SERVIR Profile of Margaret Ramalho McMorrow

Name: Margaret Ramalho McMorrow
Affiliation: USAID/West Africa
Role/Title: Environment Officer
Year you joined SERVIR: 2016

Please introduce yourself. What are you passionate about?
I'm a civil and environmental engineer who loves good coffee, leisure travel and reading fiction. I'm also passionate about making sure that underrepresented groups have role models and support to succeed in science and engineering!

What initially attracted you to this field of work?
The SERVIR partnership has amazing potential helping address persistent challenges in West Africa, like desertification in the Sahel, irrigation, flood warning, locust monitoring, local land use planning, forest degradation, and so many other applications. I still have so much to learn!

What SERVIR activity are you currently working on?
Among other responsibilities, I manage the contract that implements the SERVIR West Africa hub. Although I'm not working on science or remote sensing day-to-day, my work is important to ensure that the right people are involved and they have the funds to do their work.

How does your work generate positive change?
I'd like to think that my work encourages people to collaborate and help each other, and that if I effectively remove barriers for the team, they will have more opportunities to really advance the science that allows us to use satellite imagery in our solutions to development problems.