energy, resources and environment program - Johns Hopkins ...

Robert Thompson, Visiting Scholar, Ph.D.
Professor emeritus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, most
recently holding Gardner Endowed Chair in Agricultural Policy; also currently
senior fellow of global agricultural development and food security at the
Chicago Council on Global Affairs; previously served as director of rural
development at the World Bank, president and CEO of the Winrock
International Institute for Agricultural Development, dean of agriculture and
professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, assistant secretary for
economics at the Policy Council and Land O’Lakes board of directors; fellow of
the American Agricultural Economics Association and the American Association
for the Advancement of Science; foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy
of Agriculture and Forestry and of the Ukrainian Academy of Agricultural
Sciences; former president, International Association of Agricultural Economists;
received honorary doctorates from the Pennsylvania State University and
Dalhousie University; Ph.D., agricultural economics, Purdue University.
Shalini Vajjhala, Visiting Associate Professor of Environmental Policy, Ph.D.
Shalini Vajjhala is an international environmental expert with an
interdisciplinary background in engineering, design, and climate change,
sustainable development, and energy policy.
Prior to joining SAIS, Dr. Vajjhala served as Special Representative in the Office
of Administrator Lisa Jackson at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In
this position, she led the US-Brazil Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability (JIUS),
a bilateral partnership announced by President Obama and Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff in March 2011. The JIUS was charged with catalyzing
transformational investment in green and smart infrastructure, technology,
products and services, especially for poor and underserved urban communities.
At the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the JIUS was
showcased as a signature initiative, demonstrating how environmental
protection can serve as a driver for economic growth and job creation in
building the greener economies and smarter cities of the future.
Dr. Vajjhala received her Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie
Mellon University, and was a practicing architect and community organizer in
Pittsburgh before moving to Washington. She is fluent in Telegu, proficient in
Hindi, and conversational in Portuguese.
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