Ntaba Francis is from Grenada, a Caribbean island which is negatively impacted by climate change. This reality birthed her interest to use her training in Chemical Engineering (BSc.) and Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (MSc.) to create a career in sustainable development and climate change adaptation to contribute towards building Grenada’s resilience. Ntaba’s strength is in stakeholder engagement, creating and maintaining cross-functional relationships, quality assurance, research, design thinking, facilitation, and project management. One of her accomplishments was supporting the local government to develop and implement a climate-smart agriculture (CSA) pilot project. This included integrating CSA strategies into the national planning processes for the agriculture sector, capacity building for agricultural extension officers on the climate change risks and impacts to the industry, and demonstrations of the appropriate CSA practices needed to build resilience on the farm. 

In 2019, Ntaba moved to Montréal with a determination to transfer her 10 years of experience to the apparel industry to integrate sustainability into the operations and business strategy of fashion brands. Her passion for fashion stems from childhood, observing her late grandmother design and construct wedding gowns. Additionally, her motivation is rooted in understanding that the impacts of fashion span globally across operations and the wider value chain – including sourcing, manufacturing suppliers, distribution, offices, boutiques, product use and end-of-life. Furthermore, fashion is uniquely positioned as it reflects cultural norms, being a trendsetter, as well as a significant global greenhouse gas emitter, hence the urgent need to achieve net-zero and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. Ntaba is therefore very happy to serve at FTA in driving sustainability throughout the fashion industry.