Louise Hilsen
Louise Hilsen is a consultant at a Washington, DC law firm where her work focuses on government food, nutrition and telecommunications programs that serve low-income Americans. After the repeal in 2016 of a longstanding US Customs’ provision that previously had allowed goods made with forced labor into the US, Ms. Hilsen, a non-lawyer, has helped industries understand the business impact of the changed regulatory landscape. Ms. Hilsen also works on nutrition, health and wellness initiatives with corporations, foundations and academic institutions.
Louise headed the Washington, DC office of Nestlé USA, a subsidiary of the world’s largest food company. She made contributions to sustainability and labor practices in the cocoa industry, was a negotiator of the 2001 Harkin-Engel protocol, helped form and lead the Global Issues Group, was active in the International Cocoa Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation as well as the Fair Labor Association and participates in the US DOL's Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group (CLCCG). Louise served as Deputy Executive Director of President Clinton's Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform, also known as the Kerrey-Danforth Commission and before that spent more than a decade on Capitol Hill as a key aide, including Legislative Director and Chief of Staff, to Members of Congress.
In addition to her participation on the Advisory Council, Louise serves on the Board of the Food Research and Action Center, the leading anti-hunger policy center in Washington, DC and is a longtime Board Member and former Board Chair of Bread for the City, the largest nonprofit provider of direct social services to the working poor of the District of Columbia.
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