Gretchen Hanson

About

Gretchen Hanson is the graduate assistant for the Humphrey Fellowship Program and a Master of Professional Studies student in Global Development. As the Humphrey Fellows’ Graduate Assistant, Gretchen works to maximize the experience of Humphrey Fellows through the design and implementation of networking and social events while also managing community outreach efforts for the program.

Gretchen comes to Cornell University with program management experience working in the areas of youth development and international agriculture. Growing-up in both Thailand and Iowa offered her two vastly different experiences which helped to shape her interests in agriculture and community development. Gretchen holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University in Global Resource Systems with minors in Agriculture Education and Studies and Linguistics. She spent the first few years of her career as an admission counselor supporting students interested in pursuing higher education at Iowa State University and co-organizing a variety of university-affiliated community youth outreach programming for middle school and high school students. She spent another six years working at Land O’Lakes Venture37 — an international non-profit headquartered in Minnesota — where she supported business development efforts and provided program operations oversight to agricultural development projects in the Middle East and North Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa.

She is passionate about community-led development and ensuring that smallholder farmers and marginalized communities have access to information and technologies that promote sustainable agricultural practices and can improve livelihoods. At Cornell, she is exploring pluralism in agricultural extension and advisory services, looking at relationship dynamics among actors and how farmers can more actively participate in research and information sharing processes. Additionally, she is interested in education and exploring ways youth can better engage in agriculture.