Anna Nelson
Deputy Special Envoy for Global Food Security, U.S. Department of State
Anna Nelson is Deputy Special Envoy for Global Food Security at the Department of State. Previously, she served as senior advisor to the Director of Foreign Assistance, working to align resource decisions with the Administration’s climate and food security strategies. Before that, she was a Vice President at The Cohen Group, where she provided strategic advice and business consulting services to corporate clients in the semiconductor, satellite communications, biotechnology, and manufacturing industries. From 2017-2020, she served as Chief of Staff of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, an approximately 500-person Department of Defense field agency responsible for training, educating, advising, and equipping foreign military partners. In that capacity, she advised the Director on security cooperation and organizational policy and spearheaded Departmental initiatives that included the development of new standards for building partner capacity to prevent civilian casualties and the transformation of information management systems to facilitate the use of data in strategic decision-making. From 2016 to 2017, Ms. Nelson was the Adviser for Strategy and Policy for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs’ Office of Security Assistance at the Department of State. In that position, she led strategic initiatives for the Department’s primary foreign military assistance program, focusing on reforming strategic planning, program development, and resourcing processes. Before that, she spent five years managing military assistance programs for the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. Ms. Nelson has a BA from McGill University, a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Maryland at College Park, and a JD from George Washington University.