Jane Maland Cady is the program director of McKnight Foundation’s Global Collaboration for Resilient Foods Systems (CRFS), which cultivates resilient food systems globally by bridging farmer-centered agroecological research, action, and influence. CRFS operates established communities of practice (CoPs) in ten countries in the Andes, West Africa, and East and Southern Africa, building agroecological evidence to scale up, out, and deep, fueled by collaborations with tens of thousands of smallholder farmers engaged in co-creation. Jane is also the co-chair of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food steering committee. Raised on a farm in the Midwest, Jane has deep roots in agriculture. She earned her masters degree and PhD at the University of Minnesota, with a focus on liberatory education and agroecology. Through work and research in Latin America, Jane developed a deep appreciation for ecological approaches, collective action, creative farmer-driven solutions, and local-regional food systems innovation.

The Global Alliance is a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working for food system transformation around the world. For more than a decade, the Global Alliance has been at the forefront of organizing philanthropy to work together for a transition to food systems grounded in the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, interconnectedness, health, renewability, and resilience. At the Global Alliance, Anna builds on this legacy, in partnerships inside and outside philanthropy, to support the urgent transition to food systems that work for people and planet. Before joining the Global Alliance in July 2023, Anna had worked for more than twenty-five years as an internationally renowned advocate and author on food, farming, and sustainability. The founder or co-founder of three U.S.-based organizations, including Real Food Media, a communications strategy nonprofit, and the Small Planet Fund, which supports food and farming advocacy movements worldwide, Anna is the author or co-author of three books, including the national bestseller, Hope’s Edge and the critically acclaimed Diet for a Hot Planet. She has served as an advisor to countless food and farm advocacy efforts and is a board member of Rainforest Action Network and Steering Committee member of the Castanea Fellowship. A frequent public speaker, Anna’s TEDx talks and her Food MythBuster videos have been viewed millions of times. A recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award, Anna is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, working with a global team across 8 countries and nearly as many time zones.

Mareike Britten is a passionate and creative social change strategy consultant who has worked over the last 20  years as campaigner, trainer and facilitator in the not for profit sector. She has been working with organizations all over the world ranging from small volunteer-led initiatives to international NGOs, foundations and networks. Before running her own company, she worked as Head of Global Campaign Coordination of Climate Action Network International and as Team Leader and Senior Climate & Energy Campaigner with Greenpeace’s 34 offices on effective global strategies to combat the climate crisis and change the energy system. Through her work in Europe, Africa and Asia she has gained a deep understanding of the interlinkages of social justice and environmental issues and built a strong international network of social change makers. Mareike specializes in co-creation and participatory methodologies to develop content and plans together as a group.

Precious  is a founding trustee and director of IGugu Trust, the Africa Coordinator for Regeneration International, an educator for Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and advisor/educator for the Land and Leadership Initiative, and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa. She spent nine years as theCoordinator of Training at the AfricaCentre for Holistic Management—the Savory hub in Zimbabwe—and is an accredited professional in Holistic Management by Savory Institute. She has more than 18 years of experience in programs curation, curriculum development, community organizing, facilitation, networking, land monitoring, and using the Holistic Management process to implement regenerative programs.

She contributes actively to many networks on the African continent; PELUM, Seed and Knowledge Initiative, and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). She is co-author of Whole Landscapes, Whole Communities in the Barefoot Guide Series, and

frequently contributes at conferences, bringing stories and issues of smallholder farmers to global platforms. 

Olivier De Schutter is co-chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), and is the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. He also served as UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food from 2008-14 and was elected to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 2014-20.

He is a professor at UCLouvain and at Sciences Po Paris, and has taught in the past at New York University, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University.

In 2013 he was awarded Belgium’s top scientific award, the Prix Francqui, for his contribution to the advancement of EU law, the theory of governance, and human rights law.

Million Belay is the coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty for Africa, a network of networks of major African networks. He is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Food System Sustainability (IPES-Food). Million is the founder of MELCA - Ethiopia, an indigenous NGO. Million has spent the last two decades working on issues such as intergenerational learning of bio-cultural diversity, agroecology, local communities' right to seed and food sovereignty, and forest issues. His focus is now on food sovereignty, agroecology, food system transformation. He holds a PhD in environmental learning, a MsC in tourism and conservation, and a BsC in biology.

Ms. Ma. Estrella Penunia, is Secretary General of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), with 24 national farmers organizations in 16 Asian countries, with around 13 million members, composed of women, men and young family farmers engaged in crops, livestock, fisheries, forestry, herding and pastoralism. AFA works for sustainable, biodiverse, resilient, inclusive, just, healthy and empowering food systems by promoting land rights, agroecology, cooperatives development, and the Agency of women, men and young family farmers through their organizations. 

Vijayan MJ is a Delhi-based research scholar and policy analyst. He has 25 years of experience in shaping the engagement & commitment of civic initiatives for peace, justice, environmental protection, and community rights through many projects and initiatives. Internationally, he has been a chief facilitator of hosting WFFP GA-7 (2017) and Indian Ocean tribunals (2020-21). He is one of the founding members of the Friends of the Earth India and is a lead network member and scholar with Carnegie Europe’s CRN - a global think tank on civil society. He represents the Pakistan-India Peoples' Forum for Peace & Democracy as General Secretary. He is an advisor to the National Fishworkers Forum, All India Union of Forest Working People, and The Research Collective. His current engagements include being a 1) facilitating director of the People's Commission and Public Inquiry Committees, which focuses on investigating the injustice faced by people since the beginning of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown with a special focus on truth, accountability, and justice 2) Director at PAR- Coalition- India, developing the concept around community-based participatory action research on coastal and marine issues and building the framework of Traditional Natural Resource-based communities in Asia.

Faustine Bas-Defossez is EEB’s Policy Director for Nature, Health and Environment where she leads a large policy portfolio of the organisation: namely biodiversity, water, soil; agriculture and food; chemicals; mercury and air quality and noise and she is part of the senior management team.

Between 2009 and 2018 she was leading the agriculture work of the EEB. Before re-joining the civil society movement, she spent 5 years in leading roles within the sustainability think tanks’ community, as Head of the agriculture and land management program first and then External Impact Director.

At the beginning of her career she also worked for the European Commission Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Faustine is French, has a master’s degree in International and European Law and holds a MSc in European politics from Science Po Strasbourg

Ruchi brings nearly 30 years of experience in international development, human rights, gender, and social justice. Her work spans Right to Food, Land Rights, gender-just agricultural policies, Farmers’ Rights within global trade frameworks, corporate accountability, and ecological and climate justice.

With a unique global perspective and deep respect for the lived realities of those most affected by climate change, gender injustice, marginalization, and hunger, Ruchi has lived and studied in India, the UK, the US, Japan, and South Africa. She is a grounded, strategic, and reflective leader who practices feminist leadership in both her personal and professional life.

Ruchi currently serves as Director, Climate and Nature, at the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, where she works with a strategic alliance of philanthropies to drive transformation toward more equitable and resilient food systems.

Previously, she was the Global Practice Lead for Resilient Livelihoods at VSO, focusing on youth and women’s empowerment through agroecology and green jobs. She has also held key leadership roles at ActionAid—Head of Right to Food, Head of Resilient Livelihoods and Climate Justice, and Head of Trade Justice Campaign—and at Concern Worldwide UK, where she led the successful Unheard Voices campaign centered on marginalized women farmers.

Ruchi serves on the board of ActionAid UK and previously sat on WWF UK’s programme committee. She currently lives in Kent, England, with her family and their dog.

Carlos A. Monteiro, MD, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of Nutrition and Public Health at the School of Public Health, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. His research lines include methods in population nutritional and dietary assessment, secular trends and biological and socioeconomic determinants of nutritional deficiencies and obesity and other nutrition-related chronic diseases, food processing in the food system and human health, and food and nutrition programs and policies evaluation. He has published numerous books and book chapters and more than 300 articles in scientific journals with more than 28,000 citations in Web of Sciences. He is Scientific Editor of the Brazilian Public Health Journal (Revista de Saude Publica) since 2004 and member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences since 2008. 

Susana Muhamad González, former president of COP16, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, is a Colombian politician, environmentalist, and political scientist of Palestinian descent, belonging to the Colombia Humana party. From August 7, 2022, to March 3, 2025, she served as Colombia's Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development.

Muhamad is a nationally, regionally, and internationally recognized environmentalist whose work focuses on developing actions to consolidate Colombia as a world leader in "Potencia Mundial de la Vida" (a global life power), fulfilling international agreements on climate change and biodiversity loss, working for the protection of environmental defenders, and combating deforestation in the Amazon region.

She has received national and international recognition for her leadership in environmental defense, including being named Woman of the Decade in Colombia by the Women Economic Forum, the first Colombian to be awarded the Global Leadership Award by Vital Voices Global Partnership, one of the 100 most important climate leaders in the world by TIME magazine, and one of the 25 leading women globally in the fight against climate change, among other accolades. Muhamad holds a degree in Political Science from the Universidad de los Andes (2002) and a master's degree in Management and Planning of Sustainable Development from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

She has served as Secretary of the Environment and Secretary General of the Mayor's Office of Bogotá. In 2019, she was elected councilor of the city, a position she held until the first half of 2022. In 2021, Muhamad was elected vice president of the national coordination board of the Colombia Humana party, after the political movement officially received its legal status. Under her leadership as Minister of Environment, Muhamad achieved the country's largest reduction in deforestation in the last 23 years, led the ratification of the Escazú Agreement, and created the Fund for Life and Biodiversity, an unprecedented mechanism that finances environmental projects. Furthermore, she brought, organized, and led the negotiations of COP16 in Colombia and its closing in Rome, Italy, achieving historic financing for the protection of biodiversity, the creation of the Cali Fund, and the subsidiary body for indigenous peoples and local communities.

Mareike Britten is a passionate and creative social change strategy consultant who has worked over the last 20  years as campaigner, trainer and facilitator in the not for profit sector. She has been working with organizations all over the world ranging from small volunteer-led initiatives to international NGOs, foundations and networks. Before running her own company, she worked as Head of Global Campaign Coordination of Climate Action Network International and as Team Leader and Senior Climate & Energy Campaigner with Greenpeace’s 34 offices on effective global strategies to combat the climate crisis and change the energy system. Through her work in Europe, Africa and Asia she has gained a deep understanding of the interlinkages of social justice and environmental issues and built a strong international network of social change makers. Mareike specializes in co-creation and participatory methodologies to develop content and plans together as a group.

Precious  is a founding trustee and director of IGugu Trust, the Africa Coordinator for Regeneration International, an educator for Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and advisor/educator for the Land and Leadership Initiative, and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa. She spent nine years as theCoordinator of Training at the AfricaCentre for Holistic Management—the Savory hub in Zimbabwe—and is an accredited professional in Holistic Management by Savory Institute. She has more than 18 years of experience in programs curation, curriculum development, community organizing, facilitation, networking, land monitoring, and using the Holistic Management process to implement regenerative programs.

She contributes actively to many networks on the African continent; PELUM, Seed and Knowledge Initiative, and the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). She is co-author of Whole Landscapes, Whole Communities in the Barefoot Guide Series, and

frequently contributes at conferences, bringing stories and issues of smallholder farmers to global platforms. 

Dr Rashid Sumaila is a University Killam Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Interdisciplinary Ocean and Fisheries Economics at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia. He specializes in bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, illegal fishing, climate change and oil spills. Sumaila is one of the most internationally recognized interdisciplinary ocean economists, and one of the world’s most innovative researchers on the future of the oceans, integrating the social, economic and fisheries sciences to build novel pathways towards sustainable ocean and fisheries. His awards include the 2025 King Charles Coronation Medal; 2023 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the SSHRC Impact Award and the 2017 Volvo Environment Prize. Essentially, the whole world is Sumaila’s work place. He was inducted into the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada in 2019, and named AAAS Fellow in 2023. Sumaila is a Board Member of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics, WorldFish Centre and Chairs the International Scientific Advisory Board of the World Bank Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience, University of Cape Coast. He is co-Editor in Chief of npj Ocean Sustainability and serves on several journal editorial boards including those of Science Advances, Environmental & Resource Economics and Marine Policy. Sumaila received his Ph.D. (Economics) from the University of Bergen and his B.Sc. (Quantity Surveying) from the Ahmadu Bello University.

Ana is a systems change manager with extensive experience in civil society and philanthropy. She has worked on a range of issues—including democracy, peacebuilding, migration, and climate change—across diverse geographies, with a strong commitment to centering justice and equity in social change processes.

At the Robert Bosch Foundation, she leads a portfolio on climate and land in Europe, focusing on strategic partnerships, network development, and collaborative initiatives across civil society, think tanks, and philanthropy.

Ana serves as co-chair of the European Funders for Sustainable Food and Agriculture (EFSAF) group within Philea (Philanthropy Europe Association) and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.

As Director General, Milka leads EPHA in improving health and strengthening the voice of public health in Europe. Previously, she was Head of Science at the European Food Information Council and Director of the Advanced Programme of the European Nutrition Leadership Platform.

She started her academic career at the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering in Belgrade, before moving to the University of Amsterdam, where she worked as a researcher in nutrigenomics, and lecturer in biochemistry, DNA technology, metabolism and genomics.

Milka holds a degree in Biology from the University of Belgrade and a PhD in Medicine from the University of Amsterdam.

Dr. Mwatima Juma – Champion of Organic Agriculture and Sustainable Development is a leading rural development specialist, dedicated advocate for organic agriculture, and a prominent figure in sustainable farming initiatives in Tanzania and beyond. Based in Zanzibar, she serves as the Chairperson of the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement (TOAM), where she provides strategic guidance to promote organic farming—known as Kilimohai in Swahili. In this role, she oversees the organization’s finance, programs, and strategic direction, while actively advocating for organic agriculture on national and international platforms.

Beyond TOAM, Dr. Juma is the Board Chair of the Practical Permaculture Institute of Zanzibar (PPIZ), where she works to bridge knowledge gaps in regenerative and sustainable production systems. She is particularly passionate about addressing climate change challenges and ensuring that youth engage in agriculture across the entire value chain.

With a distinguished career spanning multiple leadership roles, Dr. Juma has served as a Senior Country Programme Officer for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Tanzania, Commissioner for Research and Extension in Zanzibar’s Ministry of Agriculture, and a Board Member of IFOAM - Organics International. Her extensive expertise in agronomy, rural development, and organic farming has made her a key influencer in shaping sustainable agricultural policies.

Carolina leads the Brazil Initiative at the Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) and the Forests, People, Climate Strategy in Brazil. She brings deep expertise in developing and implementing strategies to mitigate climate change, with 20 years of experience working on environmental issues in Brazil.

Most recently, Carolina served as the Climate Director at WRI Brasil, where she led a program offering research-based pathways to advance a just transition to a low-carbon economy in the Amazon region and across Brazil. Her philanthropic work includes developing and implementing Porticus Latin America’s sustainability portfolio in Brazil and the Amazon biome.

Carolina holds a Master’s in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in Social Communication from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

Passionate about connecting people with diverse perspectives to collaboratively explore climate solutions, Carolina is also a mother of two sons — a role that fuels her commitment to protecting the planet for future generations.

A systems thinker, skilled facilitator, and practical problem-solver, Lauren has worked for over 20 years in non-profit, government, academic, business, and philanthropic contexts. With Global Alliance members and partners, Lauren leads the program strategy and supports diverse organizations and initiatives including the True Cost Accounting Accelerator, Transformational Investing in Food Systems, and the Agroecology Coalition, to address global challenges related to climate, biodiversity, food security, and equity.

Previously, Lauren led the Toronto Food Policy Council, a citizen advisory group embedded within the City of Toronto’s Public Health Division and was Founding Director of Sustain Ontario — the Alliance for Healthy Food and Farming. She has started two businesses, Annex Organics and Urban Harvest. With a PhD in Environmental Studies focused on biodiversity/biotechnology debates and food policy in Mexico, Lauren taught at the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University.

Solomé Lemma (she/her/hers) is the President and CEO of Thousand Currents. Born in Ethiopia, Solomé saw at an early age the harmful effects of top down, paternalistic development. She has since dedicated her work to championing community-owned and -led social transformation. Previously, Solomé has worked with Africans in the Diaspora (AiD), Global Fund for Children, and Human Rights Watch in New York City. She received a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor’s in International Relations from Stanford University. Her work and writing has been featured in Forbes, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Inside Philanthropy, among others, and she has appeared on NPR, BBC, and Al Jazeera. She serves as a guest speaker at community events, conferences, and universities and sits on the Board of Trustees of Panta Rhea Foundation.

Trees Robijns is a.i. Director for the Land Use Programme based in the ECF’s Berlin office. In this role, she focuses on moving forward ECF’s portfolio on Land Use, Food and Nature. More specifically, she’s coordinating the grantmaking around the reduction of emissions from agricultural consumption and production as well as the promotion of the links between climate and nature.

Prior to joining the ECF, Trees worked for the NGOs NABU (Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union based in Germany), BirdLife Europe, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Throughout this time, she focused on a variety of policy topics related to agriculture, food, nature, climate and energy.

Trees graduated in Political Sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and has an MA in International Relations and International Economics from The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Italy and the USA.

Trees, who speaks Dutch, English, German and French, has a passion for politics and how it influences our society and the planet we live on.

Mr. Sena ALOUKA, has been at the forefront of the global environmental justice since 1999, after his graduation in Social science at the Togo University and later a Master in Social entrepreneurship from Ashoka University.  Activist, awarded environmental journalist and Ashoka Fellow, he founded several groups namely the NGO Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement (Young Volunteers for the Environment), known as the largest youth environmental organization in Africa. He coordinates food, climate and clean cooking programs in 30 countries in Africa.  He serves as CAN International Energy Working Group Facilitator and AFSA climate group Chairs. He supported the Global Alliance for the Future of food as the Food Fellows Cohort as Regional Coordinator.  After several years of service to the Togo delegation, he has been appointed by the Togo government as country negotiator on agriculture in the UNFCCC. 

Camila Jericó Daminello is the Lead for the Regenerative Agriculture challenge/portfolio at Porticus Foundation, overseeing the work globally, that support the transition to regenerative agriculture through policy influence, movement building, and catalytic funding. Camila began her career at Porticus, developing and leading programmes focused on the nexus between agriculture and conservation in Latin America. Previously, Camila served as the Programmes Coordinator and later Executive Director of the Conservation Strategy Fund office in Brazil. She led numerous analyses and project developments across Latin America, Europe, and Africa, addressing traditional peoples' livelihoods and rights, economic analysis for infrastructure development and nature protection, policy and decision-making, climate adaptation, and food systems resilience. Camila also has extensive experience as an independent consultant and applied researcher, working with organizations and research institutes in Brazil, Germany, Sweden, and Costa Rica. She holds a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, a master's degree in environmental sciences from São Paulo University and the ZALF Institute, and an MBA in people management from São Paulo University.

The Global Alliance is a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations working for food system transformation around the world. For more than a decade, the Global Alliance has been at the forefront of organizing philanthropy to work together for a transition to food systems grounded in the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, interconnectedness, health, renewability, and resilience. At the Global Alliance, Anna builds on this legacy, in partnerships inside and outside philanthropy, to support the urgent transition to food systems that work for people and planet. Before joining the Global Alliance in July 2023, Anna had worked for more than twenty-five years as an internationally renowned advocate and author on food, farming, and sustainability. The founder or co-founder of three U.S.-based organizations, including Real Food Media, a communications strategy nonprofit, and the Small Planet Fund, which supports food and farming advocacy movements worldwide, Anna is the author or co-author of three books, including the national bestseller, Hope’s Edge and the critically acclaimed Diet for a Hot Planet. She has served as an advisor to countless food and farm advocacy efforts and is a board member of Rainforest Action Network and Steering Committee member of the Castanea Fellowship. A frequent public speaker, Anna’s TEDx talks and her Food MythBuster videos have been viewed millions of times. A recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award, Anna is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, working with a global team across 8 countries and nearly as many time zones.

Andre Degenszajn is the Executive Director of Instituto Ibirapitanga, a foundation created in 2017 by Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles. He was Secretary-General of GIFE, the Brazilian association of foundations, from 2013 to 2017. He has a Masters in International Relations from the Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and was a professor of International Relations from 2007 to 2011. He is a founding member of Conectas Human Rights, where he currently serves at the board. He is also a board member of Instituto Floresta Viva and a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.