"In Recognition of International Women’s Day Food, Gender, and the Challenges Ahead"

When: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022, @ 12pm-1:00pm
Where: Online via zoom
Speakers: Emmy Simmons

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This presentation will address global food security issues as they affect both the U.S. farming/food systems as well as those systems in other countries. As we look forward to the challenges of feeding a global population of nearly 10 billion and dealing with the extremes of climate change, it is clear that farming/food systems everywhere will face new pressures. Ms. Simmons will highlight the roles that women today play in food systems – as farmer/food producers, in agrifood businesses, in research and technology development, and in making family food choices – and the issues that they will face in the future. 

Emmy Simmons is an independent consultant on international development issues with a focus on food, agriculture, and Africa. She is currently a member of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, the Board of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and the Board of DevWorks International. She serves as a non-resident senior adviser for food security programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She has previously served on other Boards and advisory groups, including as a co-chair of AGree, an initiative that brought together a diverse group of interests to transform U.S. food and agriculture policy, and as a co-chair of the Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability at the National Academies of Science. She completed a career of nearly 30 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2005, having served since 2002 as the assistant administrator for economic growth, agriculture, and trade, a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position. Prior to joining USAID, she worked in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs in Monrovia, Liberia, and taught and conducted research at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. She began her international career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines from 1962 to 1964. She holds an M.S. degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University and a B.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

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