Global Agroecology Leadership Program

Mobilizing university-based agroecologists as catalysts for just food systems transformation.

Program Description

This year, we are piloting a Global Agroecological Leadership program designed to help university-based agroecologists play a stronger role in creating more just and sustainable food systems. After building the program with a group of leaders in this inaugural year (2026-2027) we aim to offer this program to annual cohorts of leaders from across the globe. 

The program supports participants in building leadership skills, learning from one another, and finding effective ways to use their roles within universities to support positive change in their communities and contribute to broader agroecology movements around the world.

Context: 

Working together to create knowledge is central to agroecology and food systems change. However, bringing collaborative, cross-disciplinary approaches into universities and research institutions can be difficult. These approaches require different ways of thinking, learning, and working that often do not fit with academic cultures that reward individual achievement, competition, and top-down research. Making this shift requires more than changes to institutional policies and structures. It also requires changes in culture and practice, along with investments in the leadership, skills, and relationships that help researchers work alongside communities and contribute to meaningful change.

Program Goals: 

This leadership program supports early- and mid-career researchers and educators who want to advance agroecology and help drive positive food systems change. It provides a space for participants to learn together, reflect on their leadership journeys, and build meaningful connections with peers from around the world.

The program encourages a collaborative approach to leadership based on participation, shared responsibility, and collective action rather than traditional models that emphasize hierarchy and individual achievement. Participants will strengthen their ability to work across disciplines and to engage effectively with farmers, community organizations, NGOs, and social movements. They will also explore how universities can contribute more meaningfully to social and ecological transformation.

Through a global network of support, solidarity, and shared learning, fellows will build the skills, relationships, and confidence needed to advance agroecology through their research, teaching, and leadership. Ultimately, the program aims to help participants not only be more effective within their institutions, but also contribute to the broader cultural and institutional changes needed to create more just, sustainable, and resilient food systems.

The Development Year: A Participatory Action Research Approach

This first year is a unique opportunity to both participate in and co-create the Global Agroecological Leadership Program. Together, we will strengthen our leadership capacities while designing a program that can serve future cohorts. Guided by an initial framework and a facilitated participatory process, we will shape the program through shared learning, reflection, and action—effectively becoming its first cohort while helping to build its future.
 

Research/Learning objectives: 

• Identify and articulate the core domains of leadership for agroecological academic leadership.
• Build out an understanding of the key competencies and skills, along with the pedagogical approaches to influencing our institutions.
• Map out the barriers, along with the strategies and approaches, advancing agroecology in universities along with the methods and approaches.
• Develop a shared analysis of how to build power inside and outside of academia to advance just transformations.
• To build out each of our own plans for agroecological leadership in solidarity and community with the cohort.

Anticipated outcomes:

• Initial basis for 11 modules on leadership to be built into the curriculum for the Global Leaders Program
• One collectively written journal article.
• A certificate of completion for all participants and added to the map and network of Agroecological co-leaders (i.e. alumni of the program).
• Joy, friendship, learning and opportunities for collaboration with cohort members.

Program Facilitators

Curriculum Facilitators: Colin R. Anderson, with Ernesto Mendez, Amaya Carrasco-Torrontegui and Faris Ahmed

Participatory Research Component Lead: Amaya Carrasco-Torrontegui

Course Participants