Anupama Joshi named CSPI vice president for programs

Anupama Joshi has been named vice president for programs at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Joshi comes to CSPI from the Blue Sky Funders Forum where she had served as executive director since 2018.

A working group of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, Blue Sky Funders Forum seeks to inspire philanthropy supporting equitable access to meaningful outdoor experiences and connections to nature. Earlier, Joshi co-founded and led the National Farm to School Network, which promotes increased access to local food and nutrition education to improve children’s health, strengthen family farms, and cultivate vibrant communities.

“In Anupama Joshi, CSPI has found a visionary and strategic leader and thinker who will help advance policies that give Americans access to healthy, affordable, and sustainable food,” said CSPI president Dr. Peter G. Lurie.

Joshi holds an MS in nutrition from M.S. University in Baroda, India, and spent the first part of her  career on nutrition, nutrition education, and sustainable agriculture projects in India, Thailand, and Malaysia. Joshi shaped the early farm to school work in the U.S.  as program director of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College, and in 2007, established the National Farm to School Network— a coalition of more than 200 nonprofits, government agencies, and academic institutions, and more than 20,000 individual members across the country. She advocated for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to embrace farm to school initiatives. Thanks to her leadership, more than $75 million in federal funding for farm to school grants have been issued by the agency. 

“I have long admired CSPI’s track record as our food and health watchdog, and its work to advance better food in schools, restaurants, supermarkets, and our own kitchens,” said Joshi. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to lead such a talented team, and to help generate even more momentum for equitable and just food policy.” 

Joshi is also co-author with Robert Gottlieb of Food Justice (MIT Press, 2010) and is widely published in academic journals. She serves on the boards of the Food Recovery Network, the Triangle Land Conservancy, and the Farmers Market Coalition.  

CSPI led the campaign to require Nutrition Facts on packaged foods in the early 1990s. In the 2000s and 2010s, CSPI led successful campaigns to get soda and junk food out of schools, place calories on chain restaurant menus, improve allergen labeling, pass landmark food safety reform, and eliminate artificial trans fat from the food supply. CSPI takes no donations from corporations or government agencies and is supported by more than 400,000 member-subscribers to its flagship publication, Nutrition Action, which accepts no advertising. 

Contact Info:  Jeff Cronin