Janet Lawson
| Janet Lawson is a Senior Program Officer for Agriculture Advocacy at the Gates Foundation, where she leads global donor engagement and advocacy strategies to scale agricultural innovation and strengthen food security for smallholder farmers. She brings nearly 20 years of experience advancing agriculture, climate resilience, and economic development. Before joining the Gates Foundation, she spent nearly 16 years as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer with USAID, serving in Morocco, Guatemala, Cambodia, and Washington, D.C., most recently serving as Director of USAID/Morocco’s technical office overseeing climate change, governance, economic development, and health programs.
Earlier in her career, she served as a Peace Corps Agriculture Extension Volunteer in Paraguay and worked for the Bureau of Land Management. She holds a master's degree in Environmental Science from the Yale School of the Environment and a bachelor's degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. After relocating to the Seattle area last year, she enjoys hiking, kayaking, camping, and exploring the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two sons. |
Senior Program Officer, Agriculture Advocacy
Gates Foundation