Elisha Smith
MPS Class of 2025, Global Development
- Pronouns: He/him
- Grand challenge: Agriculture and rural development in low-income and post-conflict contexts in the MENA region
- Where he considers home: Dallas, Texas, USA
- Connect: ejs393 [at] cornell.edu (Email)
Elisha Smith has worked for 6 years in international relief and development. He spent four of those years working alongside rural communities in agricultural livelihood recovery work in post-conflict contexts in Iraq and Syria. He has also worked on human rights, humanitarian and social work projects throughout the Middle East and Southeast Asia. He is interested in the intersection of agricultural value chains, sustainable agriculture practices in desertification contexts and community peace building in the Middle East. He has a B.S. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Texas at Dallas and is currently a member of the 2024-2025 Cornell Global Development Master of Professional Studies (MPS) cohort and a fellow at the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.