William A. Masters

Biography 

Will Masters is Professor of Food Policy and Economics at the Friedman School of Nutrition, Tufts University, and coauthor of Food Economics: Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (Palgrave Macmillan 2024, coauthored with Friedman alumna Amelia Finaret). Since 2015 he has led projects on Food Prices for Nutrition that introduced new metrics for the cost and affordability of healthy diets worldwide, and  directed Tufts University activities in support of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Academy, plus a new project launched in 2025 to convene private enterprises working on Data Analytics for Food Markets in Africa. His courses on economics of agriculture, food and nutrition were recognized with student-nominated, University-wide teaching awards in 2019 and 2022, and he is an elected Fellow of both the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (since 2020) and the American Society for Nutrition (since 2025).

Education

• Ph.D., 1991, Food Research Institute, Stanford University
• M.A., 1986, Food Research Institute, Stanford University
• B.A., 1984, Economics and Political Science, Yale University/Deep Springs College

Specializations

Agriculture, Food, and Environment; Food Systems Modeling;  Food Policy, Programs, and Economics

Research Activities

• Director (PI), Food Prices for Nutrition
• Director (PI), Data Analytics for Food Markets in Africa
• Director (PI), ANH Academy Science-Policy Platform