Institution: Johns Hopkins University

Jessica Fanzo, PhD, is the Bloomberg Distinguished Associate Professor of Ethics and Global Food & Agriculture at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of International Health. She also serves as the Director of the Global Food Ethics and Policy Program. Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Jessica was an Assistant Professor of Nutrition in the Institute of Human Nutrition and Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University in New York. She also served as the Senior Advisor of Nutrition Policy at the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development at the Earth Institute. Jessica has held positions at the REACH Interagency partnership at the UN World Food Programme and Bioversity International, a Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) center, both in Rome, Italy. Prior to living in Rome, she also served as the Nutrition Director at the Center for Global Health and Economic Development at the Earth Institute, and the Nutrition Regional Advisor for East and Southern Africa at the Millennium Development Goal Centre at the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya. Jessica has also served as a Program Officer for the Medical Research Program focusing on global health initiatives at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. She has worked in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and East Africa for more than a decade. Jessica’s area of expertise focuses on the multi-sectoral and system approaches to ensure better nutrition and diets. Her research is concentrated in three areas: (1) on the linkages between agriculture, water, and health to improve diversity and quality of maternal and young children’s diets in low-income rural communities, (2) the importance of regaining livelihoods in post-conflict regions through better nutrition governance (3) metrics and ethics for the emerging area of equitable, sustainable diets and value chains. Jessica was the first laureate of the Carasso Foundation Sustainable Diets Prize in 2012 for her work on sustainable food and diets for long-term human health. She received her PhD in Nutrition at the University of Arizona, and was the Stephen I. Morse Postdoctoral Fellow in Immunology in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Columbia University.