Catherine Bertini
Distinguished Fellow, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Catherine Bertini is a distinguished fellow of global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. For ten years, she was executive director of the United Nations World Food Program, the world’s largest international humanitarian agency. She was the third woman and first American woman to lead a UN agency. She became the 2003 World Food Prize laureate for her groundbreaking leadership at WFP. Bertini was UN Under Secretary General for Management and the UN Security Coordinator. She led the US domestic nutrition programs as USDA assistant secretary for food and consumer services and the nation’s assistance program for single mothers at the US Department of Human Services. She chaired the UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN). She was appointed to the Board of International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) by Presidents Bush and Obama. Bertini was senior fellow on the first agriculture team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and served as a fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation. She is chair of the board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and a board member of the Global Food Banking Network (GFBN). WFP/USA hosts the Catherine Bertini Trust Fund for Girls Education. Bertini is a professor emeritus at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She had fellowships at the Ford School of the University of Michigan and the Kennedy School at Harvard University. She is on the advisory board and a fellow of the Scowcroft Institute at the Bush School at Texas A&M University. Other affiliations include: affiliated expert at the Lugar Institute: senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); board member of the Stuart Family Foundation.