Erin Biehl
Program Officer, Food System Sustainability & Public Health Program
Erin is the Program Officer for the Food System Sustainability and Public Health Program. In this role, she coordinates research, policy and outreach activities related to the program’s three focus areas: reducing wasted food, supporting urban food system resilience and connecting diet and climate change.
A “Yooper” from Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula, Erin grew up with a hearty appreciation for the outdoors. She earned a BA in public policy from the University of Michigan and focused on environmental policy. With a growing awareness of food’s vital connection to environmental sustainability, she joined AmeriCorps in 2011 and implemented farm-to-cafeteria programs as an Environmental Educator at Phoenix Charter School (Roseburg, Ore.) and as a Farm to Table Coordinator at Camp Korey (Carnation, Wash.).
In 2013 Erin returned to school to earn a MS in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a focus in human nutrition. During her graduate studies, she worked with Johns Hopkins faculty to evaluate a school-based nutrition education program in New York City Public Schools. Through the US Borlaug Fellowship in Global Food Security and the Nutrition Innovation Lab: Asia, she researched the cost of nutritious local diets in rural Nepali communities before completing her degree in 2015.
Although Erin spends most of her time thinking about, cooking and eating food, she also enjoys playing music, hiking and swimming.