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A conference exploring the intersections between social, economic, and environmental justice and the food system


Keynote speakers

  • Ricardo Salvador, Director of Food and Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
  • Frances Moore Lappe, Author & Cofounder of the Small Planet Institute
  • Molly Anderson, Partridge Chair in Food and Sustainable Agriculture Systems, College of the Atlantic

Conference speakers 

FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ
Author; Cofounder, The Small Planet Institute
Frances Moore Lappé is the author or co-author of 18 books, including the three-million copy Diet for a Small Planet. Frances was named by Gourmet Magazine as one of 25 people whose work has changed the way America eats. Her most recent work, EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want, won a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. She is the cofounder of three organizations, including Oakland based think tank Food First and the Small Planet Institute, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé. Frances and her daughter have also cofounded the Small Planet Fund, which channels resources to democratic social movements worldwide.

MOLLY ANDERSON 
Partridge Chair in Food and Sustainable Agriculture Systems, College of the Atlantic
Molly Anderson teaches and writes on hunger and food security, fixing food systems, sustainability, and system dynamics. She is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and was a Coordinating Lead Author on the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science & Technology for Development. She was the founding Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Graduate Program at Tufts University. Molly earned an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Systems Ecology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.S. and M.S. in natural resource management and a certificate in Latin American Studies from Colorado State University.

RICARDO J. SALVADOR
Senior Scientist & Director of the Food and Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists
Ricardo Salvador works towards a food system that delivers healthy foods while employing sustainable and socially equitable practices. Previously, Dr. Salvador served as a program officer for Food, Health, and Wellbeing at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. As associate professor of agronomy at Iowa State University for 18 years preceding that, Dr. Salvador worked with students to conduct some of the original academic research on CSAs and established the university’s student-operated organic farm. He taught the first course in sustainable agriculture at a land-grant university and helped develop the nation’s first sustainable agriculture graduate program. The program was established in 2000, and Dr. Salvador served as the program’s chair. He co-authored a 2014 column in The Washington Post calling for a national food policy, which is changing how many think about food and farm policy. Dr. Salvador is a recipient of the James Beard Foundation's Food Leadership Award. His graduate degrees in crop production and physiology are from Iowa State University.

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SOPHIE ACKOFF
National Field Director, National Young Farmers Coalition
Sophie Ackoff is National Field Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition—a network of farmers, ranchers, and supportive consumers fighting for the future of farming. While a Biology and Environmental Studies student at Wesleyan University, Sophie founded a campus food politics organization to source local produce and meat in cooperation with dining services and local Connecticut farmers. She has worked for Food & Water Watch in education and outreach and has farmed on several CSA farms in the beautiful Hudson Valley of New York.

CHEF KATE ADAMICK
Founder, Cook For America
Kate Adamick is a food systems consultant and co-founder of Cook for America®, which provides concentrated and comprehensive culinary training to school food service personnel. Through both Cook for America® and her consulting firm, Food Systems Solutions® LLC, Adamick has helped hundreds of schools throughout the United States convert their cafeterias into scratch-cooking operations by transforming “school lunch ladies” into skilled and passionate Lunch Teachers®. Kate, an attorney and classically trained professional chef, is a frequent speaker on institutional food systems, childhood obesity issues, and the economics of school food reform, and she is the author of Lunch Money: Serving Healthy School Food in a Sick Economy.

GARY ADAMKIEWICZ
Asst. Professor of Environmental Health and Exposure Disparities, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Gary Adamkiewicz is Assistant Professor of Environmental Health and Exposure Disparities at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where much of his work focuses on environmental exposures within low-income communities. Dr. Adamkiewicz also serves as the Healthy Cities Program Leader at the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment, where he directs studies examining the intersection between sustainability and environmental health. He co-created and co-directs the Harvard Extension School course, “From Farm to Fork: Why What You Eat Matters,” which focuses on the local and global implications of our dietary decisions.

ALBERTO AGUILERA
University of California Davis
Alberto Aguilera is originally from Yuriria, Guanajuato, Mexico and was raised in Turlock, CA. He currently is a Ph.D. Candidate in Nutritional Biology at UC Davis. He received a B.S. in Health Science from CSU Fresno in 2009 and a Master of Public Health from UC Davis in 2011. His research interests include obesity within the Latino community in California and child nutrition. He currently is involved in the USDA-AFRI Niños Sanos, Familia Sana (Healthy Kids, Healthy Family) with the nutrition component of the study aimed at reducing obesity in children in Firebaugh, CA.

AYSHA AKHTAR
Neurologist; Public Health Specialist, Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics
Aysha Akhtar, MD, MPH, is a double Board-certified neurologist and public health specialist and Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. She works for the Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats of the Food and Drug Administration and serves as Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She is author of the book, Animals and Public Health: Why Treating Animals Better is Critical to Human Welfare, and has spoken and written extensively on the connection between animal protection and human health. The opinions expressed are solely those of Dr. Akhtar and do not represent the official position of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the U.S. government.

ONA BALKUS
Clinical Fellow, Food Law & Policy Clinic, Center for Health Law & Policy, Harvard Law School
As a Clinical Fellow at the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, Ona Balkus provides legal and policy guidance to community advocacy groups and non-profits that are working to improve their communities’ food systems. Ona co-leads the Clinic’s Food Waste Initiative, which advocates for policy change to decrease unnecessary food waste and promote a wide range of food recovery models. She also serves on the planning committees of the Harvard Innovation Lab Deans’ Food System Challenge and the Harvard Food Better campaign. Ona received her joint J.D./MPH from Harvard Law School and Harvard School of Public Health in 2013.

REBECCA BERKEY
Associate Director & Service-Learning Coordinator, Northeastern University; Research Associate, Northeastern Environmental Justice Research Collaborative
Dr. Becca Berkey has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Butler University, a Master’s degree in College Student Personnel from Miami University, and her Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from Antioch University New England. Becca’s research is at the intersection of leadership, change, and environmental justice with a specific interest in the justice issues facing farmworkers, and her dissertation (finished in August 2014) was titled Just Farming: An Environmental Justice Perspective on the Capacity of Grassroots Organizations to Support the Rights of Organic Farmers and Laborers. She conducted this research with the Northeast Organic Farming Association and still has an active research partnership with the organization.

KARLA BLAGININ
Executive Director, Dichos de la Casa
Karla Rivera Blaginin is a first-generation American Latina of Colombian and Filipino heritage. Blaginin attained a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a master’s in Statistics. In 2011, she successfully completed coursework for a Ph.D. in Sociology and has presented on the sociology of food at multiple professional conferences. Blaginin has spent the last decade analytically invested in bridging multi-cultural food values into the academic discussion of food. Her present study, Dichos de la Casa, will soon serve to structure a value system where people can confidently assert the merits of long-understood traditional food habits and practices.

NATASHA BOWENS
Author, The Color of Food
Natasha Bowens is author of the upcoming book, The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience and Farming (thecolorofood.org). Natasha has spent the past four years gathering stories from Black, Native, Asian, and Latina farmers and food activists who are revolutionizing the food system and preserving cultural foodways. Natasha started the multimedia project in 2010 after exploring the intersection of race, food and agriculture on her blog Brown.Girl.Farming. and for Grist magazine, her work has now garnered national media attention from The Atlantic, CNN, Bill Moyers, Colorlines, and others.

EMILY BROAD LEIB
Director, Food Law & Policy Clinic, Center for Health Law & Policy, Harvard Law School
Emily Broad Leib is Associate Director of the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation and Director of the Center's Food Law & Policy Clinic. The Clinic works with nonprofit organizations and government agencies to recommend food laws and policies aimed at increasing access to healthy foods, reducing obesity and diet-related disease, and assisting small farmers and producers in participating in food markets. Emily teaches in the area of food law and policy and supervises Harvard Law students engaged in projects in this field. Emily received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude, in 2008.

CHRIS BROWN  
Executive Director, Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA)
Chris Brown has been Executive Director of the Salinas, CA-based non-profit ALBA since 2012. Prior to that he spent 14 years in the international economic development field, managing projects in Ukraine, Romania, the Republic of Georgia, and Montenegro. Immediately, before joining ALBA, he managed a Washington, D.C.-based research project studying market access for small farmers in Mongolia and Rwanda. Chris is a native of Berkeley, CA, and a graduate of UC Berkeley and UCLA.

PETER BUCK
Interfaith Program Representative, Equal Exchange
Peter Buck is a Worker/Owner and Interfaith Program Representative at Equal Exchange, an employee-owned, 100% Fair Trade co-operative that purchases foods from 40 small farmer co-operatives in 20 countries. Equal Exchange partners with 12 faith-based development agencies, marketing to 8,000 congregations nationwide. Peter joined Equal Exchange in 2002, and manages its relationships with Catholic Relief Services, United Methodist Committee on Relief, Church of the Brethren, American Friends Service Committee, and the Mennonite Church. He is a parish councilor and lector at Sacred Heart Catholic Parish in Roslindale, Massachusetts, and a member of the Boston Archdiocesan Pastoral Council.

JOANNE BURKE
Thomas W. Haas Professor of Sustainable Food Systems, Sustainability Institute, University of New Hampshire
Dr. Joanne Burke is the Thomas W. Haas Professor in Sustainable Food Systems at the Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire. She provides leadership in efforts designed to advance sustainable agriculture, nutrition, and racial justice & food equity on campus, and at the state, regional levels and beyond. She is one of the regional authors of the 2014 “A New England Food Vision.” As a faculty member in the UNH Nutrition Program and Internship Director, she teaches community nutrition and food system related courses and integrates sustainable food systems theory and practice into both classroom and practicum experiences.

AMBER BURNS
Assistant Director, New Roots Inc.
Amber Burns is a native of Louisville, KY. She is a proud graduate of the University of Louisville where she earned her BA in Pan-African Studies and English. Amber was introduced to New Roots while serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA member with the Presbyterian Hunger Program. As a former resident of a Louisville food desert, she feels personally tied to the work of New Roots Fresh Stop Project. Outside of New Roots, Amber is a visual and spoken word artist. She loves to read, hug trees, and eat as much kale as possible.

AMY LAURA CAHN
Director, Garden Justice Legal Initiative, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Amy Laura Cahn is a Staff Attorney at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia. Through the Garden Justice Legal Initiative at the Public Interest Law Center, Amy Laura provides legal and policy support to urban gardens and farms in historically disinvested communities to promote community land and food sovereignty and reclaim vacant land. Amy Laura is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was a Toll Public Interest Scholar, and a graduate of Hunter College in urban studies. Amy Laura clerked at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Superior Court of New Jersey: Appellate Division.

ALLI CONDRA
Senior Clinical Fellow, Food Law & Policy Clinic, Center for Health Law & Policy, Harvard Law School
As a Senior Clinical Fellow, Alli works on various food and agricultural policy projects and advocates for policy change to improve our food system. Alli earned her J.D. from Drake University and her LL.M. from the University of Arkansas, with a focus on food and agricultural law. Alli worked as a legislative intern in DC and as a policy consultant at the USDA Farm Service Agency. Prior to law school, Alli spent a year in Mexico City working with migrants and refugees and a year in Santa Barbara, CA, working to get healthy lunches in the county’s public schools.

JOHN COOK
Assoc. Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine; Senior Research Scientist & Principal Investigator, Children’s Healthwatch
Dr. Cook researches food, energy, and housing insecurity and their impacts on the health of young children and their mothers. Current research includes affordability and accessibility of healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods, as well as food systems reform. Dr. Cook is a Senior Research Scientist and Principal Investigator with Children’s HealthWatch and was project evaluator for the FANtastic Kids intervention to reduce obesity among elementary-school-age children. He consults with Feeding America, the national food bank network, and serves on the Technical Advisory Group for its national studies.

BARRY COSTA-PIERCE
Henry L. & Grace Doherty Professor of Marine Sciences; Director, Marine Science Center, University of New England
Barry Costa-Pierce explores the sustainability science and carrying capacities of aquaculture and fisheries systems and their relationships to natural ecosystems and societies. He has led research teams in Indonesia, Africa, and Mexico. His research inquiries and approaches are all transdisciplinary, requiring the planning and development of strategic partnerships across the natural and social sciences. He also has close interactions with social scientists with expertise in the human dimensions of aquatic ecosystems and in the governance of natural and human-dominated ecosystems. He collaborates with industry and communities and with allied networks in ecological design, engineering, and economics.

MARYDALE DEBOR
Founder/Managing Director, Fresh Advantage®
Fresh Advantage® works with hospitals to improve food and nutrition service operations, integrating attention to nutrition and food security status into patient care and community-based programs. She created Food is Primary Care® for the company tag line to emphasize the connection between a diet of fresh, nutritious, and affordable food and health.  Fresh Advantage® led a coalition of organizations that successfully advocated for the inclusion of language in the 2014 IRS Final Rule requiring tax-exempt hospitals to implement a “Community Health Needs Assessment” process that makes clear that “community health needs” go beyond unmet clinical needs to include “access to adequate nutrition.”

KATHRYN DE MASTER
Asst. Professor of Agriculture, Society, and Environment, UC Berkeley
Kathryn De Master is a sociologist and political ecologist whose work focuses on the changing structures in agriculture.  Her research interests include agri-environmental policy, food justice and sovereignty movements, the “agriculture of the middle,” diversified farming systems, participatory mapping, and the influence of corporations in agri-food systems.   Kathryn has studied Post-Soviet Poland and US agricultural systems. Kathryn grew up on a small family farm in Montana, received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Environment and Resources in 2009. An avid advocate for place-based and community-driven rural and urban development and regenerative farming systems.  

NIAZ DORRY
Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, Coordinating Director
Throughout her career, Niaz has worked on advancing the rights of fishing communities while protecting marine biodiversity. With NAMA, Niaz facilitates work with fishermen on policy alternatives and marketing strategies to support traditional fishing with the most benefits for the environment and food system. Niaz has also worked for the Healthy Building Network, and as a Greenpeace oceans and fisheries campaigner, for which she was named a “Hero For The Planet” by Time Magazine. She is a board member of National Family Farm Coalition, Granite State Fish, American Sustainable Business Council, and the Food Solutions New England Network Team.

PILAR EGÜEZ GUEVARA
Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Postdoctoral Fellow
Pilar Egüez Guevara has a Ph.D. in Anthropology. Her research currently focuses on the relationships between nutrition, lifestyle factors, and chronic disease among aging populations in Latin America using statistical, historical, and ethnographic methods. She is research director and co-founder of Comidas que Curan, an independent education project documenting food traditions and transformations in Ecuador through ethnography and film.

YOUTH FROM THE FOOD PROJECT
The Food Project, Boston, MA
Rodney Sadberry, Gaurav Dangol, Debbie Jaques, and JP Pagan are members of The Food Project's Root Crew. As high school students who have been working for several years on The Food Project's urban and suburban farms, they have grown and distributed (literally) tons of food and partnered with community members to improve access to healthy affordable produce. As facilitators, they bring lots of energy and experience in helping youth and adults learn about issues related to food and justice.  

ANDREA FREEMAN
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Hawai’i William S. Richardson School of Law
Andrea Freeman is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawai'i William S. Richardson School of Law. She teaches Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, and Race and Law. She writes in the areas of critical race and class theory, health, economics, and food policy, with a focus on the theory of food oppression. Her work appears or is forthcoming in the California Law Review, the UC Irvine Law Review, the Arizona Law Review, the Fordham Law Review, the American Journal of Law and Medicine, and others. Previously, she worked as a domestic violence counselor and as a production manager in the independent film industry.

NURI FRIEDLANDER
Chaplain, Harvard Islamic Society; Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University
Nuri Friedlander is a Ph.D. candidate in the Study of Religion. He is writing his dissertation on the topic of animal slaughter and sacrifice in the Islamic legal tradition. He also serves as the chaplain for the Harvard Islamic Society and is a co-founder of Beyond Halal, an organization dedicated to exploring questions related to Islamic ethics and food.

ALEX GALIMBERTI
Lead Organizer (Boston), Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
Alex Galimberti is a restaurant professional turned activist. He holds an MA in Gastronomy from Boston University, and a Culinary Arts degree from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. His culinary career spanned almost every position within a restaurant, from prep cook to beverages manager. Sustainability, food sovereignty, and labor and human rights in the food system are Alex's main areas of interest. He contributed to campaigns organized by The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and many local immigrant groups that represent restaurant and food industry workers. Alex was a worker-member of ROC before becoming Lead Organizer for ROC-Boston in 2013.

RACHAEL GARRETT
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sustainability Science, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Rachael is an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist with training in economics, geography, history, systems thinking, and environmental science and policy. Her research examines interactions between agriculture, ecosystem functions, and economic development at multiple spatial and temporal scales to better define what sustainable supply chains look like and how to achieve them. Her research has focused mainly on agricultural processes in Brazil, though she is now pursuing new work in the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico, Jamaica, and New Zealand.

JACOB GERSEN
Founder & Director, Food Law Lab, Harvard Law School
Jacob E. Gersen is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Affiliate Professor in the Department of Government. He is also Founder and Director of the Food Law Lab at the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School, which supports academic research on the legal treatment of food in society. He is the co-editor of Food Law & Policy, a new casebook to be published by Wolters Kluwer. Before joining the Harvard faculty in 2011, he was Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and a J.D. from the University of Chicago.

JOSH GOLIN
Associate Director of Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood
Josh Golin is the Associate Director of the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood, a national advocacy organization which support parents’ efforts to raise healthy families by limiting commercial access to children. Josh organizes CCFC’s advocacy campaigns and develops its communications strategy. His writings about the commercialization of childhood have appeared in a wide range of publications, including the Boston Globe and USA Today.

OLIVER GOTTFRIED
Senior Advocacy and Collaborations Advisor, Oxfam America
Oliver Gottfried has spent the last 15 years developing and leading progressive political and issue advocacy campaigns across the country. For almost a decade, he worked on Senate and Presidential campaigns, serving as a Field and Political Director helping elect candidates in over a dozen states. For 4 years, he served as a political organizer with the SEIU, the country's largest labor union. For the last two years, he has served in the US Regional Office at Oxfam America, leading the organization's worker's rights program in the United States, which focuses on low-wage workers in the American food system.

JON HANSON
Alfred Smart Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Jon Hanson is the Faculty Director of The Systemic Justice Project and the Director of The Project on Law and Mind Sciences at Harvard Law School. Hanson graduated from Yale Law School in 1990, clerked for Judge José A. Cabranes, spent one year as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Yale Law School, and then joined the faculty at Harvard Law School. His teaching and scholarship meld social psychology, social cognition, economics, history, and law. Hanson’s recent scholarship includes the book, Ideology, Psychology, and Law, and his current projects focus on systemic injustice and the role of implicit motives in shaping policy.

JAMES HARRISON
Director, The Food Project
James Harrison ("J.") began his career in sustainable agriculture by co-founding a rural community supported agriculture program in Chippewa County, Minnesota, fueling his passion and interest in improving our food system. In 2005, J. joined The Food Project.  In 2009, J. became The Food Project's North Shore Regional Director, leading the expansion of youth, agriculture and community programs in the area and establishing several new farm sites in MA. In January of this year, J. became The Food Project's Executive Director. As a member of local and state food councils and networks, J. is active in policy and advocacy work and is passionate about creating communities of youth and adults working together to build a sustainable food system.

JENNIFER HASHLEY
Tufts New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, Director
Jennifer Hashley, is Director of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (http://www.nesfp.org) and a vegetable and livestock farmer in Concord/Sudbury, MA. Jennifer holds a Master’s in Agricultural Policy from Tufts University and a BS in Environmental Science from Indiana University. She hopes to see a diversity of small sustainable farms thriving in New England, across America and beyond.

ELIZABETH HENDERSON
Farmer; Board of Directors, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York
Elizabeth Henderson farmed at Peacework Farm in Wayne County, NY, producing organically grown vegetables for over 30 years. She is Board Member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA-NY), co-chairs the Policy Committee, and represents the NOFA Interstate Council on the Board of the Agricultural Justice Project. For 20 years she chaired the Agricultural Development Board in Wayne County and took an active role in creating the Farming and Farmland Protection Plan for the county. She has received numerous awards, including the “Advocate of Social Justice Award, the Justice” from Eco-Farm. Her writings on organic agriculture have been published widely, including in her book, Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture (Chelsea Green, 2007).

SARAH HILL
M.A. Student, Boston University
Sarah holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical and Process Engineering, and has had a varied career working in fast moving consumer goods (making washing powder for Unilever), in the pharmaceutical industry, and in financial services before making the decision to return to university to pursue a Master's. In January she graduated with an MA in International Relations and Environmental Policy at BU where Sarah focused on the environmental impacts of the global food system.

SIMCA HOROWITZ  
Program Director (Eastern MA), Massachusetts Farm to School
Simca Horwitz is the Eastern Mass. Program Director for Massachusetts Farm to School where she provides training to farmers and food service professionals and works on food system policy.  Simca has worked in food and agriculture organizations in the Boston area for over ten years, including as a farmer and farm-based educator at a community farm and running a shared use community kitchen for culinary entrepreneurs. Simca holds an M.S. in Food and Agriculture Policy from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.

ARIEL JACOBSON
Development & Communications Director, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
Ariel Jacobson is Development & Communications Director at the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, a national organization with close to 14,000 restaurant worker members, 120 employer partners, and several thousand consumer members in over 30 cities nationwide. ROC United builds power and voice for restaurant workers using a tri-pronged model that includes workplace justice organizing, promoting the “high road” to profitability, and participatory research and policy work. Jacobson has worked with organizations focused on grassroots community development, the rights of women and Indigenous Peoples, and youth leadership development.

LEAH KIRTS
New York University, MA Candidate in Food Studies
Leah is a recent transplant from Bloomington, IN where she attended Indiana University, and received a B.A. cum laude in English Literature & International Studies. Her senior honors thesis, "Queer Veganism: The Intersection Between Gay and Animal Rights in 20th & 21st Century American Culture," earned awards in practical ethics and expository prose. The scope of her research interests include food policy, ethics, & environmentalism, with a focus on animal welfare, animal rights, and women's rights in food production and agriculture. Her current project is "The Ecofeminist Farmer: Environmentalism, Agriculture, & Gender Equity in the 21st Century." She lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with her pet sourdough starter, Evelyn.

DANIEL KLEIN
Filmmaker and Founder, The Perennial Plate
Daniel has worked and trained at some of the world’s top restaurants, including Craft, Bouchon, Mugaritz, and The Fat Duck. Daniel also directs and edits films. Currently, he is working with his wife (Mirra Fine) on the 2013 and 2014 James Beard Award-winning web series, The Perennial Plate. The series profiles sustainable food producers from around the world. With over 150 videos created and more than 10 million views, Daniel and The Perennial Plate team are currently creating a nationally syndicated PBS show and a series with The New York Times and Vimeo.

JOHN LEBEAUX
Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources
Prior to appointment as Commissioner, John served as Town Administrator of the rural, agricultural town of Princeton, Massachusetts. John has worked at his family’s nursery business in Shrewsbury and as an Urban Horticulturist in New York City. John served two terms as President of the Massachusetts Nursery and Landscape Association. John was elected to his hometown Representative Town Meeting, is a six term Selectman in Shrewsbury, and a Charter Member of the Shrewsbury Farmers Market Steering Committee. John served nine years on the Massachusetts Board of Food and Agriculture, and for nine years as a public member of the Massachusetts Water Resources Commission.

GILBERTO LOPEZ
Doctoral Student, Harvard School of Public Health
Gilberto Lopez is a doctoral student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he is studying social and behavioral sciences. He is interested in the intersections of power and health. More specifically, in how said intersections play a role in conceptualizations, attitudes, and behaviors of health and illness among marginalized populations.

DREW LOVE
Assistant Northeast Coordinator, Real Food Challenge
Drew Love is the Assistant Northeast Coordinator for the Real Food Challenge, a national student led initiative to shift $1 billion dollars worth of dining hall purchasing to sustainable, local, and fair trade food. He works predominantly with university students in the Greater Boston area.

SRIRAM MADHUSOODANAN
Director, Value [the] Meal Campaign, Corporate Accountability International
Sriram Madhusoodanan directs the Value [the] Meal Campaign at Corporate Accountability International, where he mobilizes the campaign's power base of thousands of parents, health professionals, and community leaders who are demanding McDonald's and the fast food industry end the predatory practice of kid-targeted marketing. His team utilizes a diverse toolbox of tactics—from local policy advocacy to shareholder activism, media organizing and beyond—to creatively expose and effectively challenge industry leader McDonald’s abusive practices and negative impact on children's health. Prior to Corporate Accountability International, Madhusoodanan worked for Green Corps where he organized college students to transition coal plants off college campuses.

WILL MCCAFFREY
Cranberry Farmer at Spring Rain Farm in Taunton, MA
William McCaffrey grew up on his family's farm in East Taunton, MA growing cranberries, strawberries, and hay. After several years of orchard work in upstate NY he is now home, expanding the operation to include a wide array of tree fruits and livestock. Having witnessed the impacts of extreme weather events on an already fragile crop group, he is dedicated to building resiliency against the ever-growing challenge of climate change. Ideally, the end result will be a consistent, full season fruit CSA and a production model for others to follow.   

NATHAN MUELLER
Ziff Environmental Fellow, Center for the Environment, Harvard University
Nathan Mueller is an agroecosystem and global change ecologist who studies how we can securely feed a growing population in a world of widespread environmental change. Nathan is currently a Ziff Environmental Fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment. He received his Ph.D. in Natural Resources Science and Management from the University of Minnesota and his B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies from Saint Olaf College.

Rev. JOHN MILLSPAUGH
Executive Director, Beyond Carnism
Rev. John Gibb Millspaugh directs Beyond Carnism, an intersectional food and animal justice charity that promotes rational, authentic food choices for a more just world for all beings. A graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy and Divinity Schools, Millspaugh organized over four hundred Unitarian Universalist congregations from 2008-2011 to adopt a denomination-wide “Ethical Eating” statement on issues including neocolonialism, labor justice, hunger, climate change, animal concerns, international trade, and domestic food security--the first time a national U.S. religious body adopted an intersectional position statement on food. He is the developmental editor of a forthcoming anthology on “the joy of just eating.”

MARTHA MINOW
Morgan and Helen Chu Dean & Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Martha Minow has taught at Harvard Law School since 1981 and is sponsoring the Harvard Innovation Lab Deans’ Food System Challenge. An expert in human rights and advocacy for members of racial and religious minorities and for women, children, and persons with disabilities, she also writes and teaches about privatization, military justice, and ethnic and religious conflict. Minow received a master’s degree in education from Harvard and her law degree from Yale. She clerked for Judge David Bazelon of the D.C. Circuit and then for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court. She joined the Harvard Law faculty as an assistant professor in 1981 and became the Dean in 2013. Minow has received numerous honors and published over a dozen books in addition to her many scholarly articles.

MARILYN MORGAN
Director, Archives and History Program, University of Massachusetts Boston
As an archivist, cultural historian, and educator, Marilyn Morgan has spent her post-doctoral career investigating—and inspiring students to explore—the complex cultural associations between food and gender-based stereotypes throughout American history. The current Director of the Archives and History graduate program at UMass Boston, she teaches the course “Gender, Food and Culture in American History” for the Harvard University Summer School. While completing her Ph.D. (U. of ME, 2007) she worked as an archivist at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America (2005–2014). Within the archives, Morgan explores ways in which cultural perceptions of gender, ethnicity, and class have shaped food advertising and manufacturing—especially in the creation of pre-packaged, convenience foods from the postwar era through the present.

KARYN MOSKOWITZ
New Roots, Inc., Executive Director
Karyn Moskowitz landed in Kentucky in 1998, experienced first hand the devastating effects of fresh food insecurity, and her life, fortunately, was never the same. She now has 15 amazing years experience as a food justice organizer, and is one of the founders of the New Roots Fresh Stop Project, which she has directed since 2009, in partnership with hundreds of volunteer leaders. Karyn and New Roots have received numerous awards including 2nd place in the 2014 Slow Money Entrepreneur Showcase. Karyn holds a B.A. from Boston University in biology and an MBA in environmental management from the University of Washington.

ROBERT PAARLBERG
Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Robert Paarlberg is the B. F. Johnson Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, and also an Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He received his B.A. in Government from Carleton College, served as an officer in the United States Navy, and earned a Ph.D. in International Relations from Harvard University. Paarlberg has been the author of academic books on international food and agricultural policy, including Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know, and The United States of Excess: Gluttony, and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism (forthcoming).

MELINA PACKER
Ph.D. Student, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California Berkeley
Melina is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. She studies how food systems shape, and are shaped by, gendered social norms. Her research seeks to both reveal the (hetero)sexism permeating the transnational food system—including especially food-related sciences and technologies—and highlight the feminist resistances which offer possibilities for more socially just and ecologically resilient alternatives.

ELLEN PARKER
Executive Director, Project Bread
Ellen Parker has led the evolution of Project Bread from a traditional anti-hunger organization to a leading model that responds to the individual crisis of food insecurity while investing in systemic changes to prevent hunger. Parker was among the first to recognize hunger as a public health problem in low-income communities. For over a decade, Parker has advocated for healthy school food and community-based programming that reflects local need. During her tenure, she has raised more than 100 million dollars to help children and families struggling with hunger and food insecurity.

WINTON PITCOFF
Project Manager, Massachusetts Food System Plan, Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Winton Pitcoff is currently project manager for the Massachusetts statewide food system planning process. He is also coordinator of the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association, and has worked on food and agricultural policy issues at all levels of government. He writes regularly for Farming magazine, and is editor of Maple Syrup Digest, an international trade journal. He has also raised beef cattle, pigs and dairy goats, owned and operated an ice cream business, and worked for an on-farm yogurt maker and a dairy cooperative. Due to an unfortunate incident earlier this winter involving a hungry mink, Winton no longer raises chickens.

SASHA PURPURA
Executive Director, Food for Free
Sasha Purpura joined Food For Free as Executive Director in July 2012. She has a BA in computer science and an MBA in sustainability.  In addition to 15 years working in the private sector, she helped found an Plato's Harvest Organic Farm in 2005. Sasha is an active member of the local food community, sits on the steering committee of Slow Money Boston, and is a founding member of Sprout Lenders—a local investment club working to build the local food system.

MONICA RAMIREZ
Civil Rights Attorney
Mónica Ramírez is an accomplished civil rights attorney, and has been a farmworker and immigrant rights activist for nearly two decades.  In 2003, she founded the first state-based legal project aimed at combating gender discrimination against migrant farmworker women who were employed in agriculture in Florida.  In 2006, she joined Southern Poverty Law Center where she founded the first national legal project to end workplace sexual violence and other forms of gender discrimination against migrant farmworker and other low-wage immigrant women.  She is a skilled public speaker and author, and is a nationally recognized subject matter expert on workplace sexual violence against farmworker and immigrant women.  She is a Master of Public Administration candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School.

DOUG RAUCH
Founder and President, Daily Table
Doug is the founder of Daily Table, an innovative retail concept designed to bring affordable nutrition to the food insecure by recovering unsold, wholesome food from grocers, food service, growers, and manufacturers and providing ready-to-eat meals and basic groceries at low prices. Prior to founding Daily Table, Doug spent 31 years with Trader Joe's Company—the last 14 as a President—helping grow the business to a nationally acclaimed success story. Doug received his Executive M.B.A. from the Peter Drucker School of Management and was a Senior Fellow at Harvard in their Advance Leadership Initiative, where he focused on hunger, obesity, and the environmental impact of wasted food.

SANJAY RAWAL
Director, Food Chains
Sanjay spent over a decade working in the non-profit and government sectors while running a small agricultural genetics company with his father, Dr. Kanti Rawal. After working with Abby Disney and Gini Reticker as a consultant to their hit documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008), he was bit by the film bug. His first short, Ocean Monk (2010), took the Best Short Doc Prize (online) at the 2010 St. Louis Film Festival. His second film, Challenging Impossibility (2011), premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and played in 75 more, winning a number of awards. Food Chains is his first feature.

CHRISTINA ROBERTO
Assistant Professor of Social & Behavioral Sciences and Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health
Christina A. Roberto, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Social & Behavioral Sciences and Nutrition. She is a psychologist and epidemiologist whose research aims to identify, understand, and alter the environmental and social forces that promote unhealthy eating behaviors. Christina is principal investigator of the Psychology of Eating And Consumer Health (PEACH) lab, which studies current food policy issues including menu and package labeling, food and diet industry marketing, and policies to reduce sugary drink consumption. She draws upon the fields of psychology, marketing, behavioral economics, and public health to provide policymakers and institutions with science-based guidance.

PETER ROGERS
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Gordon McKay Research Professor of Environmental Engineering
Professor Rogers has a wide range of research interests, including the consequences of population on natural resources development; improved methods for managing natural resources and the environment; the development of robust indices of environmental quality and sustainable development; conflict resolution in international river basins; the impacts of global change on water resources; and transportation and environment with an emphasis on Asian cities. He is co-author with Susan Leal of a book entitled Running Out of Water. Recent other books include, An Introduction to Sustainable Development (with K. F. Jalal and J. A. Boyd), and Water Crisis: Myth or Reality (with M. R. Llamas and L. Martinez-Contina).

ROSA
Poultry Worker, North Carolina
Rosa is a native of Guatemala. She has worked at a poultry plant in Morganton, North Carolina, for the past nine years.

NATHAN ROSENBERG
Fink Food Fellow, Natural Resources Defense Council
Nathan Rosenberg is a Legal Fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where his work focuses on the relationship between the environment, our food system, and inequality. Prior to joining NRDC, he served as the Delta Fellow, a joint Harvard Law School and Mississippi State University position based in the Mississippi Delta. He co-founded the Harvard Food Law Society while a student in law school and served as its first president. He received his B.A. from Pitzer College in 2005 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2012.

ELIZABETH RUCKER
Northeast Ground Organizer, Real Food Challenge
Elizabeth wants to create a just world in words and stories her mom can understand. To keep the lights on, she manages two food pantries in Somerville and Cambridge. To keep her heart beating, she volunteers as a part-time organizer with Real Food Challenge. She believes that justice movements, including food justice, must center the history and voices of Black and brown people, trans and queer people, and poor people. A proud Okie, she also pushes back against narratives that paint US coastal cities as the cradles of liberty.

RACHEL RYBACZUK
Ph.D. Student, Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Rachel Rybaczuk is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Rybaczuk's research focuses on race, class, gender, and sexuality in contemporary agriculture and the commodification of identity and the rural.

NATASHA SCHVEY
Postdoctoral Fellow, Uniformed Services University; National Institutes of Health
Dr. Natasha Schvey is a postdoctoral fellow at the Uniformed Services University and the National Institutes of Health. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 2014 from Yale University and completed her clinical internship in Behavioral Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Schvey’s research focuses on obesity, eating pathology, and weight stigmatization. Dr. Schvey has developed a programmatic line of research investigating the behavioral, clinical, physiological, and legal consequences of weight stigmatization, which has received national and international media attention. Dr. Schvey has published and presented numerous articles on the topics of obesity and stigma.

BARTON SEAVER
Director of the Healthy and Sustainable Food Program, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Barton Seaver graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and gained universal acclaim and various awards for his environmentally conscious restaurants. He left the restaurant industry to pursue his interest in food sustainability. He became a National Geographic fellow and now works as the Director of the food program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to highlights the connection between environmental resiliency and human health. The New England Aquarium named Barton the first Sustainability Fellow in Residence and in 2012, Barton was named by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the United States Culinary Ambassador Corp.

BREN SMITH
Farmer and Owner, Thimble Island Oyster Co.; Executive Director, GreenWave
Bren Smith is the GreenWave Executive Director and owner of Thimble Island Oyster Company. He pioneered the development of restorative 3D ocean farming, which is implemented to restore ocean ecosystems, mitigate climate change, and create blue-green jobs for fishermen. A lifelong commercial fisherman, his work has been profiled by CNN, The New Yorker, Bon Appetit, and National Geographic's Future of Food series. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, National Geographic and The Atlantic. Bren is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and is an EchoingGreen Fellow.

ANIM STEEL  
Executive Director, Real Food Challenge
Anim Steel is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Real Food Challenge, a campaign to re-direct $1 billion of college food purchases towards local, fair, and sustainable sources within 10 years. Prior to Real Food Challenge, Anim led national initiatives at The Food Project in Boston and was a consultant with Economic Development Assistance Consortium. Anim holds a B.A. in Astrophysics and History from Williams College and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He is the recipient of a Prime Mover Fellowship for movement-building and an Echoing Green award for social entrepreneurship.

JENNIE STEPHENS
Executive Director of Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation
Jennie L. Stephens has served as Executive Director of the Center since its inception in 2005. She has worked for 24 years in the nonprofit world, in such positions as Fiscal Director at a community action agency, Sponsored Programs Director at a historically black college, and Senior Program Director at Coastal Community Foundation. She also has several years of experience in consulting. Jennie received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the College of Charleston, a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Charleston/University of SC, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from Regent University.

MAGALY URDAILES
Western North Carolina Worker Center
Margaly Urdailes is a staff member for the Western North Carolina Worker Center, an organization which for the last 10 years has worked with low wage workers (including poultry workers) in Western North Carolina.

DAVID WATERS
CEO, Community Servings
David Waters has been involved with Community Servings as a board member, volunteer, and staff person since it’s founding and became the Executive Director/CEO in 1999. With a staff of about 50, the agency delivers lunch, dinner, and a snack to 1,500 critically ill individuals and families per year. With 35 years experience in food service management, David served as the General Manager of UpStairs at the Pudding restaurant in Cambridge for eight years, where he first created Community Servings annual Pie in the Sky Thanksgiving pie sale, which is now replicated in cities around the country.

SUNNY YOUNG
Director, EduFood Consulting, LLC
Sunny Young is the Director of Edufood Consulting LLC, a school food reform consulting firm. She is also Program Director of Good Food for Oxford Schools in Oxford, MS, an initiative that combines farm to school practices, school gardens, and nutrition education. Young has worked on school food reform since 2009, when she began apprenticing under Chef Ann Cooper. In 2012, Young moved to Mississippi to lead the Oxford School District in starting the first school food reform of its kind in Mississippi and was subsequently named state liaison to the National Farm to School Network to create widespread change throughout Mississippi.