Zena Theopist Mpenda (PhD) is a lecturer Deputy Dean and Head of Department of Agricultural Food and Resource and Economics at the School of Agricultural Economics and Business studies (COEBS) at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA).
She has majored in economics of food safety standards in agro-food exports for developing countries. She has worked and done consultancy and assists SMEs in product development and processing specifically on dairy products, cooking oil, fish and vegetables.
She has researched in the fields of agro-processing, international food standards, waste management, value chain development, SMEs internal competences building, marketing and market competition. She has published on issues of economics of food safety standards in agro-foods export. She currently teaches quality control and standards, entrepreneurship development, environmental impact assessment (eLCA) and eco-design as a methodological course, econometrics, and mathematics for economics and statistics for graduate and undergraduate students.. She is also involved in the African Agribusiness Academy (AAA), a project that supports commercial activities of SMEs in East Africa by strengthening individual entrepreneurial capacities. She is also a team leader on a Value Chain project under a Building Stronger University program funded by DANIDA.