Patricia Costa

Patricia Costa has more than 15 years of international development experience in food security, private sector development, climate change and workforce development. As vice president, Program Development, she is a member of the executive team and leads the strategic direction and design of CNFA’s agricultural market systems development programs.

Costa previously held the role of  associate vice president, Program Development at CNFA where she led a team of professionals to design innovative and sustainable program solutions that help support USAID, USDA and non-U.S. government donors.

Prior to joining CNFA, Costa worked at Mathematica, a social science research firm focused on evaluating programs to support public and private-sector partners. At Mathematica, she led evaluations related to agriculture, workforce development, clean energy, private sector investment and public-private partnerships for USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation and the World Bank. She also led business development efforts, serving as deputy to the Area Leader focusing on international bilateral and multilateral institutions. From 2009-2016, Costa worked at Abt Associates where she led business development efforts in the International Economic Growth division. She also supported several projects, such as the Mozambique AgriFuturo Project where she served as the deputy project director of the Agriculture, Commercial, Legal, Institutional, Reform assessment. Earlier in her career, Costa led a food security assessment for UNICEF, supported entrepreneurship efforts in the Middle East and North Africa, and consulted for agribusinesses in Morocco. 

Costa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and a Master of Public Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. A native Spanish speaker, Costa is also fluent in French and German and has a basic understanding of Portuguese.