Tyler Strom
Managing Director of the Illinois Agri-Food Alliance (ILAFA)
TEACHES :
ISEN 471 Sustainable Food (1.0 credit)
Tyler Strom is an adjunct faculty for Northwestern's Master of Science in Energy and Sustainability (MSES) Program. Strom is the Managing Director of the Illinois Agri-Food Alliance (ILAFA) and has been involved in the organization’s development since the launch of the FARM Illinois RoadMap in 2014. He drives ILAFA's mission as a neutral platform fostering cross-sector collaboration to address economic, environmental, and societal challenges across Illinois’ diverse agri-food ecosystem.
Prior to his current role, Tyler was a fellow of global agriculture and food at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. With expertise in agri-food systems, sustainability, multi-stakeholder collaborations, and systems thinking, he regularly advises and consults initiatives at local, state, regional, and national levels. He currently sits on the board of the Delta Institute, the steering committee of the Midwest Climate Collaborative, and several advisory committees, including the Office of the Lieutenant Governor’s Equity and Food Insecurity Initiative, the Chicago Wilderness Agriculture Committee, the Illinois Leadership Council for Agricultural Education (ILCAE), and a NASA-funded Climate-event Framework for Analysis of Macro-Environmental Systems (C-FrAMES) project.
Tyler is a previous McCloy Fellow to Germany and Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Sweden. His profound connection to agriculture and environmental stewardship is rooted in his heritage as a fourth-generation farmer in Kane County, IL, where he operates a diversified direct-to-market specialty crop farm and apiary. Tyler holds a BSc in agricultural business and economics from Iowa State University and an MSc in environmental studies and sustainability science from Lund University, Sweden.