Lena Heron is the Senior Rural Development Advisor in the Bureau of Food Security (BFS) at USAID. She has been with USAID since 2000 and has conducted numerous agricultural sector assessments and designed projects to promote agricultural value chain development in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Africa. She is the USAID Project Manager for the Assets and Market Access Collaborative Research Support Program, a virtual research facility which aims to improve the economic resiliency of the rural poor through policy-relevant research on access to and the function of markets. She also manages USAID’s engagement with the World Bank on the Agricultural Insurance Development Program and National Agricultural Risk Assessments.