Transformations of Global Food Systems for Climate Change Resilience (PDF)

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, MPH in Health Policy and Management from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, and a BA in Biology and Sociology/Anthropology at Knox College.

Barrett P. Brenton, PhD, currently serves as Faculty Engagement Associate for Binghamton University's Center for Civic Engagement where he facilitates linking faculty with community-engaged teaching and research opportunities locally and abroad. He is also an Affiliated Senior Research Scholar with the Binghamton University Anthropology Department. Dr. Brenton is a retired Professor of Anthropology from St. John's University, New York, where he served as the Director of the Center for Global Development and MA in Global Development and Social Justice; Coordinator of the Anthropology program; Faculty Advisor for the Ozanam Scholars Social Justice program; and Senior Fellow, Vincentian Center for Church and Society. Previously, he served as: President of the Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, and of the Northeastern Anthropological Association; former Co-Editor of the International Journal Ecology of Food and Nutrition; elected to the status of Fellow of The Society for Applied Anthropology; and appointed as a member of the AAA's Presidential Task Force on World Food Problems. As a specialist on the anthropology of sustainable food systems, nutrition. health, climate change and environmental justice, his cross-cultural and applied fieldwork experience has focused on engagement with Indigenous communities in North America, South American, and Sub-Saharan Africa, and in urban NYC and Upstate NY rural underserved communities. In addition to numerous papers presented at national and international conferences, he has an extensive publication record in the areas of food security, nutrition, health disparities and sustainable global development. Dr. Brenton's commitment to creating sustainable and resilient food systems to climate change through food justice and food sovereignty advocacy stems from his experience of working and growing up in rural farming communities in Iowa and Nebraska. He earned his PhD in Biocultural anthropology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a focus on nutritional/medical anthropology, and BA in Anthropology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Solomon H. Katz, PhD, is Director of the Krogman Center for Research in Child Growth and Development, Professor of Physical Anthropology, and Professor Emeritus of Orthodontics at the University of Pennsylvania. He has written, presented and organized symposia resulting in over 200 major papers, books, and chapters lined to global field studies on diet and physical and mental health, neuroendocrinology, epidemiology of health problems in children, and the evolution of cuisine and nutrition practices, molecular biology and genetics, and cybernetics and biocultural evolution. He has also been involved in hundreds of newspaper, magazine, radio and TV reports concerned with translating science to the public. Dr. Katz is the recipient of many awards and grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, Kellogg Foundation, and John Templeton Foundation. He is an elected fellow, and has served as an officer and president, at many professional organizations. He serves as Chair of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Task Force on World Food Problems that addresses contemporary global food resources and security. He also serves as president of the "World Food Observatory," dedicated to promoting education, research and enlightenment on the history, understanding, beliefs, values and appreciation of food, nutrition and diet throughout the world. Previously, Dr. Katz served as Founder and Chairman of the AAA Task Force on African Famine. He also chaired the task force that redefined the UNESCO statement on race for the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, a division of UNESCO. Dr. Katz was Series Editor of "Food and Nutrition in History and Anthropology" Gordon and Breach Publishers (with a dozen books in the series) and was Editor-in-Chief of the three volume "Encyclopedia of Food and Culture" published by Scribners (Gale) which was awarded six major national and international awards and prizes.