Cynthia Steen has more than 25 years of international development experience working throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, India, the Middle East, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and Africa. She currently serves as a senior technical expert for ACDI/VOCA’s agribusiness practice area. Her expertise encompasses livestock industries, including dairy and meat, and the entire fruit and vegetable value chain—from crop advisor and project manager for member-based associations to sales and marketing of both perishable and processed foods. She is adept at developing market linkages among a variety of value chain actors, including producers, traders, processors, tourism-related enterprises, local governments and cooperatives. Ms. Steen recently served as chief of party for ACDI/VOCA’s program in Jamaica, where she managed the start-up of a complex project that aims to capitalize on the country’s unrealized agricultural potential to benefit local economies and smallholder farmers. The project works closely with the Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to coordinate activities and emphasizes working with local associations and producers’ groups to build their institutional capacity to ensure sustainability. Previously Ms. Steen served as chief of party for the USAID-funded Enterprise Development and Export Market Services project in Albania, working with private sector industry leaders in the tourism, agriculture and agribusiness economic sectors. Ms. Steen also headed the highly touted Egypt AgLink Program. She earned her M.B.A. with a concentration in agribusiness and her B.A. in agriculture science from California Polytechnic State University. Ms. Steen is proficient in Spanish.
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