AI for Food Security Forum: Implementing AI for Food Security - From Inspiration to Action

This panel session from the CSIS Global Food and Water Security Program’s AI for Food Security Forum will feature an in-depth conversation among IFPRI Program for Biosafety Systems Director Judy Chambers, Google’s Research Africa team Product Manager Olivia Graham, IDinsight Senior Economist and Director Crystal Huang, Bezos Earth Fund AI and Data Strategies Director Amen Ra Mashariki, and CSIS Wadhwani AI Center Director Aalok Mehta, moderated by CSIS Global Food and Water Security Program Director Caitlin Welsh.

The conversation will explore steps that all stakeholders—including technology developers, policymakers, regulators, and funders—need to take to implement AI-enabled technologies across food systems. Experts will discuss the importance of an integrated approach to AI implementation to maximize benefits and mitigate risks across food systems.

This conference is made possible by generous support from Google.org.

Speaker Information

Caitlin Welsh is the director of the Global Food and Water Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she analyzes the drivers and consequences of food and water insecurity around the world, including for U.S. national security. Her specific areas of focus include the impacts of Russia’s war in Ukraine on global food security and nutrition, food insecurity in the U.S. military, and the coherence between U.S. global water security policy and U.S. global food security policy. Prior to joining CSIS, Ms. Welsh served for over 12 years in the U.S. government, including at the National Security Council and National Economic Council as director for global economic engagement with responsibility for the G7 and G20, and at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Food Security, where she served as acting director. Ms. Welsh was a presidential management fellow at the U.S. African Development Foundation and a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. She has testified before Congress on global food security on multiple occasions, and her analysis has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, NPR, PBS, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, BBC, Newsweek, and other outlets. Ms. Welsh received her BA from the University of Virginia and MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and hails from Erie, Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Judith A. Chambers is the Executive Director of the Program for Biosafety Systems at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI — a CGIAR Center). With a technical background in agriculture biotechnology research, for more than two decades she has led an international team working with partner countries in the Global South to develop and implement evidence-based regulatory policy systems that enable responsible evaluation and use of innovative agricultural biotechnology products. She also serves as co-lead of a CGIAR-wide program on genome editing focused on crops and traits under development across the CGIAR system. Her program’s operational approach has provided advisory and capacity-building support for ag-biotech policy implementation in partner countries while utilizing an array of analytical tools to examine technological environments and landscape conditions. Her team’s current work examines how policy and governance lessons learned from the introduction of ag biotech can inform policy decision making, regulation, and market and social acceptance of “next generation” innovative tools — including genome editing, AI, and synthetic biology — that are being similarly applied to address agriculture productivity and food system constraints.  

Dr. Chambers holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied the molecular action of animal viruses related to HIV. Prior to joining IFPRI, she held senior positions in the U.S. government and the agribusiness sector, where she conceptualized and led numerous initiatives and biotechnology programs designed to address agriculture sector constraints in emerging economies. 

Olivia Graham is a Product Manager at Google, where she spearheads the use of AI for social impact across a variety of projects related to weather, agriculture, and crisis resilience. Through her work at Google Research and Google DeepMind, she translates cutting-edge AI research into solutions for critical global challenges. Her current work includes developing advanced AI for weather forecasting in data-sparse regions and increasing resilience to crisis events. Previously, she focused on building next-generation accessible experiences at Google. Olivia holds a B.A. in Computer Science and Mind, Brain, and Behavior from Harvard University, and is driven by a passion for turning technology into tools that create meaningful change.

Dr. Crystal Haijing Huang is a Senior Economist and Director at IDinsight, where she leads mixed-methods evaluations across behavioral economics, health, labor, and gender, with experience in Africa and Asia. She currently leads several large-scale initiatives, including a five-year NIH-funded randomized trial (GOALS) on improving medication adherence among HIV-positive youth in Uganda, and IDinsight’s work with IDRC and FCDO on the AI for Evidence Alliance for Social Impact, serving as an evidence and evaluation partner for AI-for-development investments across Africa. Crystal holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in International Development and Economics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Policy Analysis from the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School. 

Dr. Amen Ra Mashariki is the Director of AI and Data Strategies at the Bezos Earth Fund, where he works to identify funding opportunities and initiatives that will help ensure climate and nature organizations can use AI effectively for on-the-ground impact. Dr. Mashariki was previously a Senior Principal Scientist at NVIDIA leading their AI Nations portfolio. Dr. Mashariki was previously the Global Director of the AI Lab at the World Resources Institute, adjunct faculty at NYU , and Fellow at the Harvard Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.

Dr. Mashariki served as the first Chief Analytics Officer for the City of New York under the de Blasio administration and the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to be a White House Fellow in 2012 and went on to serve as a political appointee as the Chief Technology Officer for the Office of Personnel Management  Amen earned Doctorate, Master's, and Bachelor degrees in Computer Science from Morgan State, Howard and Lincoln University, respectively.

Dr. Aalok Mehta currently serves as the director of the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he oversees the program’s projects and research on a wide range of AI policy topics. He previously served as the responsible AI policy lead at Google, where he oversaw policy development and analysis for a wide range of global AI governance, testing, evaluation, and legislative issues. Prior to that, he served as senior adviser to SeedAI and was OpenAI’s U.S. policy lead, where he ran policy operations during the launches of DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT. Previously, as a senior appropriations staffer in the House of Representatives, he oversaw a portfolio of technology, cybersecurity, and financial regulators. Mehta worked on emerging technologies, including AI, 5G, and autonomous vehicles, at the National Economic Council and the Office of Management and Budget, and advised senior leadership on wireless and competition issues at the Federal Communications Commission. He is a 2025 presidential leadership scholar and a 2023 Eisenhower USA fellow, for which he traveled to India and Sweden to study social safety net programs that can help manage technology-driven job shifts. 

Dr. Mehta has a PhD from the University of Southern California, where his dissertation focused on U.S.-China AI great power competition, as well as an MA and MPP; he also has a BA from Rice University. Prior to working in public policy, he served as a technology journalist for a variety of outlets in Washington, D.C., including National Geographic and the Washington Post.