02/25/2010
Catherine Bertini, considered by many to be the driving force behind reform of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) as the chief executive from 1992-2002, will speak on Monday, March 1, at SUNY Cortland.
Bertini, a professor of public administration at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs since 2005, will discuss “Educating Girls: The Most Powerful Tool for Worldwide Development” from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in Brockway Hall, Jacobus Lounge. A reception will follow the talk.
Her talk begins Women’s History Month at SUNY Cortland, which offers a series of films, speakers, workshops and other events through March 31. Presented by the Women’s Studies Committee and the Center for Gender and Intercultural Studies, the events are free and open to the public.
Bertini of Cortland, N.Y., teaches courses in Humanitarian Action, U.N. Management, and Girls’ Education and draws upon her vast experience gained during years of leadership in public sector management, international organizations, humanitarian relief and nutrition policy.
Her career spans public service at international, national, state, and local levels and includes private sector and foundation experience. During Bertini’s U.N. tenure, the WFP’s institutional changes in the area of efficiency, effectiveness and accountability were cited as a model of U.N. reform by the 36-government WFP Executive Board and the U.S. government. In 2001, more than 8,000 WFP staff members provided food aid to 77 million people in 82 countries.
A graduate of SUNY Albany, N.Y., Bertini was honored by SUNY with a 1999 honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at SUNY Cortland’s undergraduate Commencement ceremony. She has received nine other honorary degrees from North American and European institutions of higher learning. Bertini was chosen as the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate and received the 2007 Gene White Lifetime Achievement Award for Child Nutrition.
A founding board member of the Global Humanitarian Forum, she serves on the boards of International Food and Agricultural Development and the Stuart Family Foundation. She has been a juror for the Hilton Foundation Humanitarian Prize, a member of the Advisory Council at Rockefeller College on Public Affairs and Policy, and a member of the Advisory Council at William Jefferson Clinton School of Public Service.
Bertini served as a Senior Fellow in Agricultural Development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There, she advised on the development of the foundation’s new agricultural portfolio, which strives to improve the well-being of poor farmers in Africa and South Asia. Currently, she co-chairs the Initiative on Global Agriculture Development Project for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from SUNY Albany.
For more information, contact Women’s Studies Coordinator Caroline Kaltefleiter at (607) 753-4203.