Drs. Brady and Anne Deaton founded the Deaton Institute in 2013 with the aim of eliminating extreme poverty and food insecurity globally.
Dr. Brady Deaton served as Chancellor of the University of Missouri from 2004 through 2013, after coming to Missouri in 1989 as Department Chair of Agricultural Economics. He also served as Deputy Chancellor and Provost at MU. As an agricultural economist, he engaged in research in Asia, several African countries, and in Haiti and other Caribbean countries. He received five Honorary degrees from universities in Thailand, Korea, India, and the University of Kentucky. Dr. Deaton was appointed by President Obama to Chair of the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), 2011-2016, and continues to serve as a member. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Kentucky and a Ph.D. from Wisconsin.
Dr. Anne Deaton is the Founder and President of Children’s Grove, a Columbia non-profit that promotes kindness in youth and the community. Dr. Anne Deaton’s professional career in higher education and state government has focused on special needs populations including the elderly and persons who are cognitively and physically challenged. Her work in community development, with a focus on poverty and hunger, began during her college years when she engaged in volunteer service in the US and abroad. She has had extensive experience in mentoring and in founding and supporting a wide variety of volunteer programs that raise the quality of community life, serve people in need, and promote international friendships. She is the mother of four and grandmother of seven.
OPERATING LEADERSHIP
Student Director | MU Deaton Scholars Program
Marin Chamberlin (deatonscholars@missouri.edu)
Marin is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Constitutional Democracy and Philosophy from the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She plans to attend law school after the completion of her current coursework.
Programmatic and Fiscal Support
Lindsey Saunders, Associate Director for CAFNR International Programs
Lindsey supports the Deaton Institute with administrative and fiscal support. She currently manages projects in Mexico and West Africa within her work in CAFNR.
PREVIOUS LEADERSHIP
MU Deaton Scholars Program Student Director
Andrés Felipe Mesa Valencia, PhD Rural Sociology
Director of Strategic Partnerships | Deaton Institute
Holly Enowski Hanes (hjem9c@umsystem.edu), MBA Washington University in St. Louis
Holly Enowski was the Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Deaton Institute, focused on facilitating the expansion of the DSP model to other institutions and building Institute capacity to drive greater impact for global food security from 2020-2022. As a previous DSP Director and one of the founders of the program, she has a deep institutional knowledge to assist institutions that seek to replicate our interdisciplinary engagement framework.
MU Deaton Scholars Program Student Director
Rishabh Mahendra, Ph.D. candidate in Agricultural and Applied Economics
Rishabh is pursuing a Ph.D. in agricultural and applied economics at the Division of Applied Social Sciences, College for Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources of the University of Missouri-Columbia. The focus of his Ph.D. will be on development and environmental economics. He is a student board member of the Student Affairs’ Assessment Board at the University of Missouri. Under Rishabh’s leadership, the University of Missouri established a Universities Fighting World Hunger chapter in Fall 2021.