FARM Food Futures Forum

Professor of practice of organizational behavior and managing director of health, Olin Business School; secondary faculty, WashU School of Public Health

Patrick Aguilar joined the WashU Olin faculty as managing director of health in November 2024. In that role, he leads the development of research collaborations, educational programming, and industry partnerships relevant to the breadth of industries impacting the well-being of individuals and societies. Through these efforts, he aims to drive innovation and empower future leaders in the health industry.

Dr. Aguilar works at the intersection of business and public health, aligning financial returns with social good. He bridges academic theory with real-world solutions to drive meaningful change, helping health-care providers, employers, investors, and entrepreneurs use business as a force for better health. Before joining the Olin team, Dr. Aguilar served as clinical program leader for critical care programming at two academic medical centers, service line leader for pulmonary/critical care medicine at a large community health network, and chief medical officer for a major retailer. In addition to his work at Olin, Dr. Aguilar is active in leadership development for teams across industries and maintains a clinical practice in pulmonology at WashU Medicine.

Chief scientist, Food Security Leadership Council, Washington, D.C.; former chief scientist for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Resilience and Food Security

Rob Bertram serves as chief scientist for the Food Security Leadership Council, a nonpartisan policy organization dedicated to strengthening U.S. leadership to help solve global hunger. From 2014 to 2025, Dr. Bertram was chief scientist for food security at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where he led agricultural and food systems research in Feed the Future. The investments developed technologies, practices and policies focused on reducing hunger, extreme poverty and child stunting through inclusive agricultural growth and increased access to affordable, quality diets. Throughout this period and for many years prior, he represented USAID in CGIAR and other international research centers and led development of the U.S. university (Innovation Labs) and public-private research partnerships.

His genetic resources engagement spanned scientific support to the International Treaty negotiations, chairing the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and leading USAID support for the Global Crop Diversity Trust. He served in leadership roles in the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Global Action on Fall Armyworm Control, and the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement. Prior to USAID, he worked in dryland agricultural research with the CGIAR and with USDA’s international programs.

Senior vice president, markets and food; executive director, Markets Institute, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

Jason Clay leads the work of WWF-US on Markets and how companies manage supply chains, and the Markets Institute whose goal is to identify and create awareness about global issues and trends on the horizon for food and soft commodities and then build consensus about how to best anticipate them. Dr. Clay launched WWF’s work on agriculture, livestock, aquaculture, finance and reshaped our work with the private sector and on fisheries. During his career he has worked on a family farm and in the U.S. Department of Agriculture; taught at Harvard and Yale; and spent more than 35 years working in human rights and environmental organizations.

In 1988, Dr. Clay invented Rainforest Marketing, one of the first fair-trade ecolabels in the United States and was responsible for co-creating Rainforest Crunch and more than 200 other products with combined sales of $100 million. From 1999-2003, he co-directed a consortium with WWF, World Bank, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and National Aquaculture Centres of Asia/Pacific to identify the most significant environmental and social impacts of shrimp aquaculture and analyze better management practices that measurably reduce them.

He then co-convened (with the IFC and others) multi-stakeholder roundtables of producers, investors, buyers, researchers and NGOs to identify and reduce the social and environmental impacts of products such as salmon, soy, sugarcane, cotton, shrimp, beef and palm oil. Dr. Clay leads WWF’s efforts to work with companies to improve supply chain management, particularly with regard to ingredient sourcing, GHG emissions, and water take and effluent, and with industries or entire sectors to transform their overall performance.

He is the author of 20 books, among them, “World Aquaculture and the Environment,” and “Exploring the Links between International Business and Poverty Reduction: A Case Study of Unilever in Indonesia.” Dr. Clay is National Geographic’s inaugural Food and Sustainability Fellow. He won a 2012 James Beard Award for his work on global food sustainability, and in 2013 was awarded Tuft University’s Jean Mayer Global Humanitarian Award. Dr. Clay studied at Harvard University and the London School of Economics before receiving a PhD in anthropology and international agriculture from Cornell University.

Margaret C. Ryan Dean of the School of Public Health; the Eugene S. and Constance Kahn Distinguished Professor in Public Health; and vice provost of interdisciplinary initiatives at Washington University in St. Louis

Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH

Sandro Galea, a physician, epidemiologist, and author, is the inaugural dean of Washington University School of Public Health. He previously held academic and leadership positions at Boston University, Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Galea’s scholarship is about the social causes of health, mental health, and the consequences of trauma. His work has been principally funded by the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and several foundations. He has been engaged in more than $100 million of extramurally funded research. He has published more than 1,000 scientific journal articles, 75 chapters, and 24 books, and his research has been featured extensively in current periodicals and newspapers. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of JAMA Health Forum.

Dr. Galea serves frequently on advisory groups to national and global organizations. He has co-authored prominent reports from the U.S. Surgeon General, the World Health Organization, and the World Economic Forum, among others. He previously served as chair of the Boston Board of Health, and of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Community Services Board and as a member of its Health Board. He is past-board chair of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, past-president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science. 

Dr. Galea was born and raised in Malta. He immigrated to Canada with his family as a teenager and subsequently immigrated to the U.S. at the turn of the century. He has a medical degree from the University of Toronto, graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University, and honorary doctorates from the University of Glasgow and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He has practiced medicine in rural and remote parts of the world, including serving as a field physician for Doctors Without Borders in Somalia. Prior to his appointment at WashU, Dr. Galea held academic and leadership positions at Boston University, Columbia University, the University of Michigan and at the New York Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor, and director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology, WashU Medicine

Jeffrey Gordon is a physician-scientist known for his foundational studies of the human microbiome and its contributions to health and disease. He received a liberal arts education at Oberlin College and his medical degree from the University of Chicago. After completing clinical training in internal medicine and gastroenterology, and doing a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, he joined the faculty at Washington University, where he has spent his entire career, first as a member of the Departments of Medicine and Biological Chemistry, then as head of the Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology (now Developmental Biology) and, subsequently, as the founding director of the university’s interdepartmental Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology.

Dr. Gordon has had the privilege of being the research mentor to 150 PhD students and postdoctoral fellows since his lab was established. His group has used interdisciplinary approaches for defining mechanisms that underlie the assembly, expressed functions, and physiologic effects of human gut microbial communities. Their translational studies, which focus on childhood malnutrition, the leading cause of death in those under age 5, include a long-standing collaboration with Tahmeed Ahmed at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. This work, conducted at the intersection of microbiome science, food and nutritional science, and human systems physiology, has led to the discovery and subsequent randomized controlled clinical trials of microbiome-directed therapeutic foods for treating malnourished children.

Dr. Gordon is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and the American Philosophical Society, and the recipient of many international awards for his work.

Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Professor in Public Health; associate dean of faculty affairs, WashU School of Public Health

Debra Haire-Joshu is an internationally renowned scholar of health behavior who develops population-wide interventions to reduce obesity and prevent diabetes among underserved women and children. She holds a joint appointment at WashUMedicine and directs the Center for Obesity Prevention and Policy Research (COPPR) and the Washington University Center for Diabetes Translation Research (WU-CDTR).

COPPR aims to discover and integrate new science into policies designed to prevent obesity. The WU-CDTR, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, supports over 80 investigators across the country conducting studies to eliminate the root causes of obesity and disparities in Type 2 diabetes. Dr. Haire-Joshu also serves as a co-director of the Institute for Implementation Science Scholars (IS-2), a mentored training program for investigators interested in applying dissemination and implementation (D&I) methods and strategies to reduce the burden of chronic disease and address health inequities.

Dr. Haire-Joshu has served on several National Academy of Medicine (and Institute of Medicine) committees on early-childhood obesity and is a member of the National Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advisory Council. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed literature, authored an award-winning textbook on diabetes management across the life span, and has been an active contributor to health policy at national and state levels.

Lauren and Lee Fixel Distinguished Professor; co-director of the Food & Agriculture Research Mission (FARM) Innovation Research Network; and founding director of the E3 Nutrition Lab at WashU School of Public Health; director for planetary health, WashU Center for the Environment

Lora Iannotti is the inaugural Lauren and Lee Fixel Distinguished Professor at WashU School of Public Health and founding director of the E3 Nutrition Lab. Her lab aims to identify nutrition solutions that embrace principles embodied in the three E’s: equity, environment and evolution. Dr. Iannotti leads projects in Ecuador, Haiti and Madagascar, where she collaborates with local partners to test innovative approaches to achieving sustainable, healthy dietary patterns that improve the growth and brain development of young children. Her research related to animal-source foods has informed the global discourse on nutrition equity, climate change and planetary boundaries, which are the limits that critical processes must stay within to maintain a stable and resilient Earth.

Dr. Iannotti is co-director of the Food and Agriculture Research Mission (FARM) at WashU School of Public Health and director of Planetary Health at WashU’s Center for the Environment. She has served on and provides expert advice to global working groups that inform policy on maternal and child nutrition, including the World Health Organization Guidelines Development Group for Complementary Feeding, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s initiatives related to animal-source foods and human health, and the USAID Feed the Future Fish Innovation Lab. Dr. Iannotti received her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Master of Arts in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.

Founder and chair, Connect for Impact Advisory Group (C4Impact), Kigali, Rwanda; past president, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA); special envoy of the U.N. secretary-general for the 2021 Food Systems Summit

Dr. Agnes Kalibata is a distinguished scientist, policy maker and thought leader on the global stage. She is the founder and chair of Connect for Impact Advisory Group (C4Impact Advisory Group), a mission-driven social impact advisory firm that supports countries/governments in executing complex public- and private-sector agriculture and food systems programs.

From 2014 through March 2025, Dr. Kalibata was president of AGRA, an African-led organization that puts smallholder farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economies. In 2021, Dr. Kalibata served as the special envoy of the U.N. Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, to catalyze global food systems transformation to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement.

In 2023, she served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee of COP28 to the UNFCCC — she contributed to shaping and delivery of the COP28 UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action that was endorsed by 160 countries. Prior to joining AGRA, Dr. Kalibata served as Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources from 2008 to 2014.

Dr. Kalibata is recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Africa Food Prize (2012), honorary doctorates from the University of Liège in 2018 and McGill University in 2019, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal in April 2019, and in 2024 she was the recipient of the Justus-von-Liebig Award for World Nutrition. She is recognized for her work driving Africa’s agricultural transformation through modern sciences, effective policy and more recently, climate advocacy. Dr. Kalibata sits on various boards, councils and commissions. She holds a doctorate in entomology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Executive director, Institute for International Crop Improvement, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis

Dr. Donald MacKenzie is the executive director of the Institute for International Crop Improvement (IICI) at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. He manages the IICI’s programs and partnerships dedicated to delivering precision genetic technologies to meet the most significant food and nutritional security challenges faced by smallholder farmers. His extensive experience in plant product development and global regulatory processes aligns with the institute’s commitment to collaborate with international and local partner organizations to deliver crops with improved disease and pest resistance, yield, and nutritional content to places where people are in most need. His lab works on the development of plant transformation and genetic modification technologies for food security crops, such as cowpea, chickpea, pigeon pea, and teff. Recently, IICI developed semi-dwarf varieties of teff using gene editing, which are now being field-tested in Ethiopia and expected to show significantly increased yield because of reduced lodging. Dr. MacKenzie’s lab is also developing cowpeas with improved productivity and storability to improve farmer livelihoods in West Africa.

Beyond research, Dr. MacKenzie has extended the Danforth Center’s role in strengthening seed delivery systems that will allow more rapid uptake of new technologies. For example, in a collaboration with Nigeria’s National Agricultural Seeds Council, the institute has supported technical training in molecular diagnostics and the establishment of licensed third-party seed inspectors. He joined the Danforth Center from the International Rice Research Institute (Philippines), where he worked on the Golden Rice project and was instrumental in achieving its approval for cultivation in the Philippines. During his time at the Danforth Center, he has played a critical role in achieving the commercial approval of virus-resistant cassava for Africa (VIRCA) in Kenya and of pod borer-resistant (PBR) cowpea in Nigeria and Ghana.

Dr. MacKenzie received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of British Columbia and began his research career with Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada. Since then, he has served in various leadership roles with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada, and Dupont Pioneer.

Assistant professor, WashU School of Public Health

Stephanie Mazzucca-Ragan’s research is aimed at developing and evaluating evidence-based approaches for promoting healthy eating and physical activity to prevent chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer.

A member of the Prevention Research Center, her work focuses on improving home environments, as well as organizations such as public health departments and childcare centers, to support healthy behaviors for populations at risk of chronic disease. She also works to improve the dissemination and implementation of research evidence into public health and clinical practice.

Dr. Mazzucca-Ragan’s research interests include the measurement of nutrition and physical activity environments and the development, testing, dissemination and implementation of strategies focused on improving healthy eating and physical activity and preventing chronic diseases. Her dissertation focused on strategies to improve the physical activity of preschool-aged children attending early-care and education centers.

Executive director of networks & innovation and professor of practice; director of the Food & Agriculture Research Mission (FARM) Innovation Research Network, of the School of Public Health at Washington University

Morven McLean is executive director of Networks & Innovation and professor of practice in the School of Public Health, and she additionally serves as the inaugural director of WashU’s Food and Agriculture Research Mission (FARM). An agricultural scientist with more than 25 years of experience, Dr. McLean has dedicated her career to developing and implementing applied agricultural research and capacity building programs that address scientific, regulatory and trade issues related to agricultural innovation and food security.

Dr. McLean joined WashU from Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One), where she was director of global strategy, regulatory, and public affairs. She has served as a technical expert for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development, as well as many national governments in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and South America.

She received her bachelor of science degree in agriculture from McGill University, her master of science degree in environmental biology from the University of Guelph, and her doctorate in molecular plant virology from the University of British Columbia. Dr. McLean is co-chair of the Global Steering Council for the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project and serves on the governing council of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, and the external advisory board of H.A.R.V.E.S.T. AgTech.

Associate professor, WashU School of Public Health

Sarah Moreland-Russell’s research focuses on understanding the factors that facilitate effective public health policy implementation and sustainability to maximize the potential for equitable population health. Her work focuses on chronic disease prevention policy, specifically in the areas of nutrition, obesity prevention, and tobacco control. Findings from her research have informed local-level policy adoption, guided the development of strategies for building capacity for public health program and policy sustainability, and advanced understanding of the factors that influence implementation of evidence-based policy. She also has experience in designing and directing public health policy-related evaluation studies at local, regional, and national levels using systems science approaches.

Dr. Moreland-Russell is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of students, faculty, staff, and practitioners to understand and actively participate in the policy process. She offers training to academic and practice-based audiences on effectively engaging in policymaking, translating research into actionable policy recommendations, and designing research that addresses pressing policy challenges.

In 2016, Dr. Moreland-Russell completed an American Public Health Association fellowship in government, in which she served as a policy adviser for U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in Washington, D.C.

Associate professor of marketing, Olin Business School, WashU

Sydney Scott is an associate professor of marketing at Washington University in St. Louis, where she studies consumer behavior, and is especially interested in morality and consumer decisions, health and wellness, and natural and sustainable products. Dr. Scott’s work explores questions such as: When and why do consumers want natural products? How do consumers think about health and well-being?

Her research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Psychological Science, and Nature Human Behaviour, and her work also has been featured in popular press outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and NPR.

Dr. Scott received her PhD in marketing and psychology from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 2017.

Director of the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C.

David J. Spielman has been with the International Food Policy Research Institute since 2004. His research agenda covers a range of topics including agriculture and rural development policy; agricultural science, technology, and innovation; plant genetic resources and seed systems; agricultural extension and advisory services; and community-driven rural development.

Dr. Spielman most recently was based in Kigali, Rwanda, where he led the Rwanda Strategy Support Program. From 2016 to 2020, he managed IFPRI’s research theme on science, technology, and innovation policy from its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and contributed to research projects in Asia and Africa. From 2004 to 2010, he was based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he was part of IFPRI’s work on strengthening agricultural innovation systems. Earlier in his career, Dr. Spielman worked on agriculture and rural development issues for the World Bank, the Aga Khan Development Network in Pakistan, and several other organizations. He received his PhD in economics from American University in 2003, an MSc in development studies from the London School of Economics in 1993, and a bachelor of arts degree in international relations from Tufts University in 1992.

President & CEO, Operation Food Search, St. Louis

Kristen Wild has served as president and chief executive officer of Operation Food Search since January 2019, overseeing the strategy, financial operations, programs, and initiatives that support the organization’s mission and vision. She is responsible for ensuring its alignment with its three pillars: to meet the immediate need, build nutrition IQ, and champion change that leads to long-term solutions to food insecurity.

Ms. Wild collaborates with OFS staff, board members, and other organizational and civic leaders to ensure that the needs of the community are met, forming new partnerships and expanding crucial programs. Under Ms. Wild’s leadership, OFS acquired another nonprofit, the St. Louis MetroMarket, to broaden the services and reach of both organizations.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Duke University, Ms. Wild earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology. Additionally, she holds a certificate in business management for nonprofit leaders from Washington University. Ms. Wild joined OFS after serving as executive director of the Ladue Education Foundation & Alumni Association. She has extensive experience in advocacy and education environments, including Autism Speaks, Sylvan Learning Centers, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Houston Independent School District, and St. Louis Public Schools.

Ms. Wild serves as an editorial advisory board member of Food Bank News, a national publication, and as a board member of the Kathy J. Weinman Shelter. She is also a member of the International Women’s Forum. She has been recognized as a Most Influential Business Woman by the St. Louis Business Journal, a YWCA Leader of Distinction, a Titan 100, a St. Louis Business Leader by St. Louis Magazine, one of 50 Missourians You Should Know by Ingram’s Magazine, a recipient of the Community Service Award from the Harvard Club of St. Louis, and a graduate of Leadership St. Louis.