Josh is a Senior Digital Advisor with USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security. He has extensive experience in digital agriculture and resilience, particularly in Asia and Africa. Prior to joining USAID, he ran a technology for development consulting firm, during which he led the development of the digital agriculture strategies for several international donors and organizations. Before that, he worked at FHI 360 for over a decade. During that time, he oversaw USAID-funded efforts in Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar to help expand uptake of digital financial services in agricultural value chains. He has also served as a primary author of the FAO and ITU’s National e-Agriculture Strategy guide, which he helped the governments of Sri Lanka and Bhutan to implement. From 2009-2013, he led USAID’s FACET project, which focused on promoting the uptake of ICT in agriculture projects across sub-Saharan Africa.

Parasto Hamed has 12 years of experience in international development program design and implementation, specializing in agricultural development, including 5 years with Deloitte as a project management specialist master. Ms. Hamed currently serves as the Field Coordinator for AgResults, a multi-donor initiative that designs and implements innovative Pay-for-Results prize competitions that engage the private sector to overcome agricultural challenges and improve livelihoods in developing countries. Before joining Deloitte, she worked as a Project Manager at CNFA and Chemonics International, managing USAID projects in East and Southern Africa as well as the Middle East. Ms. Hamed holds a Masters of Professional Studies in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University and a Master of Science in International Development from the London School Economics and Political Science.

Jean-Michel Voisard is Director Market Systems at RTI International's Food Security and Agriculture Division. For over 20 years, he has worked throughout West Africa to link private sector and banks with grassroots rural organizations to build sustainable market systems that benefit small farmers. Early in his career, as financial systems specialist in the food distribution sector, he was part of the North American transition to integrated supply chain platforms and personal computer networks. Moving on to development work, he has promoted since 2005 the mainstreaming of an array of digital technologies such as GIS, remote data transmission, cloud computing, supply chain management, and smallholder managed data analytics to support inclusive agriculture value chains. His work with Senegalese farmer organizations is documented by a Feed the Future best practice note,  Finding the best fit - Naatal Mbay, and other publications.

Casey joined Nuru International in 2016 and guides agribusiness and livelihoods impact programming across a network of Nuru local organizations in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria with a focus on scaling in the Sahel region of West Africa. As a member of the Agribusiness Market Ecosystem Alliance (AMEA) he leads the Agricultural Technology working group that aims to accelerate the development of rural SMEs and farmer organizations globally. Casey received a dual M.A. in Natural Resource Management and International Development from American University in Washington D.C and the University for Peace in Costa Rica. Prior to Nuru, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia as an agricultural extension agent, and worked with World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US) for 4 years developing inclusive value chain approaches to conservation and development challenges.