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Global Development Distinguished Speaker Series

Confronting the world’s most urgent and complex challenges.

The Global Development Distinguished Speaker Series aims to bring leading minds to campus to explore topics across the Department of Global Development’s signature strengths of wellbeing and inclusion; environmental sustainability; and food and nutritional security.

April 16, 2025 | 12:20pm | 101 Bradfield Hall & Zoom

2025 Distinguished Speaker in Global Development

Juan Lucas Restrepo is the Director General of the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). A Colombian and French national, he worked in the agricultural domain, both in the public and private sectors, for the past 25 years. He has significant experience in policy, value chains, markets, and leading agricultural research. 

Juan Lucas Restrepo headshot

Past Distinguished Speakers

Robin Wall Kimmerer
2023: Robin Wall Kimmerer

Land Justice: Engaging Indigenous Knowledge For Land Care

Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted
2023: Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted

Transforming Food Systems: Aquatic Foods for Nourishing People and Planet

Johan Swinnen
2022: Johan Swinnen

Transforming Global Food Systems After COVID-19

Speaker Series Committee

Ed Mabaya headshot
Ed Mabaya

Research Professor

Department of Global Development

Director, Humphrey Fellowship Program

Department of Global Development

Director, Graduate Field of Global Development

Department of Global Development

Ed Mabaya
Applied Economics and Policy
Food and Agricultural Economics
International and Development Economics and Policy
Headshot of Margaret Smith
Margaret Smith

Professor

School of Integrative Plant Science

Plant Breeding and Genetics Section

Professor

Department of Global Development

Associate Dean and Director

Cornell AES

Margaret Smith
Maize breeding and genomics
Abiotic stress tolerance
Insect and disease resistance