Commencement

Dr. Shannon Mesenhowski
Senior Program Officer, Livestock Team, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Dr. Mesenhowski joined the foundation in January 2016 as a part of Agriculture Development’s Livestock team. She is responsible for the animal systems body of work, focusing on policy, data, veterinary service, advocacy, and collaboration as tools for optimizing livestock’s role in development. She has been engaged with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) as a member of the Committee on International Veterinary Affairs, organized the inaugural AVMA Global Food Security Summit, and was appointed to the AVMA/AAVMC Veterinary Futures Commission. Prior to joining BMGF Shannon worked at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In her time at USAID she worked on both the development and humanitarian priorities of the agency. She served as a Global Health Fellows Program II Fellow in the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) as the Livestock Advisor responsible for livestock health, husbandry, and nutrition during international humanitarian crises. Prior to that she was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow in the Bureau for Food Security as a member of the Policy Team for the President's Feed the Future Initiative. After completion of her Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) and Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degrees from the University of Minnesota, Shannon worked in private clinical veterinary practice doing both mixed and small animal work in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Myrtle Point, Oregon.