Annual Conference 2011
47th Annual Conference and
2011 Future Leaders Forum
Speakers and Panelists
Susan Schram, ACDI / VOCA
Susan Schram currently serves in the President's Office at ACDI/VOCA as Vice President for Outreach and Cooperative Programs. She works in the areas of Congressional affairs; cooperative development; partnership building with universities, research institutes and private sector companies; and on Board-related matters with ACDI/VOCA's President. She left her position in Extension Administration at Michigan State University in 1980 to move to Washington, DC, to work for the Assistant Secretary of Science and Education at USDA. She later worked as a consultant for LBS International, Inc.; for the University of Maryland's Vice Chancellor for Agriculture and Natural Resources while completing her Ph.D.; served as Assistant Director of Federal Relations for International Affairs at the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges;
directed the Food and Agriculture Program for Columbia University's Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) and served as its Deputy Director of Washington Operations; and was founding Executive Director of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa just prior to joining ACDI/VOCA. She holds BS and MA degrees from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
Florence Rolle, FAO
Rolle currently serves as the Senior Liaison Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Liaison Office for North America, Washington DC. She is an agronomist and environmentalist. She has worked for more than 15 years on agricultural and rural development in Europe and Africa, and more specifically 7 years for the private sector in water management and soil rehabilitation and 12 years in FAO on technical cooperation programmes. She has an Msc degree in Rural Resources and Environmental Policy from Wye College, UK and two equivalent Msc degrees in Agronomy, Water and Forest from the "Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts and the "Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon", France.
She joined FAO in 1998, first in Rome as an advisor to the Assistant Director General of the Technical Cooperation Department and then as a Donor Coordinator for the World Bank in Ethiopia before moving to the Washington office in September 2010. She began her career in Paris with the water and soil research institute of Vivendi, where she worked from 1991 to 1997.
James Hochschwender, Weidmann Associates
Mr. Hochschwender is Senior Managing Associate at Weidemann Associates, Inc. He currently manages the USAID Raising Rural and Agricultural Incomes with a Sustainable Environment (RAISE Plus) Indefinite Quantity Contract as well as the Agriculture Knowledge and Program Support (AKPS) Task Order under it that includes the Strategy Consideration for USAID Support to Capacity Building through Agricultural Education and Training (AET) Investment work assignment and is managing the development of a set of materials on AID's Legacy in Agricultural Development: 50 Years of Leadership and Achievements. For more than 30 years he has specialized in strengthening and improving commercial, NGO and public, rural and urban organizations and
institutions and agricultural value chains with participatory strategic planning, training and systems and organizational development. He has a B.A. in Anthropology and an MBA in Economics and International Business. Mr. Hochschwender has worked in 48 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Russia.
Melissa Brown, The World Bank
Melissa Brown is an Economist in the Africa Region Agriculture and Rural Development Unit of the World Bank. In the past year she has worked on the Bank's support to CAADP, which includes the capacity building of regional and continental African institutions financed through various Trust Funds established within the Bank. Prior to working at the World Bank she worked in the Investment Centre Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization where she focused on the design of agricultural investment operations for multilateral partners such as the World Bank and IFAD.
She holds an MPA/ID degree from Harvard Kennedy School and an undergraduate degree from New York University.
John Ulimwengu, IFPRI West and Central Africa
Dr. Ulimwengu is a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute based in Washington, DC. He earns master degrees in Development Economics from Williams College (Massachusetts) and in Economics from Ohio State University (Ohio). He received his PhD in Agricultural Economics from Ohio State University (Ohio). His research foci include poverty dynamics, agricultural productivity, and rural development. Dr. Ulimwengu is involved in research and policy advisory work on sector policy and strategy issues related to the implementation of the African Union/NEPAD's Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP). He is the co-leader of the IFPRI research project on Strategic Support to the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Agricultural Development Strategies and Institutional Capacity Strengthening. He is also leading a research project on the linkage between agricultural productivity and social services in Tanzania, Rwanda and Burkina Faso.
Deborah Atwood, AGree, Meridian Institute
Deborah Atwood joined Meridian Institute in January 2011 and serves as Executive Director of Meridians AGree: Transforming Food and Ag Policy. Atwood has more than 30 years of experience in policy and legislative matters regarding food, agriculture, the environment, research, and risk management. She has worked in the private sector, federal government, and nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining Meridian she served as Associate for Corporate Affairs and Public Policy at Mars, Incorporated; as a Senior Policy Advisor with Crowell & Moring; and as a Special Assistant to U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Jim Moseley. From 1995 until 1999 she was Assistant Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for the National Pork Producers Council, and from 1992 until 1995 served as Vice President for Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at the American Meat Institute.
Atwood served from 1989 to 1992 as Deputy Associate Administrator for Congressional and Legislative Affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and prior to that as head of the Congressional Affairs Office at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Atwood also has Capitol Hill experience as Professional Staff for the U.S. House of Representatives' Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee and Staff for U.S. Senator Slade Gorton (Wash.). Atwood currently serves on the board of ACDI-VOCA and is a marine resource scientist by training.
Anne-Claire Hervy, Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative, APLU
Anne-Claire Hervy is the Chief Operating Officer of the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative, led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The Initiative was launched in July 2007 to advocate for increased U.S. engagement in African higher education capacity building. Anne-Claire was the recipient of the congressionally-funded Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellowship from 2007-2009, and carried out her fellowship at the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa.
She holds an MA in International History from the London School of Economics, and an MA in International Relations from American University's School of International Service.
Sammy Comer, Tennessee State University
Mr. Sammy L. Comer is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences and Director of International Programs in the School of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences at Tennessee State University. He holds a BS and MS from Tennessee State University. Since joining the TSU faculty in May 1974, Mr. Comer has been engaged in national and international research and teaching in agribusiness, rural development, community development and farm management. He has made stellar contributions to the agribusiness program at TSU, including redesigning the courses and the overall curriculum. He has served as advisor for undergraduate students and was awarded outstanding teacher at Tennessee State University in 1994. Mr. Comer has served as visiting professor with the Farmer Home Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TWA) where he worked on Agricultural Marketing for Small Farmers. In the International arena, Comer has served as consultant on various international projects in Tanzania, Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho, Thailand, Indonesia, Turkmenistan, South Africa, Hungary, Cambodia, and India.
He has worked with several Indian Universities on agricultural projects over the past ten years which led to significant improvement in agribusiness at the small farmer level. At Tennessee State Mr. Comer coordinates the Swaziland Cropping Systems Research and Extension Training Project; and the Natural Resource-Based Agricultural Research Project, Senegal. He is the Director of the South Africa Higher Education Project and co-Director of Agribusiness projects in India. He was recently appointed coordinator of the Iraq Training Extension project at TSU and received notice of approval to become part of the Strengthening Afghan Agriculture Faculties agreement (SAAF).
Saharah Moon Chapotin, Bureau for Food Security, USAID
Saharah Moon Chapotin is currently acting Division Chief for Agricultural Research at the U.S. Agency for International Development. She joined the agency in 2006 as a Biotechnology Advisor, managing international partnerships to promote the adoption of conservation agriculture practices in South Asia and to develop bioengineered crops for small-holder farmers and strengthen biosafety regulatory capacity in Africa and Asia. Prior to this, she worked at the Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products (BIGMAP), Iowa State University, where her work focused on resolving regulatory issues for genetically modified crops, especially those intended for small and niche-markets.
Dr. Chapotin holds a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University, a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from Harvard University and has completed the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship Program.
Jane DeMarchi, National Association of Wheat Growers
Jane DeMarchi started work as NAWG?s director of government affairs for research and technology in July, 2010. Filling a newly-created position on the NAWG staff, DeMarchi focuses on research-related policy issues, including the appropriations and administrative grant-making processes; coordinating the National Wheat Improvement Committee; and coordinating industry efforts related to the commercialization of biotech wheat. Prior to coming to NAWG, DeMarchi worked as the director of government affairs at the North American Millers' Association, where she was responsible for advocating on behalf of the corn, wheat and oat milling industry on issues including food and grain quality, safety and research. Prior to joining NAMA,
DeMarchi worked in the fields of economic development and trade promotion for the Ohio Department of Development and the U.S. Department of Commerce in Ohio, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Born and raised in Ohio, she received her bachelor's degree in Asian studies from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. She lives with her husband and two children in Maryland.
Gary Groves, Office of Capacity Building and Development, USDA
Gary Groves is currently an Assistant Deputy Administrator for the Office of Capacity Building and Development in the Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. In this role, he oversees technical assistance, agricultural development, and trade capacity building programs aimed at transforming targeted countries into viable trading partners for U.S. agriculture. Immediately prior to this assignment, Mr. Groves was the Agricultural Minister-Counselor of the United States Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, a position he occupied from 2002 until 2007. Mr. Groves attended The Ohio State University from 1971 to 1976, receiving a Bachelor?s and a Master?s Degree in agricultural economics. He joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service in August 1976, as an agricultural economist with the Dairy, Livestock, and Poultry Division.
He served as Agricultural Attache in Ottawa, Canada from 1979 to 1983, as Agricultural Attache in Lima, Peru from 1987 to 1990, and as Agricultural Counselor in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 1995 to 1999. He also has had various assignments with the Foreign Agricultural Service in Washington, mostly in the area of managing the agency's agricultural marketing and trade promotion programs in foreign countries.
Bill Path, Northeast Community College
Arkansas native Dr. Bill R. Path is currently the president of Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska. Dr. Path began his presidency on June 1st of 2001 after serving one year as vice president of academic and student affairs at Aims Community College in Greeley, Colorado. Before that, he served as vice president of student services at Northeast Community College from January 1996 to July 2000. His employment history also includes various positions at community colleges in Bentonville, Arkansas; Kingwood, Texas; and Houston, Texas. Dr. Path has dedicated himself to creating opportunities for the growth and development of others; Northeast Community College has flourished under his leadership and direction. His major initiatives have included ground-breaking partnerships with other sectors of higher education, a technology focused restructuring, a rural revitalization emphasis, and a globalization component within the curriculum.
Dr. Path received his bachelor of arts degree in Bible from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, a master of science degree in educational psychology counseling from Texas A&M University in College Station, and his doctor of education degree in higher education administration from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He is also the author of a highly-regarded motivational/metaphysics book Moments of Forever: Discovering the True Power and Importance of Your Life
Jeff Hill, Bureau for Food Security, USAID
Jeff Hill has many years of experience in African agricultural development and currently serves in USAID's recently created Bureau for Food Security (BFS). Jeff started his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone and later served as Associate Peace Corps Director in that country. Prior to USAID, he worked for the World Bank for 10 years in Tanzania and Nigeria. At USAID Jeff has been a team leader for a number of agriculture and food security initiatives for the Africa Bureau and now for BFS. He presently works on Feed the Future initiatives, and prior to that worked on many programs that promoted agricultural growth and built on African-led partnerships to cut hunger and poverty.
Jeff has designed, led, and managed a variety of teams on research, private sector development, trade, capacity building and policy. He currently chairs the Donor Development Partners CAADP group and process -- a group of 32 donors worldwide dedicated to African agricultural development. Jeff holds a BS from Weber State University in Utah in public administration and an MS from UC Davis in agricultural economics and agronomy.
Suresh Babu, IFPRI
Dr. Babu was educated at Agricultural Universities in Tamil Nadu, India (B.S. Agriculture; M.S. Agriculture) and at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (M.S. Economics and PhD Economics). Before joining IFPRI in 1992 as a Research Fellow, Dr. Babu was a Research Economist at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Between 1989 and 1994 he spent 5 years in Malawi, Southern Africa in various capacities. He was Senior Food Policy Advisor to the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture on developing a national level Food and Nutrition Information System; an Evaluation Economist for the UNICEF-Malawi working on designing food and nutrition intervention programs; Coordinator of UNICEF/IFPRI food security program in Malawi; and a Senior Lecturer at the Bunda College of Agriculture, Malawi developing and teaching computer-based policy-oriented post graduate courses.
At IFPRI he has helped implement several capacity strengthening programs through country and regional networks in South Asia, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. He has published several books and monographs and more than fifty peer reviewed journal papers.
Chuck Chopak, DAI
Chuck Chopak is a Technical Area Manager at Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), where he manages and leads agriculture and food security activities. Dr. Chopak has 30 years of experience managing, planning, and implementing food security and rural development activities throughout the world, including numerous countries in Africa, as well as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Central America, and Haiti. Throughout his career he has provided leadership in planning strategy, managing projects, furnishing decision support to senior officials, strengthening institutions, and developing capacity. Dr. Chopak has worked extensively with donor organizations, academic institutions, host country governments, United Nations agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to implement strategies to promote humanitarian response and agricultural development. Dr. Chopak holds a doctorate in agricultural economics from Michigan State University and is fluent in French and Wolof.
David Tardiff-Douglin, Africa Lead (DAI)
David Tardif-Douglin, a Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) senior agricultural economist, has 25 years of practical and academic experience in project development and management, policy analysis, formulation, and advocacy; livestock management and agribusiness; marketing and price analysis; survey design and implementation; rapid appraisals; subsector assessments; program and project evaluation methodology; and strategic planning. Dr. Tardif-Douglin's experience includes managing DAI's Economics and Trade Practice, managing a large multisectoral economic policy and capacity building project for USAID in the Philippines, assessing reconstruction opportunities for countries transitioning from crisis, and providing policy analysis as Chief of Party for a USAID agricultural policy project.
In addition, he developed market reform recommendations for Senegal, aided the United Nations Center for Human Settlements and the United Nations Environment Programme in strategic planning for regional work in the Great Lakes region of Africa, conducted agriculture policy research in Rwanda, and worked as a research analyst for the World Bank's Agricultural Research Unit. A US citizen, born and raised in Congo, Dr. Tardif-Douglin holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Cornell University and is multilingual in French, English and Swahili.
Rob Nooter, SEMS, LLC
Robert Nooter has 30 years of experience in international economic development, agricultural and development policy analysis and advocacy and organizational management. Currently, Mr. Nooter operates Social Enterprise Management Services, LLC (SEMS, LLC) and represents clients with interests in international development projects. His primary client is the US Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC) for which he serves as Executive Director. Previously, Mr. Nooter worked in leadership positions in the International Development Division of Land O' Lakes, Inc., and as Director of Government Relations with the American Farm Bureau Federation. His responsibilities have spanned the range of management functions including supervision of project operations, new business development, human resource management and organizational representation with policymakers and donor agency officials. He has been posted in Russia, Lithuania and Tanzania and has worked in over forty other countries. Mr. Nooter is concluding his one year term as President of the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development.
Malcolm Butler, APLU
Butler is Vice President of International Programs at APLU, and has extensive experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. He was Director of the USAID missions in Bolivia, Peru, Lebanon, and the Philippines, and led the USAID bureaus for Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States, Latin America, and Intergovernmental Affairs. Before joining USAID, Mr. Butler was with the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and the State Department. He held the personal rank of Career Minister, and received two Presidential citations. After leaving USAID,
Butler was senior vice president of MSI, president of the Riecken Foundation, and president of Partners of the Americas and of his own consulting firm. Butler did his undergraduate studies at Rice University and graduate studies at Oxford.
Michael McGirr, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA
Michael J. McGirr is responsible for developing and managing foreign and domestic projects in collaboration with cooperating U.S. universities. He has also provided leadership for the National Initiative to Internationalize Extension - an effort aimed at strengthening the global dimension of local extension programs in the U.S. From 1990 to 1996, Mr. McGirr managed the agency's Polish/American Extension Project that involved collaboration with 31 land-grant universities. He has also helped to develop agency initiatives in the former Soviet Republics, Africa, Central America and, most recently, Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. McGirr began his career in international development as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone.
He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a Master's in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies.
Rob Bertram, Bureau for Food Security, USAID
Rob Bertram is the Acting Director of the USAID's Office of Agriculture, Research and Technology. His office manages U.S. funding for the CRSPs, the CGIAR system, and USAID's agricultural biotechnology initiative, which spans science (technology development) and policy (biosafety and intellectual property.) The office also incorporates policy research and best practices in areas such as nutrition, gender, poverty and climate change. Rob has been with USAID for more than 25 years, and comes from a plant breeding and genetics background, with degrees from UC Davis, the University of Minnesota and the University of Maryland.
He has been active for many years in plant genetic resources conservation and policy, having chaired the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and has served on various advisory committees and reviews on research programming and policy.
Mark Cackler, The World Bank
Mark Cackler is Manager of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank. Mr. Cackler joined the World Bank in 1981, after working as an Overseas Representative for John Deere Intercontinental, Ltd., based in Thailand. Initial assignments in the World Bank's Washington headquarters included working in agriculture and natural resources divisions for East Africa, China, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands. In 1988, he transferred to the Agriculture Unit of the World Bank's New Delhi Office. Following his return to headquarters from India in 1992, Mr. Cackler joined the Latin America and Caribbean Region. In 2000, he was appointed Manager of the Agriculture and Rural Development for Latin America. In February 2007, Mr. Cackler was appointed Manager of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank, where he oversees the World Bank's global programs for rural poverty alleviation, agriculture and natural resources management. Mr. Cackler was raised in Moline, Illinois. He has economics degrees from Oberlin College, Ohio, and the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
David Hansen, Ohio State University & APLU
David Hansen is a Senior Fellow with the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), Washington, D.C. His major responsibilities include the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative which promotes partnerships among U.S. and African Higher Education Institutions. He was involved in the development and funding of eleven higher education partnerships and works closely with staff at the Higher Education for Development Office which has primary responsibility for managing these partnerships. Dr. Hansen also retains a part-time appointment with Ohio State University. In this capacity he works on issues dealing with international programs in agriculture. Prior to these appointments, he was a tenured faculty member at Ohio State University,having worked overseas for that institution on university programs; as the Director of International Programs in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences; and as a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. He holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served for two years in Bolivia.
John Allgood, Eurasia Division, IFDC
John Allgood, is director of IFDC's EurAsia Division (EAD). He has more than 30 years of global experience in fertilizer sector development. Allgood has completed technical assistance missions and capacity building assignments on a wide range of agro-input market development issues (e.g., fertilizer distribution system improvement, strategic planning for agro-input market development, management information system development, fertilizer supply-demand analysis and international procurement) in various countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the mid-1980s, Allgood was instrumental in providing strategic guidance to development agencies and the government of Kenya that led to market reform in Kenya's fertilizer market. During the early 1990s, he served first as dealer development and training advisor and later as chief of party for a major policy reform and technology transfer project in Bangladesh, the Fertilizer Distribution Improvement (FDI) program. He holds an MBA from the University of North Alabama, BSc. in marketing from Florida State University. He has authored/co-authored several technical papers on fertilizer marketing and fertilizer market development.
Susan Schram currently serves in the President's Office at ACDI/VOCA as Vice President for Outreach and Cooperative Programs. She works in the areas of Congressional affairs; cooperative development; partnership building with universities, research institutes and private sector companies; and on Board-related matters with ACDI/VOCA's President. She left her position in Extension Administration at Michigan State University in 1980 to move to Washington, DC, to work for the Assistant Secretary of Science and Education at USDA. She later worked as a consultant for LBS International, Inc.; for the University of Maryland's Vice Chancellor for Agriculture and Natural Resources while completing her Ph.D.; served as Assistant Director of Federal Relations for International Affairs at the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges;
directed the Food and Agriculture Program for Columbia University's Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) and served as its Deputy Director of Washington Operations; and was founding Executive Director of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa just prior to joining ACDI/VOCA. She holds BS and MA degrees from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
Florence Rolle, FAO
Rolle currently serves as the Senior Liaison Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Liaison Office for North America, Washington DC. She is an agronomist and environmentalist. She has worked for more than 15 years on agricultural and rural development in Europe and Africa, and more specifically 7 years for the private sector in water management and soil rehabilitation and 12 years in FAO on technical cooperation programmes. She has an Msc degree in Rural Resources and Environmental Policy from Wye College, UK and two equivalent Msc degrees in Agronomy, Water and Forest from the "Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts and the "Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon", France.
She joined FAO in 1998, first in Rome as an advisor to the Assistant Director General of the Technical Cooperation Department and then as a Donor Coordinator for the World Bank in Ethiopia before moving to the Washington office in September 2010. She began her career in Paris with the water and soil research institute of Vivendi, where she worked from 1991 to 1997.
James Hochschwender, Weidmann Associates
Mr. Hochschwender is Senior Managing Associate at Weidemann Associates, Inc. He currently manages the USAID Raising Rural and Agricultural Incomes with a Sustainable Environment (RAISE Plus) Indefinite Quantity Contract as well as the Agriculture Knowledge and Program Support (AKPS) Task Order under it that includes the Strategy Consideration for USAID Support to Capacity Building through Agricultural Education and Training (AET) Investment work assignment and is managing the development of a set of materials on AID's Legacy in Agricultural Development: 50 Years of Leadership and Achievements. For more than 30 years he has specialized in strengthening and improving commercial, NGO and public, rural and urban organizations and
institutions and agricultural value chains with participatory strategic planning, training and systems and organizational development. He has a B.A. in Anthropology and an MBA in Economics and International Business. Mr. Hochschwender has worked in 48 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Russia.
Melissa Brown, The World Bank
Melissa Brown is an Economist in the Africa Region Agriculture and Rural Development Unit of the World Bank. In the past year she has worked on the Bank's support to CAADP, which includes the capacity building of regional and continental African institutions financed through various Trust Funds established within the Bank. Prior to working at the World Bank she worked in the Investment Centre Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization where she focused on the design of agricultural investment operations for multilateral partners such as the World Bank and IFAD.
She holds an MPA/ID degree from Harvard Kennedy School and an undergraduate degree from New York University.
John Ulimwengu, IFPRI West and Central Africa
Dr. Ulimwengu is a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute based in Washington, DC. He earns master degrees in Development Economics from Williams College (Massachusetts) and in Economics from Ohio State University (Ohio). He received his PhD in Agricultural Economics from Ohio State University (Ohio). His research foci include poverty dynamics, agricultural productivity, and rural development. Dr. Ulimwengu is involved in research and policy advisory work on sector policy and strategy issues related to the implementation of the African Union/NEPAD's Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP). He is the co-leader of the IFPRI research project on Strategic Support to the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Agricultural Development Strategies and Institutional Capacity Strengthening. He is also leading a research project on the linkage between agricultural productivity and social services in Tanzania, Rwanda and Burkina Faso.
Deborah Atwood, AGree, Meridian Institute
Deborah Atwood joined Meridian Institute in January 2011 and serves as Executive Director of Meridians AGree: Transforming Food and Ag Policy. Atwood has more than 30 years of experience in policy and legislative matters regarding food, agriculture, the environment, research, and risk management. She has worked in the private sector, federal government, and nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining Meridian she served as Associate for Corporate Affairs and Public Policy at Mars, Incorporated; as a Senior Policy Advisor with Crowell & Moring; and as a Special Assistant to U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Jim Moseley. From 1995 until 1999 she was Assistant Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs for the National Pork Producers Council, and from 1992 until 1995 served as Vice President for Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at the American Meat Institute.
Atwood served from 1989 to 1992 as Deputy Associate Administrator for Congressional and Legislative Affairs at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and prior to that as head of the Congressional Affairs Office at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Atwood also has Capitol Hill experience as Professional Staff for the U.S. House of Representatives' Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee and Staff for U.S. Senator Slade Gorton (Wash.). Atwood currently serves on the board of ACDI-VOCA and is a marine resource scientist by training.
Anne-Claire Hervy, Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative, APLU
Anne-Claire Hervy is the Chief Operating Officer of the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative, led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The Initiative was launched in July 2007 to advocate for increased U.S. engagement in African higher education capacity building. Anne-Claire was the recipient of the congressionally-funded Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellowship from 2007-2009, and carried out her fellowship at the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa.
She holds an MA in International History from the London School of Economics, and an MA in International Relations from American University's School of International Service.
Sammy Comer, Tennessee State University
Mr. Sammy L. Comer is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences and Director of International Programs in the School of Agriculture and Consumer Sciences at Tennessee State University. He holds a BS and MS from Tennessee State University. Since joining the TSU faculty in May 1974, Mr. Comer has been engaged in national and international research and teaching in agribusiness, rural development, community development and farm management. He has made stellar contributions to the agribusiness program at TSU, including redesigning the courses and the overall curriculum. He has served as advisor for undergraduate students and was awarded outstanding teacher at Tennessee State University in 1994. Mr. Comer has served as visiting professor with the Farmer Home Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TWA) where he worked on Agricultural Marketing for Small Farmers. In the International arena, Comer has served as consultant on various international projects in Tanzania, Botswana, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho, Thailand, Indonesia, Turkmenistan, South Africa, Hungary, Cambodia, and India.
He has worked with several Indian Universities on agricultural projects over the past ten years which led to significant improvement in agribusiness at the small farmer level. At Tennessee State Mr. Comer coordinates the Swaziland Cropping Systems Research and Extension Training Project; and the Natural Resource-Based Agricultural Research Project, Senegal. He is the Director of the South Africa Higher Education Project and co-Director of Agribusiness projects in India. He was recently appointed coordinator of the Iraq Training Extension project at TSU and received notice of approval to become part of the Strengthening Afghan Agriculture Faculties agreement (SAAF).
Saharah Moon Chapotin, Bureau for Food Security, USAID
Saharah Moon Chapotin is currently acting Division Chief for Agricultural Research at the U.S. Agency for International Development. She joined the agency in 2006 as a Biotechnology Advisor, managing international partnerships to promote the adoption of conservation agriculture practices in South Asia and to develop bioengineered crops for small-holder farmers and strengthen biosafety regulatory capacity in Africa and Asia. Prior to this, she worked at the Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products (BIGMAP), Iowa State University, where her work focused on resolving regulatory issues for genetically modified crops, especially those intended for small and niche-markets.
Dr. Chapotin holds a B.S. in Biology from Stanford University, a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from Harvard University and has completed the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship Program.
Jane DeMarchi, National Association of Wheat Growers
Jane DeMarchi started work as NAWG?s director of government affairs for research and technology in July, 2010. Filling a newly-created position on the NAWG staff, DeMarchi focuses on research-related policy issues, including the appropriations and administrative grant-making processes; coordinating the National Wheat Improvement Committee; and coordinating industry efforts related to the commercialization of biotech wheat. Prior to coming to NAWG, DeMarchi worked as the director of government affairs at the North American Millers' Association, where she was responsible for advocating on behalf of the corn, wheat and oat milling industry on issues including food and grain quality, safety and research. Prior to joining NAMA,
DeMarchi worked in the fields of economic development and trade promotion for the Ohio Department of Development and the U.S. Department of Commerce in Ohio, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Born and raised in Ohio, she received her bachelor's degree in Asian studies from Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. She lives with her husband and two children in Maryland.
Gary Groves, Office of Capacity Building and Development, USDA
Gary Groves is currently an Assistant Deputy Administrator for the Office of Capacity Building and Development in the Foreign Agricultural Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. In this role, he oversees technical assistance, agricultural development, and trade capacity building programs aimed at transforming targeted countries into viable trading partners for U.S. agriculture. Immediately prior to this assignment, Mr. Groves was the Agricultural Minister-Counselor of the United States Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, a position he occupied from 2002 until 2007. Mr. Groves attended The Ohio State University from 1971 to 1976, receiving a Bachelor?s and a Master?s Degree in agricultural economics. He joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service in August 1976, as an agricultural economist with the Dairy, Livestock, and Poultry Division.
He served as Agricultural Attache in Ottawa, Canada from 1979 to 1983, as Agricultural Attache in Lima, Peru from 1987 to 1990, and as Agricultural Counselor in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 1995 to 1999. He also has had various assignments with the Foreign Agricultural Service in Washington, mostly in the area of managing the agency's agricultural marketing and trade promotion programs in foreign countries.
Bill Path, Northeast Community College
Arkansas native Dr. Bill R. Path is currently the president of Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska. Dr. Path began his presidency on June 1st of 2001 after serving one year as vice president of academic and student affairs at Aims Community College in Greeley, Colorado. Before that, he served as vice president of student services at Northeast Community College from January 1996 to July 2000. His employment history also includes various positions at community colleges in Bentonville, Arkansas; Kingwood, Texas; and Houston, Texas. Dr. Path has dedicated himself to creating opportunities for the growth and development of others; Northeast Community College has flourished under his leadership and direction. His major initiatives have included ground-breaking partnerships with other sectors of higher education, a technology focused restructuring, a rural revitalization emphasis, and a globalization component within the curriculum.
Dr. Path received his bachelor of arts degree in Bible from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, a master of science degree in educational psychology counseling from Texas A&M University in College Station, and his doctor of education degree in higher education administration from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He is also the author of a highly-regarded motivational/metaphysics book Moments of Forever: Discovering the True Power and Importance of Your Life
Jeff Hill, Bureau for Food Security, USAID
Jeff Hill has many years of experience in African agricultural development and currently serves in USAID's recently created Bureau for Food Security (BFS). Jeff started his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone and later served as Associate Peace Corps Director in that country. Prior to USAID, he worked for the World Bank for 10 years in Tanzania and Nigeria. At USAID Jeff has been a team leader for a number of agriculture and food security initiatives for the Africa Bureau and now for BFS. He presently works on Feed the Future initiatives, and prior to that worked on many programs that promoted agricultural growth and built on African-led partnerships to cut hunger and poverty.
Jeff has designed, led, and managed a variety of teams on research, private sector development, trade, capacity building and policy. He currently chairs the Donor Development Partners CAADP group and process -- a group of 32 donors worldwide dedicated to African agricultural development. Jeff holds a BS from Weber State University in Utah in public administration and an MS from UC Davis in agricultural economics and agronomy.
Suresh Babu, IFPRI
Dr. Babu was educated at Agricultural Universities in Tamil Nadu, India (B.S. Agriculture; M.S. Agriculture) and at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa (M.S. Economics and PhD Economics). Before joining IFPRI in 1992 as a Research Fellow, Dr. Babu was a Research Economist at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Between 1989 and 1994 he spent 5 years in Malawi, Southern Africa in various capacities. He was Senior Food Policy Advisor to the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture on developing a national level Food and Nutrition Information System; an Evaluation Economist for the UNICEF-Malawi working on designing food and nutrition intervention programs; Coordinator of UNICEF/IFPRI food security program in Malawi; and a Senior Lecturer at the Bunda College of Agriculture, Malawi developing and teaching computer-based policy-oriented post graduate courses.
At IFPRI he has helped implement several capacity strengthening programs through country and regional networks in South Asia, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. He has published several books and monographs and more than fifty peer reviewed journal papers.
Chuck Chopak, DAI
Chuck Chopak is a Technical Area Manager at Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), where he manages and leads agriculture and food security activities. Dr. Chopak has 30 years of experience managing, planning, and implementing food security and rural development activities throughout the world, including numerous countries in Africa, as well as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Central America, and Haiti. Throughout his career he has provided leadership in planning strategy, managing projects, furnishing decision support to senior officials, strengthening institutions, and developing capacity. Dr. Chopak has worked extensively with donor organizations, academic institutions, host country governments, United Nations agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to implement strategies to promote humanitarian response and agricultural development. Dr. Chopak holds a doctorate in agricultural economics from Michigan State University and is fluent in French and Wolof.
David Tardiff-Douglin, Africa Lead (DAI)
David Tardif-Douglin, a Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) senior agricultural economist, has 25 years of practical and academic experience in project development and management, policy analysis, formulation, and advocacy; livestock management and agribusiness; marketing and price analysis; survey design and implementation; rapid appraisals; subsector assessments; program and project evaluation methodology; and strategic planning. Dr. Tardif-Douglin's experience includes managing DAI's Economics and Trade Practice, managing a large multisectoral economic policy and capacity building project for USAID in the Philippines, assessing reconstruction opportunities for countries transitioning from crisis, and providing policy analysis as Chief of Party for a USAID agricultural policy project.
In addition, he developed market reform recommendations for Senegal, aided the United Nations Center for Human Settlements and the United Nations Environment Programme in strategic planning for regional work in the Great Lakes region of Africa, conducted agriculture policy research in Rwanda, and worked as a research analyst for the World Bank's Agricultural Research Unit. A US citizen, born and raised in Congo, Dr. Tardif-Douglin holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Cornell University and is multilingual in French, English and Swahili.
Rob Nooter, SEMS, LLC
Robert Nooter has 30 years of experience in international economic development, agricultural and development policy analysis and advocacy and organizational management. Currently, Mr. Nooter operates Social Enterprise Management Services, LLC (SEMS, LLC) and represents clients with interests in international development projects. His primary client is the US Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC) for which he serves as Executive Director. Previously, Mr. Nooter worked in leadership positions in the International Development Division of Land O' Lakes, Inc., and as Director of Government Relations with the American Farm Bureau Federation. His responsibilities have spanned the range of management functions including supervision of project operations, new business development, human resource management and organizational representation with policymakers and donor agency officials. He has been posted in Russia, Lithuania and Tanzania and has worked in over forty other countries. Mr. Nooter is concluding his one year term as President of the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development.
Malcolm Butler, APLU
Butler is Vice President of International Programs at APLU, and has extensive experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. He was Director of the USAID missions in Bolivia, Peru, Lebanon, and the Philippines, and led the USAID bureaus for Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States, Latin America, and Intergovernmental Affairs. Before joining USAID, Mr. Butler was with the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and the State Department. He held the personal rank of Career Minister, and received two Presidential citations. After leaving USAID,
Butler was senior vice president of MSI, president of the Riecken Foundation, and president of Partners of the Americas and of his own consulting firm. Butler did his undergraduate studies at Rice University and graduate studies at Oxford.
Michael McGirr, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA
Michael J. McGirr is responsible for developing and managing foreign and domestic projects in collaboration with cooperating U.S. universities. He has also provided leadership for the National Initiative to Internationalize Extension - an effort aimed at strengthening the global dimension of local extension programs in the U.S. From 1990 to 1996, Mr. McGirr managed the agency's Polish/American Extension Project that involved collaboration with 31 land-grant universities. He has also helped to develop agency initiatives in the former Soviet Republics, Africa, Central America and, most recently, Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. McGirr began his career in international development as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone.
He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a Master's in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies.
Rob Bertram, Bureau for Food Security, USAID
Rob Bertram is the Acting Director of the USAID's Office of Agriculture, Research and Technology. His office manages U.S. funding for the CRSPs, the CGIAR system, and USAID's agricultural biotechnology initiative, which spans science (technology development) and policy (biosafety and intellectual property.) The office also incorporates policy research and best practices in areas such as nutrition, gender, poverty and climate change. Rob has been with USAID for more than 25 years, and comes from a plant breeding and genetics background, with degrees from UC Davis, the University of Minnesota and the University of Maryland.
He has been active for many years in plant genetic resources conservation and policy, having chaired the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and has served on various advisory committees and reviews on research programming and policy.
Mark Cackler, The World Bank
Mark Cackler is Manager of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank. Mr. Cackler joined the World Bank in 1981, after working as an Overseas Representative for John Deere Intercontinental, Ltd., based in Thailand. Initial assignments in the World Bank's Washington headquarters included working in agriculture and natural resources divisions for East Africa, China, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands. In 1988, he transferred to the Agriculture Unit of the World Bank's New Delhi Office. Following his return to headquarters from India in 1992, Mr. Cackler joined the Latin America and Caribbean Region. In 2000, he was appointed Manager of the Agriculture and Rural Development for Latin America. In February 2007, Mr. Cackler was appointed Manager of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank, where he oversees the World Bank's global programs for rural poverty alleviation, agriculture and natural resources management. Mr. Cackler was raised in Moline, Illinois. He has economics degrees from Oberlin College, Ohio, and the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
David Hansen, Ohio State University & APLU
David Hansen is a Senior Fellow with the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), Washington, D.C. His major responsibilities include the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative which promotes partnerships among U.S. and African Higher Education Institutions. He was involved in the development and funding of eleven higher education partnerships and works closely with staff at the Higher Education for Development Office which has primary responsibility for managing these partnerships. Dr. Hansen also retains a part-time appointment with Ohio State University. In this capacity he works on issues dealing with international programs in agriculture. Prior to these appointments, he was a tenured faculty member at Ohio State University,having worked overseas for that institution on university programs; as the Director of International Programs in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences; and as a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. He holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served for two years in Bolivia.
John Allgood, Eurasia Division, IFDC
John Allgood, is director of IFDC's EurAsia Division (EAD). He has more than 30 years of global experience in fertilizer sector development. Allgood has completed technical assistance missions and capacity building assignments on a wide range of agro-input market development issues (e.g., fertilizer distribution system improvement, strategic planning for agro-input market development, management information system development, fertilizer supply-demand analysis and international procurement) in various countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the mid-1980s, Allgood was instrumental in providing strategic guidance to development agencies and the government of Kenya that led to market reform in Kenya's fertilizer market. During the early 1990s, he served first as dealer development and training advisor and later as chief of party for a major policy reform and technology transfer project in Bangladesh, the Fertilizer Distribution Improvement (FDI) program. He holds an MBA from the University of North Alabama, BSc. in marketing from Florida State University. He has authored/co-authored several technical papers on fertilizer marketing and fertilizer market development.
