Virtual learning event | Crisis on our plates: How climate change is impacting nutrition and food security

Climate change is no longer a distant threat. It's transforming our food systems and exacerbating global health challenges. Join us for this engaging learning event on the nutrition-climate nexus to understand how climate change impacts nutrition, from reducing food availability to changing the concentration of essential micronutrients in our crops.  

Dive into the evolving field by engaging with USAID nutrition and climate experts and learn about evidence-based strategies and practical examples from USAID activities in East and West Africa that are strengthening food systems to provide safe, nutritious diets to a growing population while reducing the carbon footprint of food systems.  

Join us in shaping a sustainable future where nutrition and climate resilience go hand in hand. 

Watch the recording!

Panelists

Dr. Patrick Webb, Chief Nutritionist, USAID  

Dr. Webb is one of the world’s most influential voices working at the intersection of food policy, climate change, and nutrition, as well as on emergency humanitarian assistance. Dr. Webb most recently held the prestigious endowed McFarlane Chair in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. His research has involved humanitarian policy and practice, development policy, micronutrient deficiencies, food system transformation, aflatoxins and food safety, and nutrition in all its forms.  He has extensive experience working in developing countries and lived for nine years in Ethiopia, Niger and The Gambia. 

Throughout his career, Dr. Webb has provided thought leadership globally on scientific policy and strategy issues. He led the USAID review of food aid quality from 2009 to 2021 and has been the Director for Feed the Future’s Nutrition Innovation Lab and the subsequent Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab. From 2003 to 2005, he was Chief of Nutrition for the UN’s World Food Program (WFP), responsible for strategic oversight of, and technical input to, WFP's many activities focused on tackling malnutrition. He was a member of the Maternal and Child Nutrition Study Group that oversaw the 2013 Lancet Series on nutrition, considered the authoritative analysis for promoting nutrition. His position on the steering committee of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the World Committee on Food Security (CFS) was recently renewed for a second term. He is one of 24 commissioners for EAT-Lancet 2.0 and is involved in the Food Systems Countdown to 2030 Initiative. Previously, he was a member of the Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) and played a role in the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Food and Agriculture. 

Dr. Webb has authored over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as multiple books and book chapters. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1981 and is currently a Scientist Member of the American Society for Nutrition.  

Megan Kyles, Office Director, Economic Growth, USAID/Liberia

Megan Kyles joined USAID in 2010 and has since served as an Agriculture or General Development Officer in Peru, Niger, Senegal, and Ethiopia. Currently she serves as the Economic Growth Office Director at USAID/Liberia. She has a master’s degree in International Agricultural Development from the University of California - Davis and a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Environmental Policy from Boston University. Before working for USAID, she worked in early childhood and bilingual primary education for 10 years. She discovered her love of international development as a youth volunteer implementing community sanitation projects in Honduras, Costa Rica, and Paraguay for an NGO called Amigos de las Americas. 

Frehiwot Megersa, Senior Food Environment Manager, Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture Activity   

Frehiwot Megersa is a market and food systems development professional with over 14 years of experience; she spent 12 of those years in various managerial and technical leadership roles on food system programs donated by different donors. 

Ms. Megersa holds an MS in Agricultural Information Communication Management, a BS in Cooperative Business Management, and certificates in nutrition-sanative agriculture, food safety and quality, entrepreneurship, and small business management. 

Currently, she is the Senior Food Environment Manager on the USAID Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture Activity, based in Ethiopia, and she is responsible for leading the development of local food systems approaches and programs that result in more resilient food systems that work for people. She manages the food environment practice and collaborates closely with our practice leaders in agriculture, as well as regional directors, program development managers, and project teams. 

Tracy Mitchell, Director, Resilience and Climate Adaptation, RTI International   

Tracy Mitchell is a resilience expert focused on climate adaptation and food security. She has more than 25 years of experience in international development, having served as Chief of Party and provided technical assistance to USAID- and USDA-funded economic growth and poverty-reduction development programs in Africa and the former Soviet Union. Currently, Ms. Mitchell leads RTI’s resilience practice in the International Development Group’s Agriculture, Water and Environment division where she focuses on building resilience to climate change. Ms. Mitchell also leads RTI initiatives that identify new ways to achieve and measure systemic resilience, for example of livestock and crop market systems and nutritious food systems. She bolsters resilience programming in current projects, incorporates resilience in the design of new projects, and provides thought leadership that integrates resilience across RTI’s divisions. 

Ms. Mitchell joined RTI in 2019 from DAI, where she helped develop the institutional architecture for resilience for the South Sudan USAID Mission and supported programs in crop and livestock value chains. Prior to joining DAI, Tracy was the Chief of Party for a large USAID Food for Peace program in Karamoja, Uganda. Her background also includes positions and consulting roles with Mercy Corps and CNFA, as well as international and domestic work in economic growth, agricultural production, and business development. Tracy started her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia. She continues to live on her family farm in southwest Virginia. 

Moderator  

Meghan Anson, Senior Food Security and Nutrition Advisor, RTI International 

Meghan Anson is a Senior Food Security and Nutrition Advisor with RTI International. She has over 13 years of experience providing multi-sectoral nutrition thought leadership and technical assistance to food security and agriculture programs to improve diet and nutrition outcomes for women and children in low- and middle-income countries.  

 Meghan joined RTI from USAID’s Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security where she worked as a Senior Nutrition Advisor. In this role, she provided technical expertise to USAID Missions on the design and management of Feed the Future (FTF) investments to improve safe and nutritious diets through food systems. She also managed several USAID investments, including the FTF Food Systems for Nutrition Innovation Lab, and worked closely with the Bureaus for Global Health and Humanitarian Assistance to advance USAID’s multi-sectoral nutrition agenda. 

Meghan holds an MA in International Studies and Humanitarian Assistance from the University of Denver and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Delivery Science for International Nutrition from Tufts University.