge instilled in me by my now deceased school teacher father. He was one of the first in his generation to embrace western education introduced by American Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) missionaries who braved impossible conditions to establish a presence, in the early 1900s, among Yoruba speaking ethnic groups in western Nigeria.

Receiving the inspiring Leader of the Year Award from the University of Ibadan (UI) Global Alumni Network at the Hilton Park Lane Hotel, Mayfair London in June 2018. To my immediate right is Prof. Idowu Olayinka, Vice chancellor (President) of University of Ibadan.

That journey has been helped along at critical junctions by several individuals who have either served as mentors or contributed, in some material way, to help me see further than I would have otherwise. Those individuals include Professor Emmanuel Oladipo who taught my first climate course at Ahmadu Bello University Department of Geography in Zaria, Nigeria; Professor John Michael Wallace, former Director of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Oceans ( JISAO) at the University of Washington, Seattle who invited me to take up residence at JISAO as a visiting scholar in 1993; my dissertation advisor, Professor

Andrew Carleton, at The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) Geography Department; and my postdoctoral advisor, Professor Roger Pielke Sr., at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA), Colorado State University (CSU) where I spent two years as a NOAA Postdoctoral Fellow before accepting a tenure track faculty position at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) in 2002.

Panel of Experts at Hearing of US House of Rep. Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming with the Select Committee Chair (now Senator Edward Markey): July 10, 2008 Washington DC

I have been fortunate to build a first rate research program at UMKC supported with millions of dollars in funding by agencies such as NASA, US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the African Development Bank. I also served as Chair of the Department of Geosciences (now Earth & Environmental Sciences) from 2008 to 2010. Although a Nigerian by birth, I have been a naturalized citizen of the United States of America since 2011. Over the last two decades, I have built impact-focused multidisciplinary environmental research teams, advised governments across Africa, managed national and regional intergovernmental organizations and most recently worked as an advisor and senior consultant with the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) from March 2020 to August 2020.

With member of Select Committee, Congressman Rev. Emanuel Cleaver III, representing Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.

I have also had the singular honor of being invited to address Congressional and Parliamentary committees in the United States of America (USA), Nigeria and South Africa on climate change impacts, policy implications and response strategies. I served as Interim Executive Director/CEO of the West African Science Service Center for Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) from April to December 2017 and was previously Executive Director of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Natural Resources & Environment (NRE) Division, Pretoria, South Africa from 2010 to 2012.

With Minister Naledi Pandor (second from left next to Adegoke), Internal Relations & Cooperation and then Deputy President of South Africa, His Excellency Kgalema Motlanthe (fourth from right in suit) at the 2011 IPCC COP17 in Durban South Africa.

My work spans the climate science and policy spaces across multiple continents. In 2014 I was invited by the government of Nigeria to serve as Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Agricultural Resilience in Nigeria (ACARN), which was commissioned by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to develop a national program on climate adaption and agricultural resilience for the country. I sit on multiple science advisory boards/committees and maintain permanent residence in the Kansas City Metro Area where I had the honor to serve as an appointee of the Mayor of Kansas City Missouri (KCMO) on the city’s Environmental Management Commission (EMC).

With Dr. Akin Adesina, Nigeria’s Honorable Minister for Agriculture (now President of the African Development Bank – AfDB) and Nigeria World Bank Resident Rep at the inauguration of the Advisory Committee on Agricultural Resilience in Nigeria (ACARN) in 2013 at World Bank Building, Abuja

I am also a person of faith. My calling has always been to cross-cultural missions and I have tried to stay true to that calling over the last 4 decades though my life journey has taken several twists and turns. I initially thought I would go into full-time missions work as a missionary right after my deeply enriching NYSC experience with Calvary Ministries (CAPRO), one of Africa’s leading indigenous missions organizations.

That did not happen. Instead, God opened doors for me to further my education overseas and gave enablement to build a successful career as a climate scientist, environmental leader, teacher and development expert.

Now I know that it’s by divine providence that I picked up the Hausa language with native fluency as a child growing up in Kaduna. Now I understand why God gave me the opportunities to serve in senior leadership and consulting positions at multiple national, regional and continental organizations, including the African Development Bank Group. These appointments have offered me unprecedented opportunities to cultivate alliances and strong relationships with a vast network of colleagues, associates and collaborators in government, academia and in the private sector all across Africa.

As I look forward, to the future that lies ahead, my desire is to leverage my training, expertise, networks and open doors in a concerted effort towards helping to accomplish what folks in the world of cross-cultural missions call the “last mile harvest”. I firmly believe that this is the highest calling of the Church at this time and it is the completion of this work that will bring back our Lord and King.

This life journey of sixty years would not have materialized but for the gift of my parents: His Royal Highness Oba Elijah Adegoke Oyun and Mrs. Alice Bosede Oyun. Both are deceased now but the lessons of life and nurturing after the pattern of the Cross that they gave my siblings and me continue to shape our paths to this day. I have also had the good fortune of finding a virtuous wife whose worth is far above precious rubies. She has enriched my life in more ways than I can recall here and she made it possible for me to sit among elders in the land. We are blessed with three amazing and godly children who have brought much joy (and some pain) to our lives. They are all adults now charting their own life paths forward with grace, purpose and excellence. I love you guys!