Hale Ann Tufan is an associate professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.

Tufan serves in leadership positions of several grant-funded projects aimed at food security, crop improvement, seed systems, and gender relations. Along with her role with the Feed the Future Insect-Resistant Eggplant Partnership, she is the priority setting co-lead of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement, principal investigator of the Gender Responsive Researchers Equipped for Agricultural Transformation (GREAT) project, principal investigator of Muhogo Bora: Cassava for All, and survey division lead of NextGen Cassava.

Tufan brings a multidisciplinary background to her research spanning Ph.D.-level research in molecular plant pathogen interactions, plant breeding with CIMMYT, international agricultural research for development program management, and gender research and capacity development across sub-Saharan Africa. Tufan is the 2019 recipient of the Norman Borlaug Field Award. She completed her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the John Innes Centre, UK.