Catherine Ann Bertini

Catherine Bertini joined the faculty of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 2005. As a Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs, she taught and currently teaches graduate courses in Humanitarian Action, UN Management, Girls’ Education, International Organizations, Executive Leadership, and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Ms. Bertini’s leadership of the UN World Food Programme transformed WFP into the world’s largest and most responsive humanitarian organization. As WFP’s Executive Director, first proposed by President George H. W. Bush in 1992, and re-endorsed by President Bill Clinton in 1997, Ms. Bertini led the efforts to end famine in North Korea, avert starvation in Afghanistan, ensure food was delivered effectively during crises in Bosnia and Kosovo, prevent mass starvation in the Horn of Africa and focusing on women as the key to ending hunger. Currently, Ms. Bertini serves as a member of the Board of International Food and Agricultural Development, which advises USAID, having been appointed by President George W. Bush and reappointed by President Barrack Obama. Previously, she served as the Assistant Secretary of Food and Consumer services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Currently she is senior fellow at the Chicago Council of Global Affairs. She serves as a board member of the Stuart Family Foundation, a juror of the Hilton Foundation Humanitarian Prize, and on the Board of Directors of the Tupperware Brands Corporation. For two years, she was the Senior Fellow of Agricultural Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Ms. Bertini earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Albany. CATHERINE A. BERTINI, Professor of Public Administration, Syracuse University, since August 2005, and a Senior Fellow, Agricultural Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since June 2007, after serving as Under Secretary General for Management of the United Nations since 2003. Prior thereto, Ms. Bertini was the Executive Director for the World Food Program of the United Nations for ten years. Term expires 2008. Age 57. First elected: 2005.