Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives and Industry Leadership, The Culinary Institute of America; New York, NY

Rupa Bhattacharya is the executive director for the strategic initiatives group at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and an award-winning thought leader with over twenty years' experience driving conversation and demonstrable change at the intersection of food and culture. Her career-long focus has been leading organizations into the future, both through extensive diversity and equity work done with an eye towards increased relevancy as well as bottom-line impact and fundamentally shifting and expanding the lens through which food's role in the world can be seen. In 2024, she was named a "Game Changer" by Food & Wine magazine for her work to advance equity in public health and food systems.  

Before CIA, Bhattacharya was the global editor-in-chief at MUNCHIES and senior editor at Lucky Peach. She studied at Yale and the French Culinary Institute and lives in Brooklyn with her girlfriend and son. @rbhattacharya