Secretariat
Our team
Oliver Oliveros - Coordinator
Amélie Steu - Associate Coordinator
Valentina Pavarotti - Communications Officer
Emile Frison - Senior Advisor
Giulia Giordano - Intern
Oliver Oliveros
Coordinator
o.oliveros@agroecology-coalition.org
Bringing a wealth of experience to the role, Oliver has taken on the role as the Coordinator of the Agroecology Coalition and head of the Coalition Secretariat as from 01 February 2023.
Prior to this role, he was the interim Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a coalition of foundations committed to leveraging their resources to help shift food and agriculture systems towards greater sustainability, security, and equity. Oliver previously worked as the Deputy Director, Partnerships and International Relations at Agropolis Fondation, the French foundation for scientific cooperation in agriculture and sustainable development. He worked as the Global Coordinator of the DURAS Project (2004-2008) which aimed to promote dialogue between the scientific and civil society communities and transform such process into research collaboration. He was formerly with the Secretariat of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) in FAO in Rome (1999-2004) where he worked on issues related to research partnerships and civil society organizations.
Before coming to Europe in 1999, Oliver worked for five years at the Ministry of Socio-economic Planning in Manila (Philippines) where he was extensively involved in project evaluation and investment programming in the agriculture, rural development, and natural resources sector as well as in the formulation of the country’s Agenda 21 and Medium-Term Development Plan.
Oliver is from the Philippines and holds both Filipino and French citizenships. He lives in Rome with his wife, their 11-year-old son and 4-year-old dog.
Amélie Steu
Associate Coordinator
a.steu@agroecology-coalition.org
Amélie is a young French national who joined the Agroecology Coalition as Associate Coordinator as of May 2023. She is convinced that the shift towards agroecological and organic food systems is the solution to address current and upcoming environmental challenges such as biodiversity loss, climate crisis, soil erosion, and environmental pollution, as well as societal challenges linked to unfair supply chains, unsustainable livelihoods, and food insecurity. Prior to joining the coalition, she worked for three years for IFOAM Organics Europe, where she gained knowledge of organic farming and EU institutions, and developed her skills in advocacy, coordination, project and partnerships management. Amélie also undertook two internships at the United Nations: one in International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD)’s Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Department (Italy), and one in UNU-FLORES’s Communications and Advocacy Unit (Germany). She studied at Sciences Po Toulouse and obtained a joint Master’s degree in Governance of International Relations as well as International Cooperation and Economic Development. She is based in Rome where she eats tasty Italian cuisine as well as enjoys the nice weather and the beautiful country.
Valentina Pavarotti
Communications Officer
v.pavarotti@agroecology-coalition.org
Valentina, an Italian national, joined the Agroecology Coalition in March 2023 as Communications Officer. She brought her extensive experience in communications for international organizations, which she gathered over several years in Brussels. Before joining the Coalition, she led the communications team at CIDSE, the international alliance of Catholic development organizations, where she was involved in communications and storytelling projects on agroecology, corporate regulations, gender equality among other topics. Previously, she worked for communications agencies in Brussels carrying out campaigns for the European Commission and as a freelance journalist. Over the years she gathered experience in content creation for social media, press relations, video making and podcasting. She holds a MA’ in European Journalism from IHECS (Brussels, Belgium), a MA’ in Human Geography from King’s College London (UK) and an undergraduate degree in international development and cooperation from the University of Pavia (Italy). Nowadays you can spot her cycling around the streets of Bologna where she lives with her family.
Emile Frison
Senior Advisor
e.frison@agroecology-coalition.org
Emile, a Belgian national, is a member of the Intenational Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). He has spent most of his career in international agricultural research for development, starting as a researcher at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria in 1979, and working in Mauritania on integrated pest management for three years. He joined the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources in 1987 and became Regional Director for Europe of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute in 1992. He became the Director of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) in 1995 and was Director General of Bioversity International from 2003 to 2013. He is currently a member of the International Scientific Committee on Sustainable Food Systems of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation. His areas of expertise include agroecology and agricultural biodiversity. He has a particular interest in agroecological food systems transformation towards diversified, equitable, resilient and sustainable food systems that ensure quality nutrition, health and wellbeing to all.
Giulia Giordano
Intern
g.giordano@agroecology-coalition.org
Giulia is a young Italian national, she joined the Agroecology Coalition in June 2024 as communication and administrative intern. She is passionate about everything related to the safeguard of the planet and she really believes that we need a strong and wide cooperation to make a real change in the current food system. Prior to joining the coalition, she worked as a civil service volunteer in Ben Arous (Tunisia) for a rural development project that aimed at establishing an agroecological hub in the region, also by giving training opportunities to women and youth of the rural areas. She also finished a master in “Development and International Cooperation Sciences” at Sapienza University of a Rome with a master thesis on the effectiveness of the agricultural cooperative business model in Tunisia. After her experience in Tunis, she is based in Rome where you can see her enjoying the city and all the different cultural activities that are offered.
Contact us at: secretariat@agroecology-coalition.org
Banner photo credit: DB Immagini