Food Futures Symposium

Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Eric P. Newman Center, Medical Campus
Washington University

At WashU, we are embarking on a journey to create healthier food for healthier people for a healthier planet. We know that a single university cannot generate the kind of change we need to achieve the impact we imagine. It will take partners, from industry to governments. But we believe that we can make a difference.

Food Futures is designed to:

• Motivate collaborative interdisciplinary academic, industry and community partnerships to address regional, national and global challenges related to food security, hunger and malnutrition
• Create a new, research oriented action network of scientists, entrepreneurs and community leaders invested in testing innovative solutions to food security
• Launch a vision for future efforts to ensure sustainable food and nutrition security across populations, regions and time

8:30 a.m.: Breakfast and Check-In

9 a.m.: Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:20-10:30 a.m.: Unlocking Success: Key Components of Building Strong Partnerships for Impact.  Panel includes:

• Sam Fiorello, president & CEO, Cortex Innovation District (Panel Host)
• Cheryl Martin, former acting director for the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). Cheryl founded Harwich Partners to engage public and private sector entities in designing and implementing solutions for complex problems, especially those related to energy, sustainability, and technology adoption at scale. Previously she was a member of the Managing Board at the World Economic Forum.  Before this, Cheryl served as the acting director of the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E). She was also the deputy director for Commercialization where she developed the Technology-to-Market program. Prior to joining ARPA-E, Cheryl was an EIR at Kleiner Perkins after a career with Rohm and Haas Company in roles ranging from technology development to investor relations and business management.  Cheryl serves on the Boards for Sound Agriculture, Menzies Aviation, and Elemental Excelerator as well as on the Board of Trustees for the College of the Holy Cross.  She received her PhD in organic chemistry from MIT. 
• Morven McLean, director, Global Strategy, Regulatory, and Public Affairs, Bill and Melinda Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One), a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring high-quality, cutting-edge crop innovations are available and accessible to those that need them most. Morven is an agricultural scientist with 20+ years of experience developing and implementing applied agricultural research and capacity building programs that address scientific, regulatory and trade issues related to agricultural innovation and food security. She has worked internationally with governments, non-governmental organizations, and the public and private sectors on issues of policy and regulation pertaining to agricultural, forest and aquatic biotechnology. Morven has served as a technical expert on biotechnology risk assessment, regulation and policy for many organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Environmental Program, as well as many national governments in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South America. Before joining Gates Ag One, Morven was CEO of the non-profit Agriculture & Food Systems Institute. In addition to serving on icipe’s Governing Council, she is a member of the Global Steering Council for the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project and is Chair of the Board of Trustees for the National Fund for the U.S. Botanic Garden. She received her BSc (Agriculture) from McGill University, MSc in environmental biology from the University of Guelph, and PhD in molecular plant virology from the University of British Columbia.
• Keenan McRoberts, vice president, Strategic Alignment, United Soybean Board. The soy checkoff is supported entirely by soybean farmers with individual contributions of 0.5% of the market price per bushel sold each season. The efforts of the checkoff are directed by the United Soybean Board, composed of 77 volunteer farmer-leaders appointed to the board by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. The U.S. Soy industry prioritizes continuous innovation and improvement, trusted quality and proven reliability to sustainably support the progress of the communities and industries they serve. Raised on a farm and ranch in western Nebraska, Keenan is passionate about farmer-driven investments that can help shape the future of the U.S. soy industry. He received his bachelor’s in biochemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and both his master’s in international agriculture and rural development and PhD in animal science from Cornell University. Keenan formerly served as director of global strategy and business development at the American Soybean Association’s WISHH Program. He also worked with the U.S. Peace Corps in Nicaragua as an agricultural extension specialist, technical specialist, and trainer.

10:30-11 a.m.: Break/Networking

11 a.m. – 12 p.m. : Keynote: Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, cardiologist, Dean and Jean Mayer Professor at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Professor of Medicine at Tufts Medical School. Dariush has authored nearly 400 scientific publications on dietary priorities for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, and on evidence-based policy approaches to reduce these burdens in the US and globally. He has served in numerous advisory roles including for the US and Canadian governments, American Heart Association, World Health Organization, and United Nations. His work has been featured in a wide array of media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, and Time Magazine. In 2016, Thomson Reuters named him as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.

12–1 p.m.: Lunch

1–2 p.m.: Keynote: Patrizia Fracassi, senior nutrition and food Systems officer at FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) leading the work on governance, policies, programs and investments. Previously, she was the senior nutrition analyst and Sstrategy adviser at the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement Secretariat focusing on Government-led multi-sectoral approaches for planning, costing, managing implementation, tracking investments and mobilizing resources. Patrizia has worked in Ethiopia with UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) on Nutrition Information System strengthening and for the World Bank on Linkages between the Productive Safety Net Program and the National Nutrition Program. She also worked for UNICEF Uganda as a nutrition specialist and for Cesvi (independent Italian humanitarian organization) and Oxfam Italia in Vietnam as country director, specializing in community based nutrition, primary health care and livelihoods. She is interested on the political economy of nutrition.

2–2:15 p.m.: Break

2:15–3:15 p.m.: Food Futures Ignite Sessions

Food Access and Affordability, convened by Mark Huffman, professor of Medicine, School of Medicine; co-director, Global Health Center

• Lingxiu Dong, professor of Supply Chain, Operations, and Technology; Frahm Family Chair of Supply Chain, Operations, and Technology, Olin Business School
• Jing Li, associate professor of medicine, School of Medicine
• Kevin Stephenson, instructor in Medicine, School of Medicine

Food Availability, convened by Dan Giammar, Walter E. Browne Professor of Environmental Engineering, McKelvey School of Engineering; director, Center for the Environment 

• Joe Jez, Spencer T. Olin Professor in Biology, Arts & Sciences
• Feng Jiao, Elvera and William R. Stuckenberg Professor; Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, McKelvey School of Engineering
• Timothy Wencewicz, associate professor of Chemistry, Arts & Sciences

Food Quality, convened by Debra Haire-Joshu, Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Professorship in Public Health, Brown School

• Jeffrey Gordon, Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor; professor of Pathology and Immunology; Development Biology; Molecular Microbiology, School of Medicine

• Samuel Klein, William H. Danforth Professor of Medicine and Nutritional Science; chief, Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Science, School of Medicine
• Joan Luby, Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Professor of Child Psychiatry, School of Medicine

Food Sustainability, convened by Lora Iannotti, professor of Public Health, Brown School

• Manasseh Begay, lecturer, Buder Center for American Indian Studies, Brown School
• Robbie Hart, director, William L. Brown Center & William L. Brown Curator of Economic Botany, Missouri Botanical Garden; honorary adjunct professor, Department of Biology
• Diana Parra Perez, assistant professor, Prevention Research Center

3:15–3:30 p.m.: Closing Remarks with Provost Beverly Wendland

3:30–4:45 p.m.: Reception

This event is made possible by the Office of the Provost in partnership with Global Health Center, Center for the Environment, Center for Diabetes Translation Research, Center for Obesity Prevention and Policy Research, Cortex Innovation District, and E3 Nutrition Lab.

Please read “Evidence for Policies and Practices to Address Global Food Insecurity“ to provide a framework for the symposium panels. The paper was co-written by Patrizia Fracassi (Keynote Speaker) and Lora Iannotti (Food Sustainability Ignite Session Host and symposium Steering Committee member).

Food Futures Steering Committee