This archive report was first published on 28 June 2021.
Published on June 28, 2021, Lucy Chepkochei's story is a testament to the power of perseverance and determination. As the capacity development lead at SERVIR Eastern and Southern Africa, Lucy's day starts with meditation and prayer at 5 am, followed by getting her son ready for school and walking him there.
Living close to her workplace, Lucy is already in the office by 7:30 am, responding to emails and going through her diary to plan her capacity building activities. Her role involves designing, implementing, and coordinating comprehensive capacity building and training programs in earth observation, remote sensing, and geographic information systems (GIS).
Important to SERVIR/RCMRD is diversity and inclusion, and Lucy's role also includes emphasizing capacity building for girls and women in this field as a 'new' frontier and building resilience and opening pathways for future leaders and innovators.
Lucy's interest in geography grew while studying at Kiptoim Secondary School, where her geography teacher, Mr. Eli Nyandiga, inspired her to pursue a career in mapping. Despite facing financial challenges that led to her absence from school, Lucy scored 390 out of 700 marks in K.C.P.E and went on to pursue a PhD research in Geospatial Engineering at the University of Nairobi.
Lucy's vision has always been to use her knowledge and skills to help develop geo-information systems and solutions for resource management and economic development. She is a planner, breaking down her life into 30-year periods, and believes in continuous personal evaluation, just like monitoring and evaluation at work.
Lucy's advice to her younger self is to not be too hard on herself and to take her career beyond Kenya's borders early on. She was initially afraid of working internationally, but her experience with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Somalia showed her that her fears were baseless.
Lucy prioritizes self-care, taking rests and breaks when necessary and seeking guidance from her mentors, including her PhD supervisor, Prof. Faith Karanja, and her supportive spouse, who is also in the same field.
Outside work, Lucy loves spending time with family and friends and volunteers in mentoring upcoming women in the geospatial field. She is currently mentoring 11 girls who graduated with geomatic engineering degrees from JKUAT.
