Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum is joining a broad-based advisory group that will provide strategic leadership on issues related to the ways agricultural development and food security can help reduce world poverty.
He will travel to Chicago Thursday [Oct. 7] for a meeting of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, becoming part of a three-year initiative that brings together 16 individuals of national and international stature drawn from government, business, academic, and civic leadership.
Keenum's participation in the Global Agricultural Development Initiative's Advisory Group was invited by Dan Glickman, former U.S. Department of Agriculture secretary, and Catherine Bertini, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program. Glickman and Bertini serve as co-chairs for the effort.
"It is our hope that you will consider serving on the Global Agricultural Development Initiative's Advisory Group, bringing to this project your rich background as a leader in agriculture and development matters," the two wrote. Expenses related to travel for semiannual meetings will be covered by the council.
Before becoming MSU's chief executive in 2008, Keenum was an undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He also holds degrees in agricultural economics from Mississippi State.
In June, he traveled to the Rome headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to outline MSU's capabilities in addressing food security and hunger. While there, Keenum also visited with the executive director of the World Food Program and the ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
"As a land-grant institution, Mississippi State has a long history of innovation and collaboration that bring improvements to our own state and have far-reaching capabilities," Keenum noted. "Our mission is to extend knowledge that improves lives, and I believe the work of our institution can have an impact around the world."
In August, Keenum was invited to moderate a discussion of the land-grant role in food aid and capacity development at the 2010 International Food Aid Development Conference in Kansas City, Mo. He says the land-grant institution is well positioned to "provide research, education and technological assistance in areas ranging from post-harvest process to livestock production to biotechnology."
Founded in 1922, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs is an independent, nonpartisan organization that encourages discourse on global issues by contributing to policy formation, dialogue and public learning.
For more information, see http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/.