Session Lead

Ahmed is the CEO of WICE Foundation Inc., an NGO advancing food systems transformation, science-policy translation, and sustainable development. His career spans academic research, federal science leadership, and international development policy.

Ahmed began his research career in academia, including work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he led research on metabolic syndrome, building a foundation in nutrition science and biomedical research that informed his subsequent policy work.

At USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, Ahmed served as Senior Science Advisor and built one of the agency’s most consequential research portfolios. He led the food loss and waste (FLW) research-to-policy and programming scaling agenda, co-led the USAID FLW Community of Practice, and represented the United States on the UN Food Systems Summit "Food is Never a Waste" Coalition. He also co-chaired the 2024 Aspen Global Change Institute workshop on reducing food loss and waste.

Ahmed also architected USAID’s first food safety research agenda and program, led the agency’s inaugural food safety research project, and his work directly informed the institutional decision to establish USAID’s first dedicated food safety division. In parallel, he led the food systems transformation research agenda, supported the development of the REFS Food Systems Framework, and designed the agency’s first food systems for nutrition research program, establishing a new model for integrating systems thinking into nutrition-sensitive programming.

At WICE Foundation Inc., Ahmed leads initiatives at the intersection of science, policy, and innovation. He spearheads the  "Bridging Science and Policy" food systems convening  and led the development of GrantHunt, an AI-enabled funding intelligence tool built in partnership with Rutgers University’s externship program. His current work spans food systems resilience, conflict-driven food loss, wildfire-health policy, and coastal ecosystem management, with active collaborations across the National Academies of Sciences, federal agencies, academic institutions, and international partners.

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