1. Ertharin Cousin was born on 1957 and is an American lawyer who served as the twelfth executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme from 2012 to 2017.
21 Facts About Ertharin Cousin
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Ertharin Cousin served from 2009 to 2012 under President Barack Obama as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, serving in Rome, Italy, and chief of the United States Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome.
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In 2014, Ertharin Cousin was ranked number 45th on the Forbes list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women and she was named to the Time 100 most influential people in the world list.
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Ertharin Cousin grew up in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, along with her three sisters.
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Ertharin Cousin worked in Illinois as assistant attorney general and Western Regional Office director for the Illinois Attorney General's office and as deputy director of the Chicago Ethics Board.
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Ertharin Cousin moved to Washington, DC, and during 1993 worked as deputy chief of staff for the Democratic National Committee.
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Ertharin Cousin joined the Clinton administration in 1994 as the White House liaison at the US State Department.
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Ertharin Cousin served as senior advisor to the Secretary of State during the 1996 Olympic Games.
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In 1997, Ertharin Cousin received a White House appointment for a four-year term to the board for International Food and Agricultural Development.
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In 1999, Albertsons LLC bought Jewel and Ertharin Cousin became group vice president of public affairs for Albertsons and then senior vice president of public affairs.
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In 2002, Ertharin Cousin joined the board of America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest domestic hunger organization, and in 2004 she became its executive vice president and chief operating officer.
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Ertharin Cousin helped raise the annual revenue of the organization from $20 million to $56 million during her time there.
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Ertharin Cousin left America's Second Harvest in 2006 and founded and served as president of the Polk Street Group, a national public affairs consulting firm located in Chicago.
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On June 19,2009, Ertharin Cousin was nominated by President Barack Obama to become United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, serving in Rome, Italy.
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Ertharin Cousin was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 7,2009, and sworn in as ambassador on August 17,2009, where she served as chief of the United States Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome and is part of the "Tri-Mission Community" that includes the United States Ambassador to Italy and the United States Ambassador to the Holy See.
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Ertharin Cousin worked towards providing food relief to Port-au-Prince following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake.
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In January 2012, the US State Department announced that Ertharin Cousin would become executive director of the UN World Food Programme, succeeding Josette Sheeran when the latter's term expired in April 2012.
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Ertharin Cousin began her tenure as the twelfth executive director on April 5,2012.
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Ertharin Cousin is a distinguished fellow of global agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
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Ertharin Cousin was inducted as a laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln by the governor of Illinois in 2015 in the area of Social Work.
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Ertharin Cousin was named to the Time 100 most influential people in the world list.