As the founding director of McKnight Foundation’s Global Collaboration for Resilient Food Systems (CRFS), Jane Maland Cady’s leadership approach centers on farmers and Indigenous communities. CRFS works directly with farmers to advance equity and further agricultural research in Africa and South America, while partnering with Midwestern organizations. In 2022, McKnight, a Minneapolis philanthropy, funded over 120 research projects through CRFS, and in 2023, Maland Cady expanded program goals and strategy, building on the program’s locally driven work to impact global food systems. Her holistic approach also informs the work of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, an international alliance of philanthropic organizations advancing food systems transformation that Maland Cady co-founded.