Sarah Evanega

Sarah Evanega has over fifteen years of experience leading interdisciplinary global teams focused on solving salient problems in food and agriculture. She consults on topics related to international agriculture, biotechnology advocacy, and nutritional security. Evanega is currently based at Cornell University where she serves as an adjunct associate professor in the school of integrative plant science. She has worked in the public and private sector and served as the director for stakeholder communication at Pairwise—a food and tech start-up committed to building a healthier world through better fruits and vegetables. Prior, Evanega served as the founding director of the Alliance for Science—a global communications and capacity building initiative that aims to improve science literacy and science-informed policy making across a range of science issues, including agricultural biotechnology. For twelve years, Evanega was based in International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Science (IP-CALS) at Cornell where she launched and led international projects focused on ensuring a more equitable, food secure world.

Evanega is the 2021 Borlaug CAST Communication Award winner and in 2022 she received the Mary Clutter Leadership in Science Public Service Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists. She is a Senior Fellow at the Breakthrough Institute. Evanega received her Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Cornell University in 2009. She completed a B.A. in Biology at Reed College in Portland Oregon. Evanega grew up in a small agricultural village in northwest Illinois and today enjoys life in the Finger Lakes with her children.