Jen Mayer

Raised in Walnut Creek, California, USA, Jen Mayer’s experience as an agriculture volunteer for the Peace Corps in the Central African Republic led her to pursue her Master’s Degree in International Agriculture Development at the University of California, Davis. She spent nearly 20 years on agricultural and market development, mainly in Africa, with an increasing focus on underutilized, drought-resilient crops and plants. At The Land Institute, Jen works to get perennial grains onto farmlands and into people’s plates.

My most perennial trait: Sticktoitiveness-ask me about all the failures and pivots it took to get a sorghum porridge on grocery shelves in Zimbabwe!