IMAGINE Leaders – Sara Farley

Sara Farley

The Rockefeller Foundation, Vice President, Global-Food Initiative

Sara leads the global portfolio for The Rockefeller Foundation’s food team, leading such signature initiatives as the Food Systems Vision Prize. In this capacity she is driving the Foundation’s inaugural regenerative food systems strategy and leading the articulation of a ‘Big Bet’ for Food + Climate for the foundation. Sara also directs the diet quality portfolio and is expanding the good food purchasing portfolio and true cost accounting work globally with the aim of shifting the diet quality of 500 million underserved people by 2030.

Previously, Sara co-founded the Global Knowledge Initiative, which she led for a decade, nurturing it from a concept to an organization designated as one of the ‘Top 100 Social Innovations for the next century.’ During her time at GKI, Sara cultivated a dynamic team that she led in the design and execution of GKI’s programs in systems research and evaluation, network optimization, and collaborative innovation strategy setting, work that included serving as The Rockefeller Foundation’s Social Innovation Lab on Waste and Spoilage. Prior to founding GKI, Sara spent a decade as an innovation strategist for the World Bank. She has been commissioned by national governments, and international development organizations (AFDB, UNIDO, etc.) to lead thinking, develop and facilitate networks, and devise policies to strengthen developing countries’ science and innovation capacity.

Equal parts facilitator, systems thinker, collaboration-maker, and strategist, Sara graduated with honors in Science, Technology, and Society from Stanford University’s School of Engineering where she also earned a Masters degree
in International Policy Studies. Following her time at Stanford, Sara did post- graduate study in Technology Policy and Management at the Universidad de Buenos Aires on a Rotary International Ambassadorial Fellowship. Sara’s list of publications includes more than 70 monographs, studies, and papers.

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