Valerie Guarnieri is WFP’s Assistant Executive Director for Programme and Policy Development since 2018. In this role, she leads work across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus to provide food, cash and technical assistance to help meet urgent needs, build human capital and improve food security. Prior to this, she served as WFP Regional Director for East and Central Africa, supporting some of WFP’s most complex country operations. Before WFP, she worked in the US Government, at the National Security Council and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).