Joan Holmes
Founding President, The Hunger Project
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SUMMARY
Joan Holmes, founding president of The Hunger Project and a member of the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force, is one of the world’s most experienced and effective leaders in international development, and the foremost voice for the inextricable link between women and ending hunger. She has built The Hunger Project into an influential strategic organization and a worldwide movement for the end of hunger.
A visionary and bold strategist, Joan is widely respected for her ability to engage comprehensively and rigorously with complex issues, make them clear and finite, and chart the course to their resolution. Her work for the end of hunger takes her around the world, where she pioneers new approaches to enable people to meet severe political and social challenges.
Joan is particularly well-known for mobilizing and bringing together leadership at all levels and all sectors of society to work together for the end of hunger. She has worked with numerous heads of state, and was invited by the Planning Commission of India (1990) and the President of Senegal (1991) to organize and lead National Strategy Conferences for the end of hunger in those countries.
She is able to go into diverse cultures with respect and appreciation, incorporate the society’s strengths, and decode the issues that give rise to the end of hunger. An independent thinker, Joan has an unbiased view of foreign assistance programs, as she has no stake in preserving the status quo.
She works directly with villagers to design and implement comprehensive methodologies that now empower millions to overcome deeply entrenched obstacles, and create sustainable solutions in health, education, nutrition, family incomes and the status of women. She has mobilized thousands of individuals in 10 developed countries to stand in partnership with hungry people and fund The Hunger Project.
Joan has contributed to development education, constituency and coalition building and human development strategies and has served on many boards and councils.
Joan Holmes is widely regarded as a woman of vision, integrity, creativity, commitment and decisive action. She has a proven track record of rigorous thinking, bold ideas, innovative approaches and lasting achievements for the end of world hunger.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:2005 Represented the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force at the Beijing Plus 10 meetings of the UN Commission on the Status of Women and at the Preparatory Meetings for the ECOSOC High-level Segment.
2004 Serves on the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force, bringing her expertise on gender and social mobilization, including participation at the High-level Meeting in Addis Ababa and the final drafting meetings in Bellagio.
2003 Testified before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and the Congressional Women's Caucus on Women and Ending World Hunger: the Inextricable Link
2002 Worked with experts from 8 African nations to develop and launch the first-ever grassroots-level training on HIV/AIDS and Gender Inequality, which, to date, has been delivered to 300,000 people.
2001 Participated in the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS.
1999 Launched the African Woman Food Farmer Initiative
1995 Delegate to the Copenhagen Social Summit and Beijing Women’s Conference
1992 Launched a new strategy for The Hunger Project in Bangladesh, leading to it becoming that nation’s largest voluntary movement for development.
1991 Launched strategic planning-in-action methodology at conference co-sponsored by the Government of Senegal and The Hunger Project, Dakar, May 6-8, 1991.
1990 Developed and launched a new strategic "planning in action" methodology for human development in collaboration with the Planning Commission of India
1989 Co-chair of InterAction Forum, May 6-8.
1988 Created and launched "African Farmer," a magazine dedicated to enhancing the status of small-scale food farmers in Africa.
1987 Launched Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger
Launched a drive in 1987 to raise awareness and money to help avert a famine in Ethiopia
Launched a series of workshops in India titled "Commitment and Action"
1986 Special guest at the UN Economic Commission for Africa annual conference in Cameroon
1985 Delegate to the NGO World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of United Nations Decade for Women, Nairobi
1984 Launched an appeal during the 1984-85 famine in Africa for aid to organizations in InterAction who provided long-term development assistance to countries in Africa;
1983 Directed and managed the launching of The Hunger Project in India. Testified before the House subcommittee
1982 Served on the Costa Rican Presidential Commission
1981 Led delegation to Costa Rica at the invitation of Archbishop Monsignor Roman Arrieta to assess availability of food
Testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa
1980 Led Hunger Project delegation to Somalia to assess hunger situation Convener and Chair, 1980 Symposium on World Hunger, Glen Cove, New York
1979 Participant in President Carter's White House consultation on famine in Cambodia
1977 Launched A Shift in the Wind, the world's largest circulating newspaper devoted to the issue of ending hunger
PUBLICATIONS:
BOOKS
ENDING HUNGER: An idea whose time has come, The Hunger Project and Praeger Publishers, 1985
PAPERS/REPORTS
"Women in Ending Hunger," SID 1991
West Africa Report, reprinted in Congressional Record
ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN:
The Wall St. Journal; USA Today; Christian Science Monitor (reprinted in Congressional Record); The Guardian; The Daily Yomiuri, The Milwaukee Sentinel; Action for Development; Daily Star (Dhaka)
SELECTED SPEECHES:
2004 "The Girl Child: The Future Depends on Her" - New York
2000 Speech at the Institute for Social Studies, New Delhi - "Women and Ending Hunger - the Global Perspective"
1987-2003 Speeches delivered at the Africa Prize announcement events and Award ceremonies
1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2006 New York
1996 Yaoundé, Cameroon during the OAU Summit; and New York
1995 Accra Ghana; New York
1994 Washington, DC (with Presidents Mandela and Clinton)
1993 Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Tokyo
1992 Addis Ababa Ethiopia; Rome
1991 Lagos, Nigeria; London
1990 Harare, Zimbabwe; New York
1988 Lusaka, Zambia; New York
1987 Washington, DC; Nairobi, Kenya; New York
1991 Keynote speaker at invitation of President Abdou Diouf of Senegal at the Dakar Conference for a National Strategy for Integrated Rural Development to Ensure Food Self-Sufficiency and Well-Being to the People of Senegal to Lead Productive Lives
1990 Speaker at the conference co-sponsored by the Planning Commission of India and The Hunger Project, November 9
1988 Plenary address to the 19th World Conference of the Society for International Development (SID), March 27, 1988
1985 Speaker at Conference of Business Executives, Sweden
DIRECTOR OR TRUSTEE:
USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Assistance (1988-90)
InterAction: The American Council for Voluntary International Action (Executive Committee, 1984-87, 1989)
International Development Conference (Trustee)
Overseas Development Council (Director, 1984-1996)
Global Board of Directors, The Hunger Project (1977 to present)
Executive Secretary, Africa Prize for Leadership Jury
EDUCATION
1957 B.A. Psychology, University of Colorado
1964 M.A. Psychology, San Francisco State University
POSITIONS HELD
1977-2008 President and CEO, The Hunger Project, a global, strategic organization
1971-75 California State University, Hayward. Lecturer, Supervisor, Graduate School Psychology Interns
1971-74 Director, Title III Project, The Humanistic Approach to Psychological Services
1968-71 Educational Consultant: Seattle, Washington and San Francisco, California
1964-68 School Psychologist, Belmont School District, California