Among our most distinguished Georgia Law alumnae is Ertharin Cousin, who earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1982. She has served since 2012 as the Executive Director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme – an appointment that followed service as a U.S. ambassador on food insecurity issues. Based at the 53-year-old Programme’s headquarters in Rome, Italy, Cousin leads the world’s largest humanitarian organization: its 11,000-plus staffers combat hunger and food insecurity on behalf of more than 80 million persons in 82 countries.

The London-based Financial Times acquainted its readers with Cousin earlier this month, featuring her in a “Q&A with Ertharin Cousin” in its FT Weekend Magazine. Amid a mix of personal and professional topics, Cousin noted that she was a member of the 1st class of girls at Chicago’s Lane Tech High School and an undergraduate at the University of Illinois before becoming a law student at the University of Georgia. Asked about politics, she said:

“Everyone should recognise the importance of the political process and the election of good people, regardless of party, who can represent the vulnerable.”

Her greatest achievement?

“When the conflict began in South Sudan, two and a half, three years ago, the NGO community, working together, avoided a famine.”

Continuing ambition?

“Ending hunger. The mission of most of my adult life has been giving people access to affordable, nutritious food wherever they are.”

We at Georgia Law were honored to welcome Cousin as the keynote speaker at the 2013 symposium of our Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law (pictured above), and we look forward to March 2017, when our Law School Association will give her a Distinguished Service Scroll Award.