David Kraybill specializes in economic development and is a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at Ohio State University. Presently he is the project director for the... more USAID-sponsored Innovative Agricultural Research Initiative (iAGRI) based at Sokoine University, Morogoro, Tanzania, a program which strengthens training and collaborative research capacities of the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and the Tanzanian National Agriculture Research System (NARS). Kraybill is the recipient of the International Award of Merit from the Gamma Sigma Delta agriculture honor society and has served as consultant advisor to the World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, Southeast Consortium for International Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and numerous governments and other organizations. less

Kurt Richter is Associate Director for Technical Assistance and Special Initiatives in the Office of International Research, Education and Development at Virginia Tech. He is currently a lead advisor on the USAID-funded... more agriculture education program, innovATE (Innovation in Agricultural Training and Education). This initiative is a partnership with Pennsylania State University, Tuskegee University and University of Florida which seeks to assist schools in the developing world improve their curriculum and strengthen administrative capacity in the agriculture sector. Richter has nearly 20 years of international education and development experience and has served as Team Leader and Chief of Party for USAID food aid projects in Guatemala and Colombia, respectively. He has also provided long-term leadership to USAID projects in the Republic of Georgia and Afghanistan and short-term technical assistance in numerous other countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. less

Clara Cohen joined USAID's Bureau for Food Security, Office of Agricultural Research and Policy, in 2011. She leads Office activities focusing on human and institutional capacity development and has contributed to the design and... more launch of several new programs emphasizing research and education system strengthening. Previously, she worked as a Research Scholar for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Health and Global Change Unit, in Vienna, Austria, and at the US National Academy of Sciences, where she designed and implemented the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded African Science Academy Development Initiative, a 10-year effort to strengthen the capability of African science academies to inform national health policy. She also directed studies on agricultural research, including a Congressionally mandated review of the four research agencies under USDA's Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area (ERS, ARS, CSREES, and NASS). She served as an AAAS Diplomacy Fellow in USAID's Center for Economic Growth and Agricultural Development from 1998–2000. Clara conducted research on leguminous cover crops at the Rodale Institute Research Center in 1991 and served as a Peace Corps aquaculture volunteer in Guatemala from 1988–1990. She holds a BA in biology from Swarthmore College and a PhD in plant physiology and molecular biology from Cornell University. less