Corey O'Hara, MS

Mentors   Dr. Coates

Recent Work

Smallholder farm families make up one third of the world’s population, yet they experience few advantages of and increasing pressures from our increasingly global economy. My research explores what happens in these households as farmers shift from subsistence to commercial farming—the role of increased market participation on diets and intra-household dynamics including gender relationships. My current projects are in western Nepal, where I am testing new models to reach the poorest farmers and documenting their impact on women, children, and marginalized groups.

My work in Nepal began with an internship as a student in the Agriculture, Food, and Environment program in 2006, at which time I worked with Winrock International and International Development Enterprises on sustainable tea and coffee programming and developed a model to integrate health and nutrition education projects into their joint agriculture program.

Later, as Associate Director at the Clinton Global Initiative, I was responsible for more than 2,000 projects developed by member organizations to address challenges around the globe. While in this role, I established the Haiti Action Network of public, nonprofit, and private-sector organizations and coordinated the group's hurricane and earthquake relief efforts. In 2011, I left CGI to develop a culinary tourism project and then to consult for global food companies on responsible sourcing strategies that support small farmers in developing countries.

I see the global small farmer as having substantial untapped potential to improve local and regional food security while raising their own families out of poverty, and through my work I hope to make the necessary connections to help them to realize this potential.