Cousin grew up in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago,Illinois,along with her three sisters. Her mother,Anna Cousin,worked in the social services field and her father often engaged in volunteer community development work. In 1971,she was one of 300 female freshmen and 86 sophomores to enter Lane Technical High School,Chicago's top-rated high school of 5,000-plus students that had been all-male until that fall.[3] She graduated in 1975.
Cousin worked in Illinois as assistant attorney general and Western Regional Office director for the Illinois Attorney General's office and as deputy director of the Chicago Ethics Board. In the private sector she was director of governmental affairs for AT&T.
In 1996,she stepped down from that post in order to run the Illinois operation of the Clinton–Gore presidential campaign. After the campaign's victory,she served as vice-president of government,community and political affairs for the second inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1997.
Food industry and charity
In 1997,Cousin received a White House appointment for a four-year term to the board for International Food and Agricultural Development. There she supported many of the agricultural projects being run by the United States Agency for International Development. At the same time,she was vice-president for government and community affairs for Jewel Food stores. In 1999,Albertsons LLC bought Jewel and Cousin became group vice president of public affairs for Albertsons and then senior vice president of public affairs. While working for Albertsons,she also served as president and chair of the company's corporate foundation,managing the organization's philanthropic activities. She also served as the Albertsons official spokesperson.
In 2002,Cousin joined the board of America's Second Harvest,the nation's largest domestic hunger organization,and in 2004 she became its executive vice president and chief operating officer. Among her achievements during this period was leading the organization's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005,an effort which resulted in the distribution of more than 62 million pounds of food to those in need across the Gulf Coast region of the United States. Cousin helped raise the annual revenue of the organization from $20 million to $56 million during her time there.
Cousin left America's Second Harvest in 2006 and founded and served as president of the Polk Street Group,a national public affairs consulting firm located in Chicago. In 2009,she handed over the reins to her son,Maurice Cousin,in order to accept an ambassadorial appointment.
Public sector
U.S. Ambassador,2009–2012
Ambassador Cousin addresses an Earth Day event in Rome in April 2010.
During her time in Rome,she set up new country-led aid programs. She worked towards providing food relief to Port-au-Prince following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake. She said that seeing the famous sights of Rome did not get old but that her biggest surprise in the job was "When people talked about 'Her Excellency,Ertharin Cousin.' You know,I grew up in Lawndale. You're a long way from there when someone's referring to you as 'Your Excellency.'"
Over 120 guests attended a March 2012 farewell event for her at the Chief of Mission Residence.
Executive director of World Food Programme,2012–2017
In January 2012,the U.S. State Department announced that Cousin would become executive director of the UN World Food Programme,succeeding Josette Sheeran when the latter's term expired in April 2012. Cousin was supported in a quote made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in reference to her appointment stating that Cousin "has been central to designing and implementing our country's food security policies. I am confident that she will continue to be a powerful voice in the global fight against hunger and lend her energy,optimism and experience to the World Food Programme." Indeed,Cousin received the nomination after the US opposed another term for Sheeran,who had been appointed by the George W. Bush administration.
Cousin began her tenure as the twelfth executive director on April 5,2012. In taking the position,she stated that she fully supported the WFP's transition from food aid to food assistance:"I think that debate is over. That WFP is a food assistance organization,with the right tools and those tools include food aid. But also cash and vouchers and all the other things we have on the table." During her time in office,WFP support focused on the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan,Syria with its civil war and the Sahel region of Africa.[5]
Since 2020,she has served on the Board of Advisors for Angeleno Group,a private equity and venture capital firm focused on sustainable energy investments.[10]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
