Devon Klatell joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2013. As Vice President, Food Initiative, she oversees the Foundation’s Good Food Strategy in the United States, working to advance a more nourishing, regenerative and equitable domestic food system. Currently, Ms. Klatell is collaborating with schools, healthcare insurers, hospitals, food service businesses, policy makers and other funders to increase consumption of healthy, sustainably produced foods by underserved communities. In addition, Ms. Klatell leads our work on the True Cost of Food, which analyzes the hidden costs of the food system on health, equity and the environment.
Prior to taking on her current role, Ms. Klatell led our Yieldwise initiative which invested in preventing wasted food in the U.S., to eliminate the enormous environmental, social, and economic costs caused by food waste. She also led the Foundation’s Strategic Planning team, which designed implementation models, resource plans, risk assessments and impact targets for the Foundation’s global initiatives. In that role, Devon worked on the Foundation’s initiatives to address energy poverty, connect unemployed African youth with the digital economy, and reduce postharvest losses. Before joining the Foundation, Devon was a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners and at Booz & Company. In these roles, she advised clients from a range of sectors on strategic, organizational, and employee engagement issues.
Ms. Klatell holds a B.A. from Harvard University in cognitive psychology and an M.A. in food systems from New York University, where she researched behavioral economics in addition to a broad array of cultural, historic, economic, and regulatory food issues.
Authored Content
Oct 30 2023 Perspective Food Is Medicine Enhances Health While Slashing Health Care Costs Medically tailored groceries helped Donna Lawson manage her illness and food insecurity — illustrating how scaling Food is Medicine programs can improve health, reduce costs, and advance equity across the U.S.
Sep 19 2022 Perspective How Can We Make the U.S. Food System Better for People and the Planet? The second-ever White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health is a moment more than 50 years in the making. It’s a historic opportunity to bring together policymakers, non-profit leaders, food and agriculture system stakeholders, and those with lived experiences to tackle some of the most persistent, intersecting, and growing challenges affecting low-income Americans, particularly […]
Mar 13 2017 Perspective SXSW: Getting to Zero Late last week, SXSW—the Austin-based conference and festival that explores the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries—made a bold statement. In an ambitious blog post at the start of its 2017 gathering, SXSW became the first event of its kind to announce its intention to eliminate wasted food at its conference and […]
Nov 01 2016 Perspective 2016: The Birth of the U.S. Food Waste Movement? The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 – which calls for halving food waste and reducing food losses globally by 2030 – may be an ambitious goal, but it’s one The Rockefeller Foundation believes is fully achievable. Our YieldWise initiative, which we launched in January, commits $130 million to prove this goal is within reach. […]