Task Force

Patrick Stover, Ph.D., is the Director of the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture (IHA).  The IHA is the world’s first research institute to bring together precision nutrition, responsive agriculture, and behavioral research to reduce diet-related chronic disease in a way that considers environmental and economic effects. Supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS) and the state of Texas, the institute includes an embedded USDA-ARS unit. Dr. Stover has over 23 years of academic leadership experience, serving as Vice Chancellor and Dean for agriculture and life sciences at Texas A&M AgriLife, director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, and Director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. As an international leader in biochemistry, agriculture and nutrition, Stover’s research focuses on the biochemical, genetic, and epigenetic mechanisms that underlie the relationships among nutrition, food fortification, and human pathologies such as developmental anomalies, neuropathies, and cancer. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is former President of the American Society for Nutrition and has served two terms on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board. He received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton, the government’s highest honor bestowed on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. Dr. Stover received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Saint Joseph’s University, his doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from the Medical College of Virginia and completed his postdoctoral studies in nutritional sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

Regan Bailey is the Associate Director of Precision Nutrition for the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture and a Professor of Nutrition at Texas A&M University.  She previously served as a Professor of Nutrition Science at Purdue University, and as a nutritional epidemiologist and director of career development at the National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. Her research focuses on improving the methods of measuring nutritional status to optimize health. Together with her team, she developed the first models combining nutrients from foods and dietary supplements to estimate total usual dietary intakes and her work was used to inform the calcium and vitamin D Dietary Reference Intakes, and the National Academy reference values. Dr. Bailey served on the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and as chair of the Data Analysis and Food Pattern Modeling Subcommittee and was a member of the 2021 Committee on Scanning for New Evidence on Riboflavin to Support a Dietary Reference Intake Review for the National Academy of Medicine. She recently was appointed to serve on the American Heart Association’s Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Nutrition Committee.Dr. Bailey is a registered dietitian who completed a dietetic internship and has a master’s degree in food and nutrition from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bailey received her doctorate in nutrition science from Pennsylvania State University and completed a Master of Public Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Catherine Bertini is a Distinguished Fellow of Global Food and Agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. An accomplished leader in international organization reform and a powerful advocate for women and girls, Catherine Bertini has a distinguished career improving the efficiency and operations of organizations serving people suffering from hunger in the United States and around the world. For 10 years, she was an Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, the world’s largest international humanitarian agency, where she became the 2003 World Food Prize laureate for her groundbreaking leadership. She has over twenty-five years of experience in the private sector, thirteen years as a university professor, served as the UN Under Secretary General for Management and the UN Security Coordinator, led the US domestic nutrition programs as USDA Assistant Secretary for food and consumer services, and was a Senior Fellow on the first agriculture team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has been honored by twelve universities in four countries with honorary degrees by the Republics of Italy and Ireland.

Daniel Gustafson is the Special Representative of the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization. Prior to this role, he was FAO Deputy Director-General from 2012-2020. He began his career in Brazil working for a decade with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, FAO. In 1994, first working within the Ministry of Agriculture in Mozambique, and subsequently as FAO Country Representative in Kenya, Somalia, India, and Bhutan. In 2007, he was appointed Director of FAO’s Liaison Office for North America, based in Washington D.C., and then moved to FAO headquarters. Dr. Gustafson has over 45 years of international experience working on approaches linking science and policy for food and nutrition security, sustainable agricultural transformation, and capacity development. Dr. Gustafson holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Extension from the University of Maryland, a Master of Sciences in Agricultural Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics and International Relations from the University of Wisconsin. In 2015, he was conferred a Ph.D. Honoris Causa by the Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) in India.

Scott Hutchins served as Deputy Undersecretary for the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Research, Education, and Economics mission area in the previous administration. There, he led agencies focused on advancing agricultural research, extension, and education across every USDA department through the creation of a US Agriculture Innovation Strategy and USDA Science Blueprint. Previously, Dr. Hutchins retired from CortevaAgriScience (previously Dow AgroSciences) after almost 32 years, where he held many roles in program management, human resources, Six Sigma, R&D portfolio management, and administration (including as Global Leader of R&D). He is a board-certified entomologist, Adjunct Professor of Entomology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and past President of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), where he also was elected a Fellow and Honorary Member. Dr. Hutchins received a B.S. in entomology from Auburn University, a M.S. in entomology from Mississippi State University, and a Ph.D. in entomology from Iowa State University.

A.G. Kawamura is Founding Co-Chair for Solutions from the Land, a nationally recognized non-profit that is developing innovative and sustainable climate smart collaborations for 21^st century agriculture. For over 40 years, Kawamura has pursued a lifelong goal to work towards an end to hunger and malnutrition. He has worked closely with regional good banks and stakeholders to create exciting urban ag projects that focus on nutrition, hunger, education, and advanced food systems. As a progressive farmer, Kawamura has a lifetime of experience working within the shrinking rural and urban boundaries of Southern California. From 2003 to 2010, he served as the Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He serves on multiple boards and advisory committees including the Farm Foundation Board; Western Growers Board and former Chair; Ag Advisory Committee for the Chicago Council; Bipartisan Policy Center, Ag & Forestry task force; and Advisory Council for Honor the Harvest. Kawamura graduated with a BA from UC Berkeley and was a Class 20 Fellow of the California Agricultural Leadership Program.

Elizabeth Parker is the Interim Associate Director for Responsive Agriculture for the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture and the Associate Director for International Programs and Strategic Decisions for Texas A&M. Her work has included overseeing strategic and financial planning, statewide research infrastructure, investments in research and intellectual property and commercialization. Previously she also served as the Chief Veterinarian for the Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases (IIAD).  An experienced professional with expertise in policy, science and technology issues and strategy development, she has spent most of her career in agricultural policy while working for the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, a major U.S. livestock trade association, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and academic settings. Dr. Parker holds a degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and two Bachelors of Science degrees in biomedical science and veterinary science, all from Texas A&M. 

Eduardo Sanchez serves as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Prevention for the American Heart Association (AHA). He is the Principal Investigator of the National Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI) and one of the authors of the AHA Presidential Advisory on Structural Racism and its health effects. Prior to joining AHA, he served as the Vice President and CMO for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) where he focused on clinical prevention and chronic disease management of diabetes, in particular and cardiovascular diseases, health disparities, and worker and wellsite wellness. Dr. Sanchez currently serves on the Board of Directors of Trust for America’s Health, Public Health Foundation and other boards and committees at the local, state, and national levels. From 2001 to 2006, he served as Texas’ commissioner of health, as head of the Texas Department of Health from 2001 to 2004 and then head of the Texas Department of State Health Services from 2004 to 2006.   Dr. Sanchez obtained his M.D. from the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, an M.P.H. from the UT Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Duke University, and a B.S. in biomedical engineering and a B.A. in chemistry from Boston University.

Rebecca Seguin-Fowler is Associate Director for the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture. She is also Chief Scientific Officer for Healthy Texas, Professor in the Department of Nutrition in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, and graduate faculty in the Department of Health Promotion and Community Health Sciences at the School of Public Health. Dr. Seguin-Fowler has led widely disseminated dietary and physical activity interventions, innovative food systems intervention projects, and a variety of adapted evidence-based programs for at-risk populations.  Her current research focuses on understanding how people’s social, food, and physical activity environments influence behavior change and maintenance—particularly in at-risk populations and settings, such as low-income families and rural communities. She has received numerous awards throughout her career, including the Mead Johnson Award from the American Society for Nutrition, Excellence in Nutrition Alumni Award from the Tufts Friedman School, Excellence Award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions, and a Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. A registered dietician, Dr. Seguin-Fowler received her bachelor’s degree in clinical exercise physiology from Boston University and a master’s degree in nutrition communication and a doctorate in food policy and applied nutrition from Tufts University.

Pamela Starke-Reed is the Deputy Administrator for Nutrition, Food Safety, and Quality at the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Dr. Starke-Reed also serves as the ethics officer and scientific integrity officer for ARS. Prior to ARS, she served at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as deputy director of the Division of Nutrition Research Coordination and coordinated the ongoing nutritional sciences, obesity, and physical activity research at NIH. Her previous positions include 10 years with the NIH National Institute on Aging as director of the Office of Nutrition and program director for the Nutrition and Metabolism and Protein Structure and Function Research Programs. She also worked as a biologist with the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and assistant professor with the Department of Medicine at George Washington University in Washington DC. Dr. Starke-Reed is well known throughout the human nutrition community for her development and oversight of research to attain a more comprehensive understanding of how we interact with food, what factors influence our food choices, and how our dietary choices, genetics, and environment lead to specific health-related outcomes. In Dr. Starke-Reed is Co-Executive Secretary for the (ICHNR) chaired by the REE Undersecretary/CS USDA and the Assistant Secretary of Health at HHS. Dr. Starke-Reed earned her B.S. in Biology at St Lawrence University in Canton, NY and her Ph.D. in Pathology at Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Bernhard van Lengerichis Founder and CEO of Food System Strategies LLC, a strategic advisory firm, and Seeding the Future Foundation, a private foundation focusing on equitable and sustainable food systems to enable a safe and nutritious food supply, including the Seeding The Future Global Food System Challenge. He formerly served as Chief Science Officer and VP Strategic Technology Development at General Mills, responsible for science and technology development across the company and leading to major new product innovations and significant supply chain productivity benefits. Dr. van Lengerich studied Cereal Technology at the German Federal Institute for Cereal and Potato Research, and Food & Biotechnology at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. He held leadership positions at stellar companies in the US and Europe including Unilever, Nabisco and Buhler. He is the inventor or co-inventor of over 150 patents, holds a Honorarium Professorship at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, is adjunct faculty at Purdue University and a Fellow of the Institute of Food Technologists in Chicago. Dr. Van Lengerich has been an invited participant in discussions at the White House Office for Science and Technology Policy on global protein security. He currently serves as board member of the German Institute of Food Technology (DIL) and serves on advisory boards of several for profit and non-profit organizations in North America and Europe.

Peggy Tsai Yih is the Managing Director of the Center on Global Food and Agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.  Since joining the Council in 2020, she has managed the Center’s evidence-based research and analyses and advocacy efforts in global food and nutrition security.  Previously, she served in various capacities at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC for nearly 15 years.  As a senior program officer with the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources at the National Academies, Peggy worked with the nation’s foremost experts to provide research, analysis, and policy advice on complex challenges in food and agriculture. Peggy has a MA in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from George Washington University, and a BS in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles.