Opening Address • Wednesday, October 18
Governor JB Pritzker
Governor JB Pritzker was sworn in as the 43rd Governor of Illinois on Jan. 14, 2019. He was reelected with historic margins in 2022. Since taking office, he has accomplished one of the most ambitious and consequential policy agendas in state history.
The governor won bipartisan passage for Rebuild Illinois, the largest investment in state history to upgrade roads, bridges, rail, broadband, and schools. He overcame years of fiscal mismanagement in Illinois by proposing and passing a balanced budget every year, eliminating the state's multi-billion dollar bill backlog, reducing the state's pension liability, and achieving eight credit upgrades from rating agencies.
In 2021, Governor Pritzker proposed and signed a comprehensive clean energy bill, making Illinois a national leader in climate action and the first state in the Midwest to pass a law phasing out fossil fuels to build a clean energy economy for the future.
Since the start of his second term, Governor Pritzker has prioritized community health and safety for every Illinoisan, including signing an assault weapons ban into law, protecting a woman's right to choose, and supporting plans to provide paid leave to every worker in the state.
Opening Session • Wednesday, October 18
Session Details
Eleanor Beck
Professor Eleanor Beck is Head of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Eleanor is a dietitian with more than 30 years of experience in clinical practice and dietetics education, including engagement in the development of competency standards, assessment processes, and accreditation standards, as well as leadership of dietetics education programs. Eleanor's research focuses on the prevention of disease and, in particular, strategies to encourage individuals to consume more high-fibre and whole-grain foods. This includes work on systems to assist food choices, such as nutrient profiling systems, whole grain food definitions, and fortification and processing of grains. Eleanor considers clear and consistent definitions critical to providing clear messages to the public. Her research also includes advocacy for all health professionals to have enhanced nutrition knowledge to improve population health outcomes. Eleanor is a Fellow of Dietitians Australia and Chair of the Council of Deans of Nutrition and Dietetics (Australia, New Zealand).
Julie M. Jones
Julie Miller Jones, Ph.D., CNS, CFS, is an emeritus professor of Family, Consumer, and Nutritional Sciences at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN. She has been active in many scientific organizations over the years, serving as the president of AACC International (currently Cereals & Grains Association) and Les Dames d'Escoffier, MN, and chaired the Institute of Food Technologists, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, IFIC, and American Society of Nutrition's Joint Task Force on Food Solutions, which assessed processed food categorization and diets with processed foods. She advises many groups, including the Grain Foods Foundation, Il CEREALES (LATAM), CIMMYT (International Center for the Improvement of Wheat and Maize), Mexico, and formerly Canada's Healthy Grains Institute. She has authored many papers and speaks frequently about grains and whole grains, dietary patterns and health, and carbohydrates. In addition to being named a fellow of AACC International (currently Cereals & Grains Association), ICC, and IFT, she has received many awards, including the Dream Maker Award from Living Well with Disabilities (MN) for her work developing quarterly menus (one per season) for group homes. The menus reflected the ethnicities of the residents, had adaptations for health conditions, and allowed resident involvement in preparation using modifications and adaptive equipment.
Closing Keynote • Friday, October 20
Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig
Session Details
Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the co-located Columbia University Climate School’s Center for Climate Systems Research. Dr. Rosenzweig’s specific area of expertise is climate change and food systems. At NASA GISS, she heads the Climate Impacts Group whose mission is to investigate the interactions of climate (both variability and change) on systems and sectors important to human well-being.
Dr. Rosenzweig is the co-founder and member of the Executive Committee of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), a globally integrated transdisciplinary study of climate change and the food system at regional, national and global scales, including the participation of over 1000 leading researchers from developed and developing nations. She has developed new methods of detection and attribution of observed changes in physical and biological systems to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and pioneered research on the impacts of and adaptation to climate change and climate variability. In 2019, Dr. Rosenzweig was Coordinating Lead Author of the Food Security Chapter for the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land. She is the 2022 recipient of the World Food Prize, considered as the “Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture.”