Team

Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director

Anuradha Mittal, founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute, is an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights and agriculture issues. Recipient of several awards, Anuradha Mittal was named as the Most Valuable Thinker in 2008 by the Nation magazine.

Mittal has authored and edited numerous books and reports including (Mis)Investment in Agriculture: The Role of the International Finance Corporation in the Global Land Grab; The Great Land Grab: Rush for World’s Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor; Voices from Africa: African Farmers and Environmentalists Speak out Against a New Green Revolution; 2008 Food Price Crisis: Rethinking Food Security Policies; Going Gray in the Golden State: The Reality of Poverty Among Seniors in Oakland, California; Turning the Tide: Challenging the Right on Campus; Sahel: A Prisoner of Starvation; America Needs Human Rights; and The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance. Her articles and opinion pieces have been published in widely circulated newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Bangkok Post, Houston Chronicle, and the Nation. Anuradha has addressed the Congress, the United Nations, given several hundred keynote addresses including invitational events from governments and universities, and has been interviewed on CNN, BBC World, CBC, ABC, Al-Jazeera, National Public Radio and Voice of America.

Anuradha is on the board and advisory committees of several non profit organizations including the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize), International Forum on Globalization, and is a member of the independent board of Ben & Jerry's which focuses on providing leadership for Ben & Jerry’s social mission and brand integrity.

Frederic Mousseau, Policy Director

Frederic Mousseau is the Policy Director at the Oakland Institute where he coordinates Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa project. Trained as an economist, Mr. Mousseau has worked as a staff member and consultant for international relief agencies for nearly two decades, including Action Against Hunger, Doctors Without Borders, and Oxfam International.

In addition to providing leadership to several relief efforts as the Country Representative, he has also designed and supervised food security programs in more than 30 countries across Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa. He has also conducted numerous reviews and studies on food security policies, programs and institutions; and has authored many reports and articles in international media outlets. These include Achieving Regional Integration, The Key to Success for the Fight Against Hunger in West Africa (ACF International Network and the Oakland Institute, 2011); Addressing Chronic Food Insecurity in the Horn of Africa: Good Practice Identified but Commitment Needed? (Regional Learning and Advocacy Programme for Vulnerable Dry Lands Communities (REGLAP), 2010); The High Food Price Challenge: A Review of Responses to Combat Hunger (The Oakland Institute, 2010); A Billion Hungry People, Governments and Aid Agencies Must Rise to the Challenge (Oxfam GB, 2009); The Time is Now: How World Leaders Should Respond to the Food Price Crisis (Oxfam GB, 2008); Sahel, Prisoner of Starvation? Case Study of the 2005 Food Crisis in Niger (The Oakland Institute, 2006); Zimbabwe: Insights into the Humanitarian Crisis and Food Politics (Action contre la Faim, 2006); Food Aid or Food Sovereignty? Ending World Hunger in Our Time (The Oakland Institute, 2005); Roles of and Alternatives to Food Aid in Southern Africa (Oxfam GB, 2004); Food Aid Handbook (Action contre la Faim, 2002).

In recent years, Mr. Mousseau has focused on research, advocacy and policy work on food security as it relates to investment in agriculture and arable land, food price volatility, and the global food crisis.

Shepard Daniel

Shepard Daniel is a Fellow at the Oakland Institute and works as the Land Policy and Governance Analyst at the Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa, a project at the Oakland Institute.  She writes on topics of international food security, international trade and the environment, and global governance issues related to trade, land policy and land investment. Most recently, her research has focused on large-scale land acquisitions in Sub-Saharan Africa and the role of the IFC and private equity finance in promoting land deals. Her publications include (Mis)Investment in Agriculture: The Role of the International Finance Corporation in the Global Land Grab (Oakland Institute, 2010) and The Great Land Grab: Rush For World’s Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor (Oakland Institute, 2009). Shepard is a member of the Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) research network and holds a Masters in Environmental Planning and Management from the University of Chile in Santiago and is currently pursuing a law degree at the University of California, Berkeley.

Melissa Moore, Communications Director

A member of the Oakland Institute staff since 2006, Melissa Moore is the communications director. As a researcher and professional editor, her experience includes analyzing land tenure and resource access, food security, and development projects in various international contexts, encompassing work with the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement (MST) and cases that have been heard by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. A native Spanish speaker, Melissa lived and studied in Brazil, and speaks Portuguese fluently. She is the co-editor of Voices from Africa: African Farmers and Environmentalists Speak out Against a New Green Revolution, and created an accompanying website for the project to serve as an online clearinghouse for further discussion on the impacts of genetic engineering in Africa and the prospect of true solutions for food sovereignty. Ms. Moore manages a wide variety of editing, writing, and digital communications outreach work for the Oakland Institute and has played a behind-the-scenes role in many of the Institute's publications and campaigns.

Granate Sosnoff, Publications Director

Granate Sosnoff joined the Institute in 2010 as a strategic partner for editing, producing and communicating core messages about land investment deals in Africa. Sosnoff's participation in producing and publicizing (with press releases and action alerts) key findings from seven country reports and numerous briefs has been a vital part of the success of the campaigns. Sosnoff has played a leadership role in a variety of successful campaigns over the years, including environmental, health, social justice as well as a range of women's issues starting with her work at a senior account exec at Public Media Center and then as the director of Southpaw, a group of networked consultants offering communications and advertising assistance to nonprofit and advocacy efforts.

Amy Woloszyn, amymade graphic design

Amy is a NYC transplant, now San Francisco based freelance graphic designer and founder of AmyMade Graphic Design, doing business independently for six years. She has built a niche doing what really motivates her, working with community organizations and individuals striving for social change, non-profits and groups world wide, as well as artists and musicians.

After graduating with a  graphic design degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and living on the east coast all her life, she has found new inspiration in the landscapes and personalities of the west coast. She has been part of small web and print design firms and was a worker/owner of the Oakland based graphic design collective, Design Action. With over ten years in the industry, she brings a wealth of experience, passion and freshness to her clients and their endeavors.

In addition to amymade, she is the art director of Aerobic International, a bay area independent dance music record label, and makes electronic music in her spare time.

Nickolas Johnson, Policy Analyst

 Nickolas Johnson is a Policy Analyst at the Oakland Institute and is currently focusing on land investment deals, food security, human rights, and the environment. He has written or assisted in the following articles and publications: Rigging the Rules: Unfair Land Deals in South Sudan; Your Land is My Land: Relocating 1.5 Million in Ethiopia; and Lives on Hold: The Impact of AgriSol's Land Deal in Tanzania.

Nickolas has previously worked in Washington D.C. for Oxfam America where he worked on its food justice campaign, GROW. He also lead over 2,000 Bay Area constituents for Oxfam's Action Corps, which focuses on grassroots advocacy.