Kimberly Flowers’ (Bulgaria) career in development

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Kimberly Flowers (Bulgaria 1999-01)

Kimberly Flowers (Bulgaria 1999-01) is the executive director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where she advances the institution’s engagement with public policy issues across academic disciplines.

Previously, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), she was named the first full-time director for the Global Food Security Program in 2015, and created and directed the Humanitarian Agenda program in 2017. During her time at CSIS, she primarily analyzed the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance programs and policies that impact global hunger and malnutrition, and became a frequent speaker, moderator, and author on issues ranging from the global food system to humanitarian aid.

Ms. Flowers has published in Forbes; Georgetown University’s Journal of International Affairs; and has been quoted in congressional testimonies, Foreign Policy, and the Washington Post. She led a high-level task force on humanitarian access constraints and conducted field research in more than 12 countries, including leading bipartisan, bicameral congressional staff delegations.

Prior to joining CSIS, Ms. Flowers was the communications director for Fintrac, an international development company focusing on hunger eradication and poverty alleviation through agricultural solutions.

From 2005 to 2011, she worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), serving overseas as a development, outreach, and communications officer in Ethiopia and Jamaica; supporting public affairs in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake; and leading strategic communications for the U.S. government’s global hunger and nutrition initiative.

Ms. Flowers began her international development career in 1999 as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria, where she founded a young women’s leadership camp that continues today. She also served as a Peace Corps Response volunteer in Jamaica in 2004. She is a magna cum laude graduate of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouris and an alumna of the Pryor Center for Leadership Development, and studied at Oxford University.