Dr. Felister Makini holds a BSc in Botany and Chemistry from the University of Nairobi, Kenya and a MSc in Plant Pathology from Georgia State University, USA.  She also has a PhD in Plant Pathology from the University of Greenwich, UK and has done several short courses in various fields.
Prior to her current position, she worked as the Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Outreach and Partnerships, a new department in the former Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). She was responsible for promoting the dissemination and adoption of KARI technologies, products and services.  She was also responsible for promoting the establishment and strengthening of strategic partnerships along the research development to utilization continuum as well as along the agricultural product value chains (APVC), an approach adopted by then.  Recently together with others she published an operational field guide to innovation platforms as the lead author