Erin Lentz

Visiting Fellow

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Erin Lentz is an associate professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research explores food security; gender, nutrition, and agriculture linkages; and U.S. food aid and food assistance policies. Lentz is currently pursuing three research agendas. With her collaborators, she has developed the Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index and is field testing it. Lentz studies U.S. and international food aid and food assistance policies, informing her 2018 Congressional testimony on reforming food aid. She also researches innovative approaches to improving early warning for food insecurity crises in southern Africa.

Lentz received a Fulbright fellowship to Bangladesh in 2006-7 and has worked with numerous NGOs and international agencies. She has published over twenty journal articles and one book.

Lentz holds a Ph.D. in sociology, an M.S. in applied economics and management, and a B.A. in economics from Cornell University.

In her spare time, she enjoys hiking with her family and dog.

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MOST CITED BOOKS & ARTICLES

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RECENT NEWS

Dan Maxwell publishes in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction

Dan Maxwell and Erin Lentz published their article, “How do information problems constrain anticipating, mitigating, and responding to crises?” in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction Volume 81, 15…

FEINSTEIN PUBLICATIONS

Word cloud of early warning related terms

Early Warning and Early Action for Increased Resilience of Livelihoods in IGAD Region

Multiple calls have been issued for better preparedness, early warning, and, above all, early action to prevent hunger and malnutrition, reduce the scale of food insecurity, improve resilience, and reduce…

Early Warning and Early Action in the IGAD Region: Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning Approaches to Support EW-EA

This study examines the links between early warning and early action (EW-EA) in East Africa. The report deals specifically with new technology in predictive analytics and machine learning to enhance approaches to EW-EA.

Early Warning and Early Action in the IGAD Region: Description of Regional and National EW-EA Systems

This study examines the links between early warning and early action (EW-EA) in East Africa. The report describes existing regional and national EW-EA systems.

Early Warning and Early Action in the IGAD Region: Main Report, Findings, and Recommendations

This study examines the links between early warning and early action in East Africa. The report provides the background to the study, a brief conceptual overview, the main findings of the study, and the recommendations to FAO and IGAD.

Seeing in the Dark: Real-Time Monitoring in Humanitarian Crises

This paper reviews real-time monitoring (RTM), how it fits into a humanitarian information system, how systems quickly adjusted toward RTM in 2020, and provides a series of case studies of RTM systems, their objectives, and their outcomes. 

2020 Hindsight? The Ecosystem of Humanitarian Diagnostics and Its Application to Anticipatory Action

The nature of humanitarian crises has changed over the past two decades. These changes demand increased anticipatory humanitarian action and improved information to guide that action. The COVID 19 pandemic…

FEINSTEIN RESEARCH PROJECTS

Preventing Famine in the 21st Century

This project reconsiders our understanding of famines, the dynamics that give rise to famines, the resilience of populations subjected to these dynamics, and the means of prevention at the disposal of governments, humanitarian agencies, donors, and the affected populations.