Emmy Simmons

Emmy Simmons is an independent consultant on international development issues with a focus on food, agriculture, and Africa.

She serves as a non-resident senior advisor to the CSIS Global Food Security Project and is a member of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, an international group focused on developing evidence-based policies to increase access to healthy, safe, and affordable diets.

She also serves on the boards of organizations engaged in international agriculture and global development more broadly, and sits on several advisory committees for initiatives focused on agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

She completed a career of nearly 30 years with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2005, having served since 2002 as the Assistant Administrator for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade, a Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed position. Prior to joining USAID, she worked in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs in Monrovia, Liberia, and taught and conducted research at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria.

She began her international career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines from 1962-64. She holds an M.S. degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University and a B.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.