Francine Barchett is an international development liaison as well as a graduate student and researcher. As the Humphrey Fellowship Graduate Assistant, she supports the Cornell Humphrey program’s mission of equipping experienced professionals in the field of international development. And as an MPS student in Global Development, Francine’s studies hinge on the intersections of governance, sustainable development, and food security.
She completed her B.S. at Cornell in International Agriculture and Rural Development in 2019, concentrating in Economics and minoring in Southeast Asian Studies and Development Sociology. Her projects and studies led her across the US and to over 20 countries, from index-based livestock insurance program evaluation at ILRI in Kenya to wild bird trafficking research in Bali, Indonesia. She received the World Food Prize Elaine Szymoniak Award for her work at ICRISAT in India, where she studied the nutritional and health outcomes of the government’s Swacch Bharat sanitation campaigns, and was later recognized as a Rawlings Presidential Research Scholar.
During her time in the Cornell community, Francine has been active in youth engagement, food security, and prison reform. Within her department, she founded its first student newsletter, while at a state level she authored a healthcare journal article that became the basis for a law making menstrual hygiene products free-of-charge in prisons. However, her most rewarding experience has been serving as the World Food Prize New York Youth Institute’s associate, where she is able to give back to the organization that ignited her passion for global development.
Outside of assisting the Humphrey Fellows, Francine stays busy on her MPS capstone project, where she is evaluating sustainability certification opportunities for trophy hunting on game reserves in Southern Africa. She also likes to speak Indonesian and Malay, do long distance running and cycling, and try spicier foods than she thinks she can handle!
