Ruzevich headshot

Leland Fellow

Alyx Ruzevich

11th Class, 2021-2023

Alyx Ruzevich is currently a Master of Public Administration student at New York University, where she served as Co-Chair of the Wagner Food Policy Alliance. She also holds a B.A. in French with a minor in International Development. Prior to graduate school, she spent two years as a Sustainable Agriculture Extension Agent with the Peace Corps, working closely with small-scale farmers, women’s collectives, and youth groups to promote food security and environmental stewardship in rural Senegal. Alyx has also worked as a youth leader in experiential learning programs with a strong focus in urban food systems, environmental conservation, and cross-cultural exchange. Her work is driven by the conviction that some of the world's most important challenges can be solved through the lens of food and agriculture.

Host Organization: Land O’Lakes Venture 37

First Year Placement
Chimoio, Mozambique

For her first year, Alyx worked as a Climate Smart Agriculture Specialist for Venture37 with the “Resilient Agricultural Market Activities in the Beira Corridor” project (RAMA-BC) in central Mozambique. The project aimed to equitably increase agricultural productivity and resilience to the impacts of climate change for the Mozambican context using “climate smart agriculture” (CSA) technologies and practices. Alyx’s role involved coordinating with local partners, NGOs, universities, private businesses, and local government agencies to adopt, develop, and promote the use of CSA as it pertains to each key sector. Additionally, she advised projects in Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo on how to adapt the CSA framework to fit their local context. Lastly, as a core team member of Venture37’s CSA Community-of-Practice, she promoted the continuous development and integration of CSA principles across the organization’s portfolio worldwide.

Second Year Placement
Washington, DC
For her policy year, Alyx works at a Venture37 office based in Washington, DC. Her role as a Climate Smart Agriculture Specialist continues, contributing to thought leadership and industry outreach in the climate smart farming space as part of the Resilient Agriculture – Technical Impact and Innovation team. Drawing from her first-year experience with RAMA-BC, Alyx is well-positioned to provide practical CSA technical advising to ongoing global programming; contribute to new business proposal development and project design efforts; develop and publish CSA-related success stories and technical materials; assist and lead learning events and conference speaking engagements; and support the integration of CSA learnings into organizational policies, strategies, and programmatic best practices.