The McKnight Foundation has hired Kaying Vang as program assistant for its Collaborative Crop Research program, part of the Foundation's international grantmaking portfolio. She joined the staff on May 28. Vang was most recently employed as a program associate for the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where she worked on projects for the Roy Wilkins Center for Social Justice, the Humphrey School Office of the Dean, and the International Fellows Program. Previously, she worked for Mano a Mano International in St. Paul and Bolivia, and the Peace Corps in Guatemala. She has a master's degree from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a bachelor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. In addition to English, she speaks Spanish and Hmong.
McKnight's crop research funding aims to help resource-poor rural people in developing countries achieve food and nutritional security. In 2012, 7% of McKnight's funding — roughly $6.2 million — went to crop research.
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