Senior Youth Advisor
Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security
USAID
Jane Lowicki-Zucca serves as Senior Youth Advisor within USAID’s Bureau for Resilience, Environment and Food Security (REFS), where she works to strengthen the Agency’s efforts to engage youth in inclusive and sustainable agriculture-led growth, nutrition, resilience and water security, sanitation and hygiene activities through a combination of technical innovation and advising, evidence generation, knowledge management, and global engagement. She co-led U.S. negotiations of the first-ever Committee on World Food Security Policy Recommendations Promoting Youth Engagement and Employment in Agriculture and Food Systems, is an Expert Advisor for the FAO Report on the Status of Rural Youth in Agri-food Systems, and is a proponent of more and better jobs for youth that lead to greener outcomes. She previously served as Program Director with GOAL Uganda, leading the Driving Youth-led New Agribusiness and Microenterprise in Northern Uganda (DYNAMIC) program, a flagship youth-focused market systems development program of the Mastercard Foundation. Jane has held various leadership positions with NGOs and the United Nations across three decades of humanitarian and development service, with an emphasis on youth development. As Director of the Women’s Refugee Commission, International Rescue Committee, Children and Adolescents Project, Jane pioneered participatory approaches to working with conflict-affected young people in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Uganda. Jane has authored numerous studies and reports, including the seminal Untapped Potential, Adolescents Affected by Armed Conflict. She earned her BA in Government, with concentrations in International Relations and Women’s Studies from Cornell University. She holds an MPA in Public and Non-profit Management and Policy, with a specialization in International Public Policy from New York University. Jane has served as Adjunct Faculty at New York University (NYU) Center for Global Affairs. She is an NYU Catherine B. Reynolds Social Entrepreneurship Fellow, an American Field Service Volunteer, and was an elected labor leader as a youth.