Black businesswoman showing a report on a piece of paper to a black man and white woman at a table in an office environment Black businesswoman showing a report on a piece of paper to a black man and white woman at a table in an office environment

Building Diversity & Inclusion in the Agriculture Technology Venture Capital Industry

Portrait of LaKisha Odom.

LaKisha Odom, Ph.D.

Scientific Program Director
Sustaining Vibrant Agroecosystems

Washington, D.C.

Dr. LaKisha Odom Comments on Kirchner Impact Foundation Partnership

Dr. LaKisha Odom is a FFAR scientific program director, where she promotes the use of innovative science and interdisciplinary thinking to tackle today’s complex food and agriculture challenges. She is also committed to cultivating increased diversity in today’s scientific workforce to address the food and agriculture challenges of tomorrow.

The Kirchner Impact Foundation invited Odom to discuss how FFAR’s partnership with the Kirchner HBCU Fellowship helps meet both foundations’ workforce development goals.

Watch the interview.

Portrait of LaKisha Odom.
What excites me the most about the Kirchner Fellowships is the level of thoughtfulness that the Kirchner team puts into creating a program that is useful and supportive to students. LaKisha Odom, Ph.D.
Scientific Program Director
Sustaining Vibrant Agroecosystems

Building exposure to and diversity & inclusion in the industry

The Kirchner Fellowship HBCU cohort is part of a $1 million collaboration between The Kirchner Impact Foundation and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research to increase diversity within the venture capital industry by training students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to become agriculture technology venture capitalists. Kirchner HBCU fellows invest capital in early-stage food and agriculture companies applying ground-breaking technologies to provide sustainable solutions to address global food challenges.

ID: 22-000517-MOU