Johnson headshot

Leland Fellow

Alaine Johnson

12th Class, 2023-2025

[email protected]

Alaine Johnson graduated with her Master's at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies focusing on Development, Climate, and Sustainability in South and Southeast Asia. As an agrarian scholar, her work focuses on organic agri-food systems, conservation, and regenerative agriculture. Alaine grew up in Seattle and then lived overseas for 12 years in Singapore, India, Indonesia, Eswatini, and Thailand, and worked in carbon accounting, coffee production and research, and before that in a tech startup and as a journalist. She's part of the second graduating class of Yale-NUS College in Singapore, where she majored in environmental science, and before that she was a Shelby Davis Scholar at the United World College of Southern Africa. Fun fact: her pandemic hobby was endurance cycling and she cycled 180km in a day!

Host Organization: ACDI/VOCA

First Year Placement
Tamale, Ghana

As Data Analyst, Alaine led the developing and piloting the Smallholder Profitability tool (OBPro). OBPro provides smallholder households with a probability index for financial success across markets, based on their efficiency, adaptability, and asset base. Using binomial regression, OBPro ranks assets to highlight improvement areas for increased financial success.

Farmers and agribusinesses use OBPro for improved risk management and knowledge, and to identify where to allocate resources to uplift the most vulnerable smallholder farmers to create a more equitable and inclusive agriculture landscape.

As an Environment Advisor, Alaine supported MSR’s Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion team in their flagship Youth Advocacy and Climate Change Mitigation program. Since January 2024, the program has trained 228 youth to become grassroots champions for climate change mitigation in their community.

The MSR program has also pioneered a paid internship, connecting 100 university students with Outgrower Businesses (OBs) and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises. Alaine supported and evaluated the program success of the inaugural cohort who received hands-on agribusiness experience which ignited their passion for agriculture.

Publications & Blog Posts