“Change the World: Invest in Women and Girls” with Catherine Bertini

Catherine Bertini, an accomplished leader in international organization reform and a powerful advocate for women and girls, will describe the pivotal role that women play in families and communities in the Global South and how, if they had more legal, educational, and societal opportunities, they could lead more significant positive change in virtually every field.  As the chair of the board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Catherine Bertini has a distinguished career improving the efficiency and operations of organizations serving poor and hungry people in the United States and around the world.

Catherine Bertini was named the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate for her transformational leadership at the World Food Programme (WFP), which she led for ten years, and for the positive impact she had on the lives of women. While in the US government, she expanded the electronic benefit transfer options for food stamp beneficiaries, created the food package for breast feeding mothers, presented the first effort to picture healthy diets, and expanded education and training opportunities for poor women.

More recently, she co-chaired a successful effort to impact American policy supporting poor farmers in the developing world. As a United Nations Under Secretary General, she initiated efforts to reform the global system for security of staff and for the recognition of all staff marriages. She interacted with all UN agencies and their leadership through a variety of UN bodies in humanitarian, development, nutrition, security and management roles, and led UN humanitarian missions to the Horn of Africa and to Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel. With her World Food Prize, she created the Catherine Bertini Trust Fund for Girls’ Education to support programs to increase opportunities for girls and women to attend school. Bertini’s career includes: Over twenty-five years in the private sector; thirteen years as a university professor; work with major foundations and think tanks; service in local, state and national governments; and board membership in a variety of organizations.

At the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where she is now professor emeritus, she taught graduate courses in humanitarian action, post conflict reconstruction, girls’ education, UN management, food security, international organizations, and leadership.  She served as a senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation early in its new agricultural development program, on the jury for the Hilton Foundation Humanitarian Prize, and as a Rockefeller Foundation fellow.

NOTE: This event is entirely in-person. No virtual tickets are available.

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