Professor Kuhlmann is currently a Professor, Graduate and International Programs and the Faculty Director and Co-founder of the Center on Inclusive Trade and Development at Georgetown University Law Center. She teaches courses in international law, development, and international trade, and she is the faculty director of the WTO and International Trade Law Certificate program. Her work and research focus on international law and development, inclusive and sustainable international trade law, regional trade agreements, agricultural law and food security, comparative economic law, African trade and development law and corridors, and the interdisciplinary connections between law and development.

In 2010, Professor Kuhlmann founded the New Markets Lab (NML), a non-profit law and development innovation lab focused on inclusive legal and regulatory design, field-based law and development programs, and capacity building among lawyers and non-lawyers in economic law and regulation. She is also a Senior Associate with the Global Food Security Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and she serves as a member of the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). She is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee and WTO Gender Research Hub, and she serves on the boards and advisory boards of the Trade and Investment Law Group of the Law Schools Global League; the Forum on Trade, Environment, and the SDGs of the Graduate Institute and UN Environment Programme; the Washington International Trade Association; Listening for America; the Harvard Law and Development Society; the AI Institute for Food Systems at University of California Davis; and the Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Professor Kuhlmann was previously a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School, and she was the Yeutter Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law from 2020-21. Earlier in her career, she served as a trade negotiator at USTR and a lawyer at two international law firms, and she has held senior positions with several non-profit organizations and think tanks, including the Aspen Institute and German Marshall Fund. She holds degrees from Harvard Law School and Creighton University and was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to study international economics.

She is published widely and is a frequent speaker on the nexus between international law, development, and trade. Recent publications include: The Need for a “Micro” Approach to International Economic Law (Working Paper; Micro International Law forthcoming); Breaking New Ground on Food Security: Africa’s Potential to Reframe Global Rules through the AfCFTA with Giovanni Dall’Agnola (Routledge, forthcoming); Next-Generation Approaches to Trade and Development: Balancing Economic, Social, and Environmental Sustainability (CITD, 2023); Gender Approaches in Regional Trade Agreements and a Possible Gender Protocol Under the African Continental Free Trade Area: A Comparative Assessment, in Trade Policy and Gender Equality (Cambridge University Press, 2023); Gender Mainstreaming in Trade Agreements: A Potemkin Façade? with Amrita Bahri in Making Trade Work for Women: Key Learnings from the World Trade Congress on Gender (WTO, 2023); Handbook on Provisions and Options for Inclusive and Sustainable Trade and Development (United Nations, 2023); Mapping Inclusive Trade and Development: A Comparative Agenda for Addressing Inequality and Vulnerability in International and National Law, (African Journal of International Economic Law, 2021); Using Regulatory Flexibility to Address Market Informality in Seed Systems: A Global Study with Bhramar Dey (Agronomy 2021); and The African Continental Free Trade Area: Toward A New Legal Model For Trade and Development with Akinyi Lisa Agutu, (Georgetown Journal of International Law, 2020).

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Affiliations

Member, Trade Advisory Committee on Africa, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Member, Law Schools Global League, Trade and Investment Law Group

Member, WTO Gender Research Hub

Member, Bretton Woods Committee

Member, International Advisory Network, Forum on Trade,

Environment, and the SDGs, Graduate Institute and UN

Environment Programme

Member, Stakeholder Advisory Board, AI for Food Systems,

University of California, Davis

Member, World Economic Forum, Transformation Leaders Network

Executive Committee Member, TradeLab

Vice President of the Board, Listening for America

Board Member, Washington International Trade Association (WITA)

Board Member, Malaika Foundation

Advisory Board Member, Harvard Law and International Development Society

Advisory Council Member, Yeutter Institute of International Trade and Finance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Advisory Board Member, BlockDrop (legal-tech company)

Working Group Member, Global TechNet Working Group, Institute for Technology Law and Policy, Georgetown Law

Expert Member, E15 Working Group on Trade, Development, and

Finance, World Economic Forum and International Center for Sustainable Development

Co-Chair, Aspen Institute, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, Policy, Legal, and Regulatory Learning Lab (co-founder and chair Legal Working Group)

Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Global Food Security Program

Advisory Committee Member, Trade Advisory Committee on Africa, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

Member, Trade and Investment Law Group, Law Schools Global League

Member, WTO Gender Research Hub

Member, Bretton Woods Committee