At its semiannual meeting in July the Hunger Center Board of Directors elected three new members for three-year terms: Yesenia Garcia, Vice President of WE Communications of Bellevue, Washington; Joan McGlockton, Vice President, Corporate Secretary, Associate General Counsel, Litigation and Corporate Affairs at Sodexo and President of the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation; and Azad Oommen, co-founder and CEO of Global School Leaders. Two of the new members are alums of the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellowship and outgoing members the Hunger Center’s Alum Council.
“I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome our three newest Board Members,” said Executive Director Shannon Maynard.“Their expertise in governance, government affairs, public relations, and leadership development will be valuable assets to the Hunger Center’s leadership team. Furthermore, as we mark our 30th anniversary, it’s gratifying to see how our investment in leadership development continues to bear fruit. Our alums are taking up positions where they can have influence and make an impact in the movement to end hunger, including through board service.”
Yesenia García started her career as a member of the 10th class of Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows (2003-2004), where she served at the Children’s Alliance in Seattle, Washington and UnidosUS in Washington, D.C. The program inspired her passion for addressing complex issues through a variety of approaches–from mobilizing Latinx voters to counseling Fortune 500 companies on social impact initiatives. Today, Yesenia is a Vice President at WE Communications, a global integrated communications firm, with clients including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, data.org, Upaya Social Ventures, and WeProtect Global Alliance. Before joining WE, Yesenia worked as an Account Director at GMMB with a focus on global health and nutrition clients and spent nearly a decade working with D.C.-based advocacy organizations dedicated to addressing global hunger and malnutrition, including the Alliance to End Hunger and 1,000 Days, and served on Bread for the World’s Board of Directors from 2011-2014. Yesenia graduated from Boston College with a BA in International Studies and earned a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University’s Fletcher School.
“I’m honored to join the Congressional Hunger Center’s community of leaders, staff and fellows dedicated to ending hunger around the world,” she said. “It is a momentous opportunity to join the Hunger Center’s Board of Directors 20 years after serving as a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow in 2003. The program helped launch my career and development as a leader, and I look forward to helping to advance its mission to develop and connect leaders, including those who’ve experienced systemic inequality and injustice.”
Joan Rector McGlockton serves as Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Sodexo, Inc. She oversees corporate affairs, corporate governance, government affairs, and law department operations. Joan joined Sodexo in 1998, following a long career at Marriott Corporation where she served as Corporate Secretary. From 2010 to 2016, Joan was the Vice President of Industry Affairs and Food Policy for the National Restaurant Association, where she was the architect of the Association’s award-winning Kids LiveWell program to increase healthy meals for children in the nation’s restaurants. In this position, she also provided leadership and expertise on a wide spectrum of food policy issues, including food and healthy living. Joan currently chairs the Board of Directors of the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, of which she was a founding member, and sits on the Board of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and the Manna Food Bank. In the past, she served on the boards of the Maya Angelou Public Charter School and the American Dietetic Association Foundation. Joan received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University in economics and a law degree from Harvard Law School.
“Addressing the root causes of hunger and investing in our youth are critical,” she said. “I’m honored to join the board and excited to contribute.”
Azad Oommen is the co-founder of Global School Leaders (GSL), a non-profit that develops effective school leadership to improve learning of students from marginalized communities around the world. GSL currently works with partners in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya and Malaysia to implement school leader development programs. He was the founding Executive Director of the Central Square Foundation, an India-based venture philanthropy fund that invests in systemic reforms to improve the quality of student learning. He has worked extensively to promote young leaders, having run leadership development programs for the American India Foundation in India, City Year in South Africa, and the Congressional Hunger Center in the U.S. He serves on the board of the Impact Innovators and Entrepreneurs Foundation (Villgro US) and is an Advisor to the Central Square Foundation and Saarthi in India. Azad has a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs and a Bachelor’s degree in International Economics from Georgetown University.
“It’s really an honor to join the board of the organization that provided me foundational professional experiences – as an intern, a Fellow, and a Program Director,” he said. “The threads of a purpose-driven life, blending community and policy work, and investing in leaders are ones that have marked my professional life and I owe these lessons to the Hunger Center. On a personal level, some of my life’s most significant friendships have come through the Hunger Center, and reinforces the idea that individually we have our own leadership journey, but collectively exercising leadership is empowering and fulfilling.”
We are very excited by the passion, experience, and expertise that all three new members bring to the Hunger Center’s Board and are looking forward to working with them for a strong start to our fourth decade of fighting hunger by developing leaders.
Founded in 1993 by a bipartisan group of Members of Congress, the Hunger Center is dedicated to the principle that access to nutritious, affordable, and culturally appropriate food is a basic human right. We develop, inspire, and connect leaders in the movement to end hunger, and advocate for public policies that will create a food secure world.