We congratulate our Vice-President, Prof. Stella Williams, to receiving the Distinguished Service Award from the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET).

IIFET states in justification: "Professor Stella Williams embodies IIFET’s goals of fostering global interaction between academia, trade, and government on the economics of fisheries policy and seafood trade. She has made significant contributions enabling individuals of different professional orientations and countries to exchange information, data, and perspectives on fisheries issues.

Because she has devoted her long and productive professional career, as well as her personal energy, to building bridges between academia and governments, farmers, and fishers, to foster better research, collaboration, policy and equity, with a special focus on gender equity, Dr. Williams was selected as the recipient of this year’s IIFET Distinguished Service Award....

Stella has served on a stunning variety of international, regional and national committees and agencies, where she has contributed to solutions to equity and gender problems. She served (twice) on IIFET’s Executive Committee (1988-1992 and 1996-1998), in addition to other boards, agencies, and commissions including: Gender and Science and Technology (GASAT), the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) program, the Nigerian Women in Agricultural Research for Development (NiWARD– www.niward.org) program (of which she was the founder), the International Potato Center (CIP), the committee on Gender Issues in Science and Technology of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, the Board of Trustees of the Worldfish Center (2001-2009; Vice Chair from 2006-2008), two EU-Funded programs--the West African Artisanal Fisheries (WAAF) Project based in Cote d’Ivoire and the Governance Project hosted by the University of Amsterdam, contributing to the FISH-GOV deliberations. Stella currently serves as a Vice President on the Board of Mundus maris in Belgium (www.mundusmaris.org)....

Stella pushed hard to add gender in fisheries and aquaculture to IIFET’s agenda. Her presentation at IIFET Tromso 1998 was a ground-breaking moment, being among the first to provide gender perspectives. Dr. Williams helped organize a special session on gender in Fisheries at the IIFET 2012 Tanzania conference, and supported Dr. Meryl Williams and others in developing a session on gender for IIFET 2016 Scotland. She helped show that in addition to being processors and marketers of fish, women are also artisanal fisher folk.

In recognition of her tireless promotion of youth and women in fisheries and academia, Stella has won several awards, including the Lagos State Government World Food Day Merit Award for distinguished assistance to youth and women in Agriculture and Fisheries (2000) and the Merit award of the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (1997).

Professor Stella Williams will be honored as the Distinguished Service Award Winner at the IIFET 2016 Scotland conference in July, 2016."