Anne E. McBride, PhD, is vice president of programs at the James Beard Foundation. In that capacity, she oversees JBF’s initiatives around industry leadership, women’s leadership, policy advocacy, sustainability, education, and scholarships, including the Chefs’ Boot Camp for Policy and Change and the Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership program. She holds a PhD in food studies from New York University, with research focusing on the changing role of the chef in the 21st century.

Previously, Anne was deputy director of the Torribera Mediterranean Center, a joint project of the University of Barcelona and the Culinary Institute of America that offered curricula, conferences, and editorial material at the intersection of sustainability, health, and flavor. She remains a member of its culinary and food studies advisory council, and is also a member of the Menus of Change scientific and technical advisory council and the CIA’s master’s in food systems and sustainability advisory council. As programs director for the CIA’s Strategic Initiatives Group for almost a decade, she was responsible for the acclaimed Worlds of Flavor International Conference and Festival, among other industry leadership programs.

Anne has co-authored seven books and written for Plate, New Worlder, Bake from Scratch, Roads & Kingdoms, Food Arts, Gastronomica, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Savoring Gotham, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, and Food Cultures of the World (see Writings). She is currently at work on a dessert cookbook for Phaidon.

In the food studies departments of New York University and the New School, she has taught courses on food and technology, contemporary food issues, food writing, experimental cuisine, food media theory, communications, and career building in the food industry for more than 15 years. At NYU, she also ran for a decade the Experimental Cuisine Collective, an interdisciplinary group of more than 2500 scientists, chefs, media, scholars, and food enthusiasts.

A native of Switzerland, Anne is a past chair of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards, past board member of the Association for the Study of Food and Society, New York Women’s Culinary Alliance, and Culinary Trust, and current treasurer of the North Plainfield Library Advisory Council. She is a frequent presenter and moderator at academic and professional conferences around the world.