Mahawa Kaba Wheeler took office as the Director for Women, Gender and Development Directorate at the African Union Commission in 2015. She has extensive professional experience in development programming and humanitarian relief assistance, with particular emphasis on gender, monitoring and evaluation, food security analysis, and mapping and value chain analysis. Prior to joining the AUC she worked with leading international organizations, including the UN World Food Program and US government development partners including ACDI/VOCA and DAI in Sub-Saharan Africa and the U.S.