2019 Speaker | Rev. David Beckmann
Rev. David Beckmann
President, Bread for the World
World Food Prize laureate David Beckmann is one of the foremost U.S. advocates for people living with hunger and poverty. He has been president of Bread for the World and Bread for the World Institute since 1991, leading large-scale and successful campaigns to strengthen U.S. political commitment to overcome hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. He also founded and serves as president of the Alliance to End Hunger, which engages diverse institutions in building the political will to end hunger.
Beckmann is a Lutheran pastor as well as an economist. He earned degrees from Yale University, Christ Seminary, and the London School of Economics. Six universities have awarded him honorary doctorates.
Beckmann has served on the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, USAID’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid, the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa of the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. Department of State’s Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group, and the Executive Committee of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network. He has served as a board member of InterAction, the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, the ONE Campaign, the National Anti-Hunger Organizations, and the U.N. Millennium Hunger Task Force.
Prior to joining Bread, Beckmann worked at the World Bank for 15 years, overseeing large development projects and driving innovations to make the bank more effective in reducing poverty.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION
BREAD FOR THE WORLD
Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. By changing policies, programs, and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist, we provide help and opportunity far beyond the communities where we live.