Kaitlin Y. Cordes

Head: Land and Agriculture; Lead: Human Rights and Investment

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Kaitlin Y. Cordes

Kaitlin Y. Cordes developed and leads the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment’s work on investments in land and agriculture, as well as the Center's work on the intersection of human rights and international investment. At the Center, she conducts and supervises research; creates resources and tools; designs and lectures at trainings; provides technical and advisory support on land and human rights issues; and convenes cutting-edge dialogue. Prior to joining CCSI, she worked with the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch and served as an advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food (Olivier De Schutter). She also has worked with a range of social justice organizations in the United States and India, and clerked for Justice Virginia A. Long of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Studies from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar, a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and recipient of the Valentin J.T. Wertheimer Prize and a Parker School Certificate in Foreign and Comparative Law. She is admitted to the bar in New York.

Selected Publications