Departmental Affiliations
School of Advanced International Studies
Primary
Research Interests
agriculture; food systems; diets; nutrition; climate change; ecosystems; rural development; international development
Additional Links
Experiences & Accomplishments
Education
PhD
University of Arizona
2000
MS
University of Arizona
1996
BS
University of Arizona
1994
Overview
Jessica Fanzo, Ph.D. is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food and Agriculture Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University in the USA. She also serves as the Director of Hopkins’ Global Food Policy and Ethics Program.
From 2017 to 2019, Jessica served as the Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report and the UN High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Systems and Nutrition. Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Jessica was an Assistant Professor of Nutrition in the Institute of Human Nutrition and Department of Pediatrics as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of International Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York. She also served as the Senior Advisor of Nutrition Policy at the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development. Before joining Columbia University, Jessica was the Evaluation and Monitoring Officer for the REACH Interagency partnership at the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome Italy. From 2010-11, Jessica was a Senior Scientist at Bioversity International, a Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) center, in Rome Italy, where she led their Nutrition and Biodiversity program. From 2007-2010, she served as the Nutrition Director at the Center for Global Health and Economic Development at the Earth Institute, and the Nutrition Regional Advisor for East and Southern Africa at the Millennium Development Goal Centre at the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya. Prior to joining the Earth Institute, she was a Program Officer for the Medical Research Program focusing on global health initiatives at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Jessica has worked as an advisor, consultant, researcher and reviewer for various organizations and governments including DFAT, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), PATH, the Scaling Up Nutrition movement (SUN), the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), USAID, WFP, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
With fifteen plus years of research and program experience working in the field in sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, her area of expertise focuses on the multi-sectoral and system approaches to ensure better nutrition and diets concentrated in three areas: (1) on the linkages between agriculture, the environment and climate, and health to improve food systems and environments, diversity and quality of diets and nutrition outcomes (2) the importance of regaining food security and agriculture-based livelihoods in post-conflict regions through better governance and food policy and, (3) the emerging area of equitable, ethical, and sustainable diets and food systems.
Jessica has a PhD in Nutrition from the University of Arizona and completed a Stephen I. Morse postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Columbia University.
From 2017 to 2019, Jessica served as the Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report and the UN High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Systems and Nutrition. Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Jessica was an Assistant Professor of Nutrition in the Institute of Human Nutrition and Department of Pediatrics as well as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of International Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York. She also served as the Senior Advisor of Nutrition Policy at the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development. Before joining Columbia University, Jessica was the Evaluation and Monitoring Officer for the REACH Interagency partnership at the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome Italy. From 2010-11, Jessica was a Senior Scientist at Bioversity International, a Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) center, in Rome Italy, where she led their Nutrition and Biodiversity program. From 2007-2010, she served as the Nutrition Director at the Center for Global Health and Economic Development at the Earth Institute, and the Nutrition Regional Advisor for East and Southern Africa at the Millennium Development Goal Centre at the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya. Prior to joining the Earth Institute, she was a Program Officer for the Medical Research Program focusing on global health initiatives at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Jessica has worked as an advisor, consultant, researcher and reviewer for various organizations and governments including DFAT, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), PATH, the Scaling Up Nutrition movement (SUN), the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), USAID, WFP, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
With fifteen plus years of research and program experience working in the field in sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, her area of expertise focuses on the multi-sectoral and system approaches to ensure better nutrition and diets concentrated in three areas: (1) on the linkages between agriculture, the environment and climate, and health to improve food systems and environments, diversity and quality of diets and nutrition outcomes (2) the importance of regaining food security and agriculture-based livelihoods in post-conflict regions through better governance and food policy and, (3) the emerging area of equitable, ethical, and sustainable diets and food systems.
Jessica has a PhD in Nutrition from the University of Arizona and completed a Stephen I. Morse postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Columbia University.
Honors & Awards
Jessica was the first laureate of the Carasso Foundation’s Sustainable Diets Prize in 2012 for her research on sustainable food and diets for long-term human health.
Select Publications
Selected publications over the last five years.
- Fanzo, J., Bellows, A. L., Spiker, M. L., Thorne-Lyman, A. L., & Bloem, M. W. (2021). The importance of food systems and the environment for nutrition. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 113(1), 7-16.
- Willett, W, Rockstrom, J, Loken, B, Springmann, M, Lang, T, Vermeulen, S, Garnett, T, Tilman, D, DeClerk, F, Wood, A, Jonell, M, Clark, M, Gordon, L, Fanzo, J, Hawkes, C, Zurayk, R, Rivera, J, De Vries, W, Sibanda, L, Afshin, A, Chaudhary, A, Herrero, M, Agustina, R, Branca, F, Lartey, A, Fan, S, Crona, B, Fox, E, Bignet, V, Troell, M, Lindahl, T, Singh, S, Cornell, S, Reddy, S, Narain, S, Nishtar, S and Murray, C. (2019). Our Food in the Anthropocene: The EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems. The Lancet. 1-47.
- Fanzo, J., Haddad, L., McLaren, R., Marshall, Q., Davis, C., Herforth, A., ... & Kapuria, A. (2020). The Food Systems Dashboard is a new tool to inform better food policy. Nature Food, 1(5), 243-246.
- Fanzo, J., Covic, N., Dobermann, A., Henson, S., Herrero, M., Pingali, P. and Staal, S., 2020. A research vision for food systems in the 2020s: defying the status quo. Global food security, 26, p.100397.
- Fanzo, J., Shawar, Y. R., Shyam, T., Das, S., & Shiffman, J. (2021). Challenges to establish effective public-private partnerships to address malnutrition in all its forms. International Journal of Health Policy and Management.
Projects
Water and Food Conflict for Kenya Pastoralists Facing Climate Change