TCU Symposium: Global Food Crisis and Vulnerable Populations

Join the Pulitzer Center and Texas Christian University on April 12, 2022, at 2:00pm CDT for a symposium focused on the global food crisis and vulnerable populations. The panel will bring together journalists and experts from private and nonprofit sectors with varying backgrounds in food research and reporting in this area.

The conversation will be moderated by Patty Zamarripa. She will be joined by panelists Melanie Saltzman, Paul Skoczylas, Megan Thompson, and Julie Butner. You can read more about them below.

This in-person conversation, which also welcomes virtual participants, will be held in the Justin Boardroom at the Dee J. Kelly Alumni & Visitors Center.

Moderator:

Patty Zamarripa is an Emmy-winning TV news producer and journalism professor from the border town of Mission, Texas. Her passion for news has led her to organizations such as CBS News, NBC, the Telemundo Production Center in Fort Worth, Texas, and Mission Local in San Francisco.

Panelists:

Melanie Saltzman reports, shoots, and produces stories on a wide range of issues, including global food issues, public health, the environment, and international affairs.

For her most recent Pulitzer Center-supported project, The Future of Food with PBS NewsHour Weekend, she and her team explored growing issues in the global food supply and possible solutions. She holds a master's in journalism from Northwestern University, where she was a McCormick National Security fellow. She is a Fulbright scholar, a Pulitzer Center grantee, and a Carter fellow. Saltzman lives in both Colombia and the United States.

Megan Thompson is an award-winning correspondent, producer, shooter, and editor. She most recently served as a correspondent and substitute anchor for the weekend edition of PBS NewsHour, and worked previously on several other national news and documentary shows on PBS. She was also a part of the Pulitzer Center-supported project The Future of Food with PBS NewsHour Weekend. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.

Julie Butner is president and CEO of the Tarrant Area Food Bank. Prior to joining the food bank, Butner spent most of her career working in the health care and hospitality industries, specifically focused on food and nutrition, and has held a variety of leadership positions in operations and business development. Butner graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor's in nutrition and coordinated dietetics, and she holds a master's in food systems management with an emphasis in health promotion from the University of Oklahoma.

Paul Skoczylas is the deputy director of the World Food Programme's U.N. System and Multilateral Engagement Division in New York. He spent years in the field with WFP, leading large-scale humanitarian and development projects in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.

Prior to joining the U.N., Skoczylas was a special assistant to the undersecretary of state, shaping U.S. policy and public diplomacy during economic, energy, and food crises. For nearly four years, he was a staff member in the White House Office of Policy Development, launching a number of economic development and anti-poverty initiatives.