Asch Harwood

Asch Harwood (He/Him)

Vice President, Data & Insights

Concord, MA

Asch Harwood serves as ReFED’s Vice President of Data & Insights, where he leads research to advance data-driven food waste solutions. For nearly 20 years, he has worked at the intersection of research, design, and technology to promote positive social change. Some of his proudest professional accomplishments include establishing the Council on Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker, co-creating novel strategies to enable access to vaccines at UNICEF, and developing a media literacy pilot series, Anomaly, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival—not to mention the exciting work he does at ReFED.

Asch believes strongly in the importance of evidence-based decision making and is proud to have the opportunity to do his part to address the climate emergency—one of humanity’s most pressing problems. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in international development from McGill University and The New School, respectively. He is also working toward a PhD in computational social science at UMass Amherst.

In a previous life, Asch spent several years touring as a professional musician in a 1988 Chevy Beauville, affectionately known as “Jean Claude Van Damme.” In his spare time, Asch likes to ride mountain bikes, build guitars, and go to (un)necessary lengths to ski untouched powder. He mainly sustains himself on the food scraps left behind by his wife and two kids.