Social entrepreneur Ellen Gustafson to speak at UW-Whitewater

April 07, 2015

An activist and author -- who is fighting to change the conversation about the global food system -- will give a free public lecture at UW-Whitewater titled "A New Understanding of Hunger, Obesity and the Food System."

The speaker, Ellen Gustafson, will appear at 7 p.m. Monday, April 20, at Young Auditorium. Her speech is part of the Contemporary Issues Lecture Series sponsored by the College of Letters and Sciences.

Gustafson is the co-founder of Food Tank: the Food Think Tank, an organization that offers solutions and sustainable ways of combating hunger, obesity and poverty.

Before the launch of that organization, she founded the 30 Project, a campaign that helps to continue the dialogue about the global food system by connecting hunger and obesity.

Gustafson is also the creator of the Change Dinner campaign and HealthClass2.0, which are helping individuals change the food system at dinner tables and in schools.

"She has spent most of her adult life focusing on efforts related to food system sustainability," said Susan Johnson, assistant dean for student success in the College of Letters and Sciences and coordinator for the lecture series. "Her work has run the gamut from being a small business owner to the founder of a nonprofit organization. She will share parts of all of these experiences during her presentation."

Gustafson also was a U.S. spokesperson for the U.N. World Food Program, a terrorism research reporter in the ABC News Investigative Unit and a research associate for the Military Fellows at the Council on Foreign Relation.

She has a Bachelor of Arts in international politics from Columbia University.

Gustafson is the sixth and final speaker in the 2014-15 lecture series at UW-Whitewater.

-- Written by Jonathan Fera