Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies names inaugural leadership team

Attendees talk at a reception for new leadership at the Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies on Dec. 11 at La Kretz Garden Pavilion. (Leydi Cris Cobo Cordon/Daily Bruin senior staff)

By Maggie Konecky
Jan. 8, 2025 12:59 a.m.
This post was updated Jan. 10 at 1:03 p.m.
The Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies will begin the winter quarter with its top two leadership positions filled for the first time.
Jack Bobo, a former food policy advisor and director of University of Nottingham’s Food Systems Institute, was named RFI’s first executive director in October. He spoke about the links between agriculture, climate change and food access at a reception to welcome the institute’s new leadership at the La Kretz Garden Pavilion on Dec. 11.
“Every day between now and 2050, it gets harder to feed the world,” Bobo said in his presentation. “Every day after 2050, it will get easier to feed the world – if we haven’t screwed things up.”
Speakers at the welcome event emphasized the idea that the next 25 years will be the most important in agricultural history due to the potential implications of climate change, though some shared their hope that RFI’s work could help shape food systems worldwide.

Amy Rowat, UCLA’s food studies presidential chair, was named RFI’s inaugural faculty director. She said the institute’s recent growth would result in more training opportunities for students and researchers – with a focus on research partnerships with other departments.
[Related: UCLA introduces new institute providing interdisciplinary food studies education]
Plans for RFI were originally conceived in 2014 as part of a series of goals for food studies programs at UCLA, said Wendelin Slusser, associate vice provost of the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center. The goals also included establishing UCLA’s undergraduate food studies minor, which currently serves 54 students.
“UCLA, it’s not a food and agriculture school, but it does have deep expertise in lots of different areas,” Bobo said. “I want to help identify those pockets of research where people are touching on food and agriculture and also those places where they’re not but they could be.”
Other speakers at the welcome event included Slusser, who spoke about the shared goals of both RFI and HCI with programs such as the UCLA Teaching Kitchen, which supports the community with culinary education.
[Related: Teaching Kitchen hosts “Healthier Baking” class to teach students cooking basics]
RFI’s founder and donor Marcie Rothman also spoke about the scholarships and cultural exchange programs RFI aims to continue developing this upcoming year.
Dasia Jimmons, a third-year psychobiology student and food studies minor, said it was inspiring to see the program develop and provide “essential” food studies education.
“I’m excited to see so many people who are enthusiastic about our food system and bettering it, especially by 2050,” Jimmons said.
RFI currently supports research on the impact of food production and education on individual health, as well as disparities in food access between racial communities in California, according to its website.
Rowat, a professor of integrative biology and physiology, also said her lab was looking into the possibility of improving health through engineering sustainable foods and new medications. She added that her goal at RFI was to build connections between the different food initiatives and communities at UCLA.
“We have to get it right, and that’s why the work of the institute and the university is so critically important,” Bobo said near the end of his presentation. “None of this happens if we don’t bring people together.”
RFI aims to grow its collaboration with the food studies minor program and graduate-level research throughout 2025. However, Rowat said plans to introduce a possible food studies major are still in the works.
While UCLA undergraduates are unable to focus on food systems alone, students have found ways to combine their passion for food with other fields of study.
Luke Whitney, a second-year pre-global studies student who is minoring in food studies and attended the event, said his love for both global studies and food led to him wanting to become involved with RFI and pursue a career in the culinary field after graduation.
“Food is an essential part of being human, and it unites us in ways that other things don’t and can’t,” Whitney said. “That’s what’s really unique about being food studies minors – we get to study that in a really cool and interesting way.”