45th Annual Conference and
2009 Future Leaders Forum

May 31 - June 2, 2009

"Food in a Global Economic Crisis: Impacts and Solutions"

Speakers and Panelists

Josette Lewis

Josette Lewis was recently appointed Director of the Office of Agriculture, Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade, USAID, which provides technical leadership to the agency in areas such as technology development and delivery, agribusiness development, and agricultural policy. She has spent fourteen years in the central technical bureaus of USAID (currently EGAT) working on programs in the agriculture sector. Prior to becoming Director of the Office of Agriculture, Dr. Lewis

served as the Agency's Senior Biotechnology Advisor for eleven years, overseeing USAID's biotechnology activities globally, with an emphasis on Africa. Dr. Lewis joined USAID as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Technology and Diplomacy Fellow working on farmer-participatory sustainable agriculture research. Dr. Lewis has also managed an Israeli-Arab collaborative research grants program.