Daniel Maxwell

5

Articles

0

Comments

Daniel Maxwell is Professor Emeritus, The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. From 2017 until the end of 2025 he was the Henry J. Leir Professor in Food Security at Tufts and in 2016-2017, the Acting Director of the Feinstein International Center—an institute researching humanitarian crises and populations at risk. He is the author, with Nisar Majid, of Famine in Somalia: Competing Imperatives, Collective Failures (2016, Oxford University Press). He is the author, with Kirsten Gelsdorf, of Understanding the Humanitarian World (2019, Routledge). At the Feinstein Center he led research on famine, food security, livelihoods systems in crisis, and humanitarian information systems. He taught courses on famine, livelihoods and humanitarian action.

Dan continues to work with governments, humanitarian agencies, and affected communities at the grass roots, national, and regional levels to build the evidence base for improved humanitarian and resilience programming and policy. He developed the coping strategies index (CSI), one of the most commonly used food security indicators that enables governments and NGOs responding to crises to quickly understand the food security status of large numbers of people.

Prior to joining Tufts, Dan spent twenty years in leadership positions with international humanitarian agencies and research institutes. He was regional food security and livelihoods advisor and deputy regional director for CARE International in Eastern and Central Africa, Rockefeller Post-Doctoral Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, and worked for the Mennonite Central Committee for ten years in Tanzania and Uganda. He holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin and an MSc from Cornell University.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor Emeritus, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University
  • 2017–2025
    Henry J. Leir Professor in Food Security, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University
  • 2016–2017
    Acting Director, Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
  • 2012–2016
    Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University
  • 2006–2012
    Associate Professor, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University
  • 2008–2011
    Chair, Department of Food and Nutrition Policy, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University
  • 2003–2006
    Deputy Regional Director, Eastern and Central Africa, CARE International
  • 1998–2003
    Regional Program Coordinator, Eastern and Central Africa, CARE International
  • 1995–1998
    Rockefeller Post Doctoral Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute
  • 1986–1990
    Country Director for Uganda, Mennonite Central Committee

Education

  • 1995 
    University of Wisconsin, PhD
  • 1986 
    Cornell University, M.Sc.
  • 1977 
    Wilmington College, B.Sc.

Contact Daniel for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision