Ann M. Steensland, deputy director for the Global Harvest Initiative (GHI), will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Sixth Annual International Agriculture Day reception. The event will be held from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, at the Georgia Museum of Art. Hosted by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Office of Global Programs, the talk and reception are free and open to the public.

Steensland’s talk is titled, “Building Sustainable Breadbaskets: The Time is Now!” and draws on her efforts as the leader for GHI’s policy work on agricultural development and nutrition. In this role, she served as a representative at the negotiations for the Second International Conference on Nutrition, co-sponsored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization. Steensland is also a co-author of the 2015 Global Agricultural Productivity Report, in which she wrote about agricultural productivity in Zambia.

Global Harvest Initiative is a private-sector advocacy group that promotes policies geared toward sustainably improving food security and nearly doubling the output of food, feed, fuel and fiber by 2050. GHI member companies include DuPont Pioneer, Elanco Animal Health, John Deere, Monsanto Company, The Mosaic Company, Novozymes and Farmland Partners. GHI’s efforts emphasize agriculture's role in conserving natural resources; adapting to and mitigating climate change; and improving people's livelihoods, nutrition and living conditions.

Prior to joining GHI, Steensland served for four years as chief of staff of the Alliance to End Hunger, a coalition of more than 90 organizations, companies, universities and nongovernmental organizations working to build the public and political will to end hunger. While at the Alliance to End Hunger, she helped establish the National Alliance Partnership Program, a capacity-building initiative to end hunger and malnutrition by strengthening civil society around the world. Throughout her career, Steensland has also worked with a variety of U.S. and global nonprofit organizations focusing on issues including hunger and malnutrition, affordable housing and the performing arts.

Steensland earned her master's degree in African history from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She was awarded the Lawrence Levine Prize for her thesis exploring socio-economic and environmental dimensions of rural poverty in early 20th-century South Africa. She also holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.

In addition to Steensland’s keynote address, UGA’s International Agriculture Day reception will include presentations by International Agriculture Certificate students about their international internship experiences as well as scholarship presentations, recognition of graduating International Agriculture Certificate students and the opportunity to vote for the winners of the Agriculture Abroad Photo Contest. The reception will feature music will by Dan Nettles and Lonely Orchestra and refreshments by Donderos' Kitchen.

For more information on International Agriculture Day and the CAES Office of Global Programs, visit www.global.uga.edu/InternationalAgricultureDay/index.html.