Corinna Hawkes

Hawkes studied geography at the University of Bristol. She moved to King's College London as a postgraduate researcher, and earned her PhD in 1998. Her PhD focussed on ecology and food systems.[4][5]

After her PhD Hawkes moved to Los Angeles, where she discovered farmers' markets.[6] She returned to the United Kingdom and volunteered for the organisation Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.[6] She began to research food poverty and became interested in a career in food policy. She also worked in New York City.[6]

Hawkes was appointed chair of the World Health Organisation expert group on the marketing of food and non-alcoholic drinks to children.[7] In 2009 Hawkes joined the International Food Policy Research Institute.[4] She moved to the University of São Paulo where she served as a Fellow in the School of Public Health.[8][9]

In 2012 Hawkes moved to the World Cancer Research Fund International, where she served as Head of Policy and Public Affairs.[10] She established the NOURISHING policy framework of policies that promotes and tracks healthy diets.[11][12] As Hawkes starts from the perspective of the eater, she connects the challenges of agriculture, healthy eating and food security.[13] She published the annual Global Nutrition Report, identifying places for progress.[14] The report includes global targets for nutrition as defined by the Sustainable Development Goals.[6] In the 2015 report, Hawkes made a number of findings, including that he increased number of refugee children results in more stunted growth.[14] She found that the majority of countries are not on target for reducing anemia and obesity.[15] She identified that only 15% of children in developing countries were receiving adequate nutrition.[15]

In 2016 Hawkes was made Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Agriculture.[16] She joined the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London. Here she looks to make a more sustainable and equal global food system.[17] She led the report Food Systems and Diets: Facing the Challenges of the 21st Century.[18] She was one of several signatories who requested a sugary drink tax in South Africa.[19] She was appointed to the City Hall Food Board in 2017.[20] In 2018 the Mayor of London appointed Hawkes as the Vice Chair of the London Child Obesity Taskforce.[21]

She has written a series of essays on the evidence that must be required to prevent obesity, and is a member of The Lancet commission on obesity.[22][23][24] She has argued that the people of a food system should be involved in the creation of new policies, and that extra value needs to be placed on their lived experiences. Hakwes created a report on food policy for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, defining the sweetspot of food systems at the intersection of the environment, economy and health.[25] The systems approach recognises that food production is a complex process, which requires cross-government collaboration.[25]

Hawkes is an advisor for the Leverhulme Trust Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health and a member of the EAT Forum.[26][27] She developed their Department for International Development map of agriculture-nutrition research.[26] She has written for The Conversation.[28]