GFI & Aspen Food Leaders Fellowship Partnership
Advancing Food Leadership: A New Partnership Between GFI and Aspen Institute
The Global Food Institute at GW and the Aspen Institute’s Food Leaders Fellowship have embarked on a multi-year partnership to unite academics and practitioners with a common goal: to change the world through the power of food. The partnership supports GW faculty and staff, and Food Leaders Fellows, to collaborate on research and initiatives that tackle today’s toughest food system challenges, while preparing students—the next generation of diverse, values-driven food leaders—to carry the work forward.
The partnership is made possible thanks to the generous support of José Andres’ Longer Tables Fund.
Learn More: Upcoming Webinar
Join us on October 6, 2025, at 3:30 p.m. ET for a webinar introducing the partnership in greater detail.
Are you a member of the GW Community or an Aspen Food Leaders Fellow who wants to collaborate?
The Global Food Institute and Aspen Food and Society are here to facilitate connections between our GW colleagues and students, and Food Leaders Fellows.
We welcome proposals for collaborative research, event partnerships, or student course projects, and can offer modest financial or in-kind support to help facilitate them. Details are provided below.
Approved collaborations will also benefit from shared promotion through GFI, the Aspen Institute, and GW’s Planet Forward.
Collaborative Research Projects
Aspen Fellows and GW faculty and staff can collaborate on a research project or initiative with modest, flexible financial support to meet the team’s needs (e.g. for materials; as a stipend for time; to cover one of the individual’s time as a consultant, etc.).Teams can apply for additional funds to support an undergraduate or graduate student assistant.
- Examples for Inspiration
- Aspen Fellow Anne McBride engaged in a collaborative research project with a GW faculty and student research team led by GFI’s Dr. Tara Scully, resulting in the The Climate Reality for Independent Restaurants: A Deep Dive into the Supply Chain report.
Event Partnerships
Aspen Fellows and GFI or GW faculty and staff can collaborate on events of any size. Events could range from a GW faculty member inviting a Fellow as a guest lecturer in their course to large scale events geared towards global food system practitioners.
- Examples for Inspiration
- GFI’s Dr. Mya Price is hosting a Black Farmers and the Food System conversation series featuring Aspen Fellows Seanicaa Edwards Heron, Dion Dawson, and more coming soon.
- Aspen Fellow David Street teamed up with GFI staff and GW’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to host a Pitch Fest and Community of Practice for food businesses and entrepreneurs across the DMV.
Student Project Teams
Food Leaders Fellows can pitch an idea for a student class project and be paired with a GW course with a capstone, research, or service-learning component. The GFI team will help with the matchmaking – just reach out to us with your idea! Here is a list of sample courses looking for project ideas.
- Examples for Inspiration
- GFI’s Food Leadership Minor Capstone helped an outside partner develop a list of groups working on food and health issues across DC.
- The GW Geography Research Capstone has its students support a variety of projects leveraging GIS to advance policy goals.
- A GW Nutrition Capstone course conducted a research project assessing food insecurity on the GW campus, and possible interventions.
Let's Get to Work!
Once your idea is ready to share, please fill out the Project/Funding Proposal Form. We will review proposals twice per year: on November 1 for spring and summer activities, and on June 1 for fall activities.
We also welcome other project ideas, so please reach out if you have something different in mind.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is this opportunity only available to GW community members and Aspen Food Leaders Fellows?
At this moment it is only open to GW community members and Aspen Food Leaders Fellows (including Alumni!). However the two groups will continue to engage the broader community through its shared events and networking opportunities.
- I want to learn more about this partnership and how I can get involved. What steps should I take?
- Join us for a webinar on October 6, 2025, to launch the partnership to the Aspen Food Leaders Fellows and the GW campus community.
- For a more personalized conversation, set up a 1:1 with the GFI and Aspen Food and Society teams.
- How can I learn more about the GW faculty and Aspen Fellows with whom I might want to partner?
Learn more about the Aspen Institute's Food Leaders Fellowship and meet the Fellows.
To learn more about GW faculty, it is a bit tougher, as faculty and staff all across the University may be applicable to your work and ideas. We are working on a faculty expertise search tool, but in the meantime have created a list of focus areas of GFI affiliate faculty, and provided info on the GFI team.
We will also do our best to host virtual networking events and facilitate connections. Please reach out to globalfoodinstitute
gwu [dot] edu if there is a specific skillset you are interested in, and we can brainstorm together.- I am an Aspen Fellow, and am excited about the opportunity to pitch a project to a course seeking external partners. Can I see a list of example courses seeking partners?
Yes, there is a sample of GW courses with practicum, capstone, or service-based components. This is just a small list, so if you have an idea that doesn't fit into any of these courses, email us at globalfoodinstitute
gwu [dot] edu (globalfoodinstitute[at]gwu[dot]edu), and we will brainstorm others. And GW faculty, if your course is not listed on here, reach out to get it added. - What is the breakdown of available financial support?
Since this is a pilot partnership, the financial support available to support joint activities is modest. While the bulk of support will be in-kind through connections and networking, we have identified a few areas that GFI and Aspen Institute anticipate allocating support:
- Consultation funds - $100/hr rate for consultants
- Can be provided to GFI/GW member or Aspen Fellow as a stipend to serve as consultant on the other’s project or initiative
- Collaborative research seed funding - up to $10,000 (avg. $2,000)
- Projects must include at least one fellow and one faculty or staff member from GW, with priority given to projects including more than
- Teams can also request a GW student research assistant to support their project, which will be funded outside of the up to $10k
- Collaborative event expenses (honorariums and other expenses)- up to $5,000
A total of $75,000 will be awarded over the two-year pilot period.
- Consultation funds - $100/hr rate for consultants
