About
Francine Barchett is an international development liaison as well as a graduate student and researcher. As the Humphrey Fellowship’s longest serving Graduate Assistant, she supports the Cornell Humphrey program’s mission of equipping experienced professionals in the field of global development. And as a PhD student in Natural Resources and the Environment, Francine’s studies hinge on the intersections of sustainable development, wildlife conservation, and transnational negotiation.
Francine has received two degrees from Cornell: a B.S. in International Agriculture & Rural Development (2019) and M.P.S in Global Development (2021). Her projects and studies have 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 remained active in youth engagement, food security, and prison reform. Within her department, she founded its first-run 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 PhD, which focuses on evaluating sustainability certification opportunities for the controversial industry of African trophy hunting. She also enjoys speaking Indonesian, Malay, and Vietnamese, running ultra-marathons, and tasting spicier foods than she thinks she can handle!
