About

Clare Gordon Bettencourt, PhD is historian trained in U.S. history and world history, with a focus on food history. Her research is on the history of America’s 20th century pure food movements and pure food legislation. Her most recent project is on the history of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s food identity standards.

Clare grew up in San José, California. She served in the inaugural class of the FoodCorps program in AmeriCorps, worked as a University of California Global Food Initiative Fellow, has conducted freelance food history research for Bon Appétit magazine and a Dozen Cousins, served as a social media editor for The Recipes Project, and founded the Grad Eaters in Food Studies organization at UC Irvine.

She is currently the Resident Director for Loyola Residential Learning Community at Santa Clara University. Additionally, she teaches a section of the LEAD Scholar first-year seminar and an Experiential Learning for Social Justice course on food justice at Santa Clara University.