Kristin Penn is the Sr. Technical Advisor, FTF Coordinator’s Office at USAID. Penn is helping FTF lead the interagency effort to develop a robust monitoring and evaluation system to track progress and enhance accountability of the U.S. and its development partners’ efforts. She and her interagency team have developed the FTF Results Framework (on the FTF website) to outline the goal of sustainably reducing poverty and hunger and define the key objectives and indicators of inclusive agricultural sector growth and improved nutritional status.  She also is supporting the establishment of a robust monitoring and reporting system to capture performance of inter-agency food security investments.

Before joining the FTF Coordinator’s  Office at USAID, Penn was Technical Advisor in the State Department’s Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative supporting the country investment plan process, designing the FTF results management approach, and strategic planning and portfolio review process.  Penn’s home agency is the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) where her core responsibilities included the management of investments in food and agriculture—and ranged from initial compact development with eligible countries to program development and implementation.   Before joining MCC, Penn was Director of Global Programs and Services for the International Development Division of Land O’Lakes, Inc.—one of the nation’s largest agricultural cooperatives. For more than 20 years, Penn has worked directly with agricultural producers, marketing firms and development institutions in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Penn studied at the University of Minnesota in agriculture education, extension and international programming. She was an education and extension Peace Corps Volunteer in Zaire (1985-87) and conducted research as a Rotary Scholar in Tanzania.

Emily Hogue is a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist in the Bureau for Food Security (BFS). Prior to working in BFS, she served as the Desk Officer for El Salvador and ECAM, and later for Guatemala and Honduras, in the Central America and Mexico Office of the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean.  Before joining USAID, Hogue completed a PhD in Comparative Sociology with a specialization in Anthropology; her dissertation research was an evaluation of the impacts of World Vision economic development programs in Peruvian indigenous communities.  Additionally, she has conducted original research on topics such as low-income families’ utilization of social services with U of Chicago, women’s involvement in economic growth in southern Chile, and ethnic identities and development in the Andes.  Hogue worked as a development consultant on disaster management for Habitat for Humanity Caribbean and on economic growth for World Vision Chile.  Prior to development consulting, she taught English at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, taught Spanish at Anderson University in Indiana, and served in the AmeriCorps. Hogue has twelve years of experience in international development and social science research. She also holds an M.A. in Sociology and a B.A. in Spanish and English.

Chris Kosnik leads USAID’s Land Resources Management Team in the Bureau for Economic Growth and Trade (EGAT/NRM/LRM). This multi-disciplinary team promotes sustainable land management supporting a range of key Foreign Assistance objectives and initiative including broad based economic growth, food security and climate change. The team’s applies the Nature, Wealth and Power framework integrating sound resource governance (including land tenure and property rights), resource based economic growth and sustainable use/conservation of resources. His work with USAID has included managing the Prosperity, Livelihoods and Conserving Ecosystems IQC, the Coffee Corps Global Development Alliance, the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management CRSP (Phase III).  Prior to USAID, Kosnik served as Peace Corps’ Chief of Field Assistance, Country Director in Malawi and Congo Brazzaville, Associate Peace Corps Director for Agriculture/Environment in Cameroon.  He holds an MPS from Cornell (’92) and a B.S. in Biology from the College of William & Mary (1984).

Erik Pacific is a Governance & Capacity Building Advisor in the BFS Country Strategies and Implementation Office at USAID. Pacific, a career Foreign Service Democracy and Governance (DG) Officer, assists FTF countries by identifying technical assistance and developing capacity building plans for ministries, parastatal organizations, local associations, and indigenous NGOs that are willing to manage and allocate resources and deliver results using donor-funded development resources. Pacific’s positions at USAID include the Director for the Office of Democracy and Local Governance at USAID/Macedonia and the Governance Team Leader at USAID/Afghanistan, where part of his duties included developing direct assistance and multi-donor funded programs with Afghan ministries. Prior to joining USAID, Erik worked for a number of USAID-funded contractors on various DG and humanitarian assistance programs in Armenia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, East Timor, and the West Bank/Gaza. Pacific has a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from the University of Rhode Island. He also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia (97-99).