Hunger advocate, former U.S. ambassador Ertharin Cousin to speak at Bridgewater

Hunger humanitarian Ertharin Cousin will present an Endowed Lecture at Bridgewater College on March 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Cole Hall.

She will speak on her humanitarian work and the challenges of hunger, both acute and chronic around the world.

Cousin, the Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, has more than 30 years of national and international leadership experience focusing on food, hunger, humanitarian operations, political organizing, community development and resilience strategies. From 2009 until 2017 she was executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian organization serving 80 million beneficiaries in 75 countries.

In 2009, Cousin was confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome. She served as the U.S. Representative for all food-, agriculture- and nutrition-related issues and helped identify and catalyze U.S. government investment in food security and nutrition activities supported by the USAID Feed the Future program.

Prior to her global hunger work, Cousin helped lead the U.S. domestic fight to end hunger while serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of America’s Second Harvest, which is now Feeding America. Previously, Cousin served as Senior Vice President for Albertson’s Foods. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Georgia Law School and the University of Chicago Executive Management Finance for Non-Financial Executives program.

The endowed lecture is sponsored by the Anna B. Mow Symposium on Comparative Religious Ethics and the Harry W. and Ina Mason Shank Peace Studies Endowment, and co-presented by BC’s Office for Community Engagement and Sustainability. The format for the event will be a traditional lecture with a Q&A. The event is free and open to the public.

Founded in 1880, Bridgewater College is a private, four-year liberal arts college in the Central Shenandoah Valley. Bridgewater College is home to approximately 1,450 students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergraduate majors and minors and four graduate programs housed within three distinct schools.