Daniel Maxwell is the Henry J. Leir Professor in Food Security at the Friedman School of Nutrition, and Research Director at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University.

His recent research focuses on the re-emergence of famines in the 21st century, humanitarian early warning, and information systems. He also studies locally led humanitarian action and social networks in crisis situations. He teaches courses related to humanitarian action, famine and food security, and livelihoods systems under stress.

He is the author, with Nisar Majid, of Famine in Somalia: Competing Imperatives, Collective Failures (Oxford University Press, 2016); and the author, with Kirsten Gelsdorf, of Understanding the Humanitarian World (Routledge, 2019).

Since 2014, Dan has been a member of the Famine Review Committee for the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system—the formal mechanism by which contemporary famines are analyzed and declared. Prior to joining the faculty at Tufts, Dan worked for two decades for humanitarian agencies in Africa. His most recent position was Deputy Regional Director for Eastern and Central Africa for CARE International.

Prior to that he spent ten years working for Mennonite Central Committee.

He holds a B.Sc. from Wilmington College, a master’s degree from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.