Ellen Gustafson

Ellen Gustafson is a sustainable food system activist, innovator and social entrepreneur. She is best known for co-founding FEED Projects with Lauren Bush, as well as for founding 30 Project, a nonprofit that aims to look at the link between obesity and starvation rates. In addition, she has been a US spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme and founded Food Tank: The Think Tank For Food with Danielle Nierenberg.

FEED Projects is a charitable company that creates consumer products that help feed the world. The project aims to feed one child for a year per burlap bag sold, with money from every purchase going to the World Food Programme. Under Ellen's leadership, FEED provided more than 65 million school meals to children around the world—at no cost to them.

in May 2010, Gustafson launched The 30 Project, an effort to address the world’s hunger and obesity problems as one single crisis. In her new venture, she hopes to stimulate a movement that will change our food and agricultural systems over the next 30 years so that healthy, balanced meals are available to all.

Previously, Ellen 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 Relations. She has a BA in International Politics from Columbia University and is pursuing a Master's Degree in Food Studies at New York University.

She has been featured as one of Fortune Magazine's 2009 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Inc Magazine's 2010 30 Under 30, and has spoken at Fortune's Most Powerful Women's Conference. Amongst her many public speaking accomplishments, Ellen has given multiple TED talks, keynoted to the Italian Parliament, lectured at Harvard, NYU, Columbia University, The U.S. Naval Academy, Feeding America, Davos and many more. She also serves on the Columbia University Alumni Board of Directors and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.