Katrin Kuhlmann

Professor Katrin Kuhlmann is a Senior Fellow and Director of the TransFarm Africa Policy Network at the Aspen Institute.  She manages the regional and international policy component of TransFarm Africa, an initiative of Aspen Global Health and Development that aims to advance the spread of sustainable agriculture along sub-Saharan Africa’s Development Corridors in ways that benefit small farmers.  Her work centers on a demand-driven, bottom-up approach to trade, development and food security that she has been developing as a critical component of TransFarm Africa. Ms. Kuhlmann also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University School of Law, where she has taught classes on trade and development since 2008.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Kuhlmann was a Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, where she focused on U.S. and European trade and development policies with sub-Saharan Africa.  From 2007 to 2010, Ms. Kuhlmann served as the President of the Trade, Aid and Security Coalition (TASC), a project of GlobalWorks Foundation.  At TASC, she led a coalition of businesses and non-governmental organizations focused on reforming U.S. trade preference programs to increase their efficacy as a tool for sustainable economic development.  From 2007 to 2008, Ms. Kuhlmann also served as the Executive Director of the Business Coalition for Capacity Building, now the Business Council for Global Development (BCGD). From 2005 to 2007, Ms. Kuhlmann was the Senior Vice President for Global Trade at the Women's Edge Coalition, where she developed and led the organization’s trade policy program. 

From 1999 to 2005, Ms. Kuhlmann served as the Director for Eastern Europe and Eurasia in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) where she was responsible for developing and coordinating U.S. trade policy with Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.  She played a key role in negotiations involving Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization and successfully led an inter-agency effort to conclude a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with the five Central Asian Republics. 

Prior to joining USTR, Ms. Kuhlmann practiced law at Dewey Ballantine LLP in Washington, D.C. and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP in New York, New York. 

Ms. Kuhlmann serves on the board of the Washington International Trade Association (WITA) and the Malaika Foundation.  She is a Senior Advisor to both TASC and the BCGD.   

Ms. Kuhlmann frequently writes and speaks on issues of international economic development and trade policy and has testified before Congress on these issues.  Recent publications include “Beyond the Economic Partnership Agreements,” in Updating Economic Partnerships to Today’s Challenges, German Marshall Fund e-book (September 2009) and “A New U.S.-European Approach to Trade and Development in sub-Saharan Africa,” German Marshall Fund Economic Policy Paper Series (May 2010).