Breakthrough Leaders Training Program

Instructors/Presenters

Cynthia Belliveau

  Cynthia Belliveau is Dean of University of Vermont Continuing Education and teaches in UVM's Department of Nutrition and Food Science.  In 2005, Dr. Belliveau founded the "Sustainable Business: Practices in Support of People, Profit and Principles" program, designed to integrate the work of business and environmental faculty at the University. She currently serves on the Governor's Agricultural Development Board and has held board/committee positions for the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, the Lake Champlain Workforce Development Investment Board and the Intervale Strategic Planning Committee.  Dr. Belliveau is the Director of Vtrim™, an evidenced based behavior weight loss management program for the public developed at UVM in 16 years of clinical trials. As Dean of Continuing Education, she directs college and professional credit programming for college student and adults. Dr. Belliveau has consulted for Winrock International, US AID, and the Sri Lankan Government. She continues to teach undergraduates about food and cooking in the university Food Lab.

John Bramley

  Dr. A. John Bramley is Interim President at the University of Vermont.  Bramley, a longstanding member of the UVM faculty, has served as Department Chair of Animal Sciences, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Provost and Senior Vice President of the University. In 2006 he also served as Acting President during President Daniel Mark Fogel's illness. From 2007 to 2011 he was President and CEO of the Windham Foundation, the largest private foundation registered in Vermont. John Bramley was born and educated in the United Kingdom. He graduated with first class honors B.Sc. in Microbiology from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1971 and completed his Ph.D. in Veterinary Microbiology at the University of Reading in 1975. His research focused on bovine mastitis and he led a team of UVM researchers in cloning a gene that has led to the world's first mastitis-resistant animals. He is the author of some 150 research papers, review articles, and book chapters. He held the rank of professor in Animal Sciences and in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and was awarded

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emeritus status in 2008. Dr. Bramley was honored by the Green Mountain Council Boy Scouts of America as their Distinguished Citizen of the Year. He was an inaugural inductee of the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame and is a member of the Vermont Academy of Sciences. In July, 2011 the Windham Foundation announced the creation of the A. John Bramley Lecture Series, designed to focus on preserving Vermont's rural communities.

Megan Cowles Camp

  Megan Camp has served since 1988 as Vice President and Program Director at Shelburne Farms, a non-profit farm-based education center located in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. The mission of Shelburne Farms is to cultivate a conservation ethic for a sustainable future by practicing the stewardship of natural, agricultural, and cultural resources and educating young people to become ecologically literate and caring citizens who make choices that create a healthy and just world.

Shelburne Farms works in partnership with other government and non-government agencies to conduct research, influence policy, build capacity and strengthen Education for Sustainability networks. Shelburne Farms was the lead partner of the Vermont Education for Sustainability Project (www.sustainableschoolsporject.org) a unique consortium of nonprofit organizations and government agencies working together to integrate education for sustainability with school reform (www.sustainableschools.org) and a founding member of the Vermont Food Education Every Day (www.vtfeed.org) For over a decade Shelburne Farms has been collaborating with NOFA-VT, Food works at Two Rivers and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to strengthen the Farm to School Network in Vermont and the Northeast.

Erica Campbell

  Erica Campbell joined VSJF in July 2011 as the Farm to Plate Program Director. Over the past fifteen years, Erica's work has spanned many integrated areas, including food systems, sustainable community development, education, transportation, and climate change. Prior to joining VSJF, Erica was a regional food systems planner at Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick, where she led the development of the Regional Food System Plan for Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. She was also an associate with Resource Systems Group, where she

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consulted with planning agencies throughout the country developing long range plans, conducting research on climate change, and assisting with strategic planning activities. Erica is a co-founder and active member of the Waterbury-Duxbury Food Council and serves on her local Planning Commission. She holds a Master of Science in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont and a Bachelor’s Degree in Holistic Studies from Vermont College. Erica lives with her husband and three children in North Duxbury.  

Patty Cantrell

  Patty Cantrell is a community organizer and a journalist focused on making the business case for local and regional food. As Regional Food Solutions LLC, she works with nonprofit and educational clients to communicate new food and farm business options and public policy directions. She is a member of the Michigan Food Policy Council and a 2008-2009 Food and Society Fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. She brings to her work 12 years of on-the-ground food system project management at the Michigan Land Use Institute. There she led development of a 10-county local food marketing campaign, farm-to-school network, farm business education program, and a regional food and farming coalition. She is a 1987 Fulbright Scholar with BA degrees in economics and political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She received an MBA from Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, a city where she also cut her teeth as a business reporter and columnist at the daily Springfield News-Leader.

Melanie Cheng

Melanie is the founder of social enterprise FarmsReach and nonprofit Om Organics. FarmsReach started as a web-based SaaS platform to facilitate regional B-to-B food distribution, and has since evolved into farm advocacy services to help farms become more financially and environmentally sustainable: financial services, access to inputs, and technical assistance.  With Om Organics, she operated the first farmers market-to-restaurant co-op in San Francisco in 2002, and developed the OmOrganics.org website – a popular resource for consumers to learn about organic agriculture and find sustainably grown foods in the SF Bay Area.  Om's most recent project is Catalyst Commons, an initiative to help the food system movement minimize duplication of effort and connect those with capital with those who need it.  In 2010, Melanie

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was curator and developer of the Food Systems track at the international Social Capital Markets conference. Previously, she was a Cisco Systems writer and editor.

Heather Darby

 

Heather Darby is an Agronomic and Soils Specialist for the University of Vermont Extension. She received her M.S .from the University of Wisconsin in Agronomy and her Ph.D. in Crops and Soils at Oregon State University. Being raised on a dairy farm in Northwest Vermont, has also allowed her to play an active role in all aspects of dairy farming  as well as gain knowledge of the land and create an awareness of the hard work and dedication required to operate a farm.  These practical experiences complemented by her education have focused her attention towards sustainable agriculture and promotion of environmental stewardship of the land.  Heather is involved with implementing many research and outreach programs in the areas of fuel, forage, and grain production systems in New England.  Outreach programs have focused on delivering on-farm education in the areas of soil health, nutrient management, organic grain and forage production, and oilseed production. Research has focused on traditional and niche crop variety trials, weed management strategies, and cropping systems development. 

Doug DavisDoug resides on a farm in North Ferrisburg, Vermont, with his wife and children. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, and is currently the Director of Food Service for the Burlington School Food Project in the city of Burlington, Vermont

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Doug co-chairs the Food Service Directors Association of Vermont buying co-operative, is a consultant for the National Food Service Management Institute, serves on SNA's Public Policy and Legislation Committee, is president-elect of SNA-VT and was a ten year board member of the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger. Doug has been working in child nutrition programs for 20 years and has been actively involved in the Farm 2 School movement for over 8 years.

Niaz Dorry

 

Niaz is the coordinating director of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance. She & her dog, Hailey, live in Gloucester, Massahcusetts - the oldest settled fishing port in the U.S. Her dog Hailey is one of the lucky dogs who survived Hurricane Katrina and is Niaz' daily reminder of all the fishing communities that are yet to be rebuilt since the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and other disasters. Niaz began working with small-scale, traditional, and indigenous fishing communities in the U.S. and from around the globe as a Greenpeace oceans and fisheries campaigner. She then went on to working on advancing the rights and ecological benefits of the small-scale fishing communities as a means of protecting global marine biodiversity independently.

Time Magazine named Niaz as a Hero For The Planet for this work. Her fisheries articles appear regularly in Fishermen's Voice and SAMUDRA as well as a range of random publications. Niaz' work and approach have been noted in a number of books including Against the Tide, Deeper Shade of Green, The Spirit's Terrain, Vanishing Species, The Great Gulf, Swimming in Circles, A Troublemaker's Teaparty and The Doryman's Reflection. She is a graduate of the Rockwood Leadership Programs Leading From Inside Out as well as Art of Leadership trainings. She serves on the executive committee of the National Family Farm Coalition and Granite State Fish as well as an advisor to the Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and Global Environment. Before joining NAMA, Niaz served as the Interim Chief Operations Office for the Healthy Building Network.

Andrew Willis Garcés

 

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Andrew Willis Garcés was raised in Memphis, TN and Guadalajara, Mexico and has spent most of the last eleven years in the District of Columbia. During his time as an undergraduate and grad student in the District, he first focused on nonviolent direct action training work with anti-war and Latin America solidarity groups, and for the next several years worked with a variety of organizations fighting gentrification in historically African-American and Latina/o neighborhoods.

Since then he's helped build successful campaigns with labor unions, experimented with popular education while organizing with public housing residents and helped organize and mobilize immigrant voters in Northern Virginia.

He's also led train the trainer and organizational development workshops in Spanish for grassroots groups in the US and Colombia and coordinates TfC's English-to-Spanish translation initiative.

Andrew has experimented with creative tactics for over a decade, assisting to coordinate a national campaign to allow thousands of shopping mall janitors form unions, helping kickoff a campaign to stop the privatization of public buildings in DC, and leading another campaign for community-led development in a low-income neighborhood. He also helped develop two short campaigns to impact US foreign policy toward Colombia, Obama Remember Us and No More Broken Hearts.

With Training for Change he's given trainings for organizations like the Pennsylvania Immigrant Rights Coalition, Muhlenberg College, Campus Progress, the Green Party of Colombia and the DC Language Access Coalition.

Andrea Lee Grayson

 

Andrea Lee Grayson, EdD, MA works as a social and behavior change marketing consultant, focusing on the creative use of print, media, and environmental strategies to support social and behavior change initiatives. Grayson has a background in news, education, and advertising/corporate media production, and has been teaching college-level courses in Media Studies, Production, and Social Marketing since 1994. She has designed numerous successful social marketing campaigns to address diverse health and behavior concerns, including underage and binge drinking, carpooling, and breastfeeding. Her media work with the Entertainment-Education behavior change methodology includes collaborating with broadcast producers in Swaziland, Africa to create pro-social health messaging to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She is the co-founder of the production company it’s a Fine Mess! Productions, and is the producer of award-winning children’s media products.

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Grayson has a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from The University of Vermont, a Masters in Media Ecology from New York University, and a Bachelor’s degree with a major in Art & Aesthetics from Bard College at Simons Rock. She is the producer of several documentary shorts, including Vermont Farm to School: Building a healthy food system one bite at a time. 

Vern Grubinger

  Extension Professor, Vern Grubinger is the vegetable and berry specialist at the University of Vermont. He also serves as coordinator of USDA’s Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (SARE), which annually awards nearly $4 million in grants to researchers, educators and farmers across the 12 Northeast states.  He holds a PhD in Vegetable Crops and an MS in Agronomy from Cornell University, and a BS in Plant and Soil Science from the University of Massachusetts. Vern serves as a Trustee on boards of the Vermont Land Trust and the Windham County Farm Bureau. He writes monthly columns for 'Growing' and 'Farming' magazines, and airs the occasional commentary on Vermont Public Radio. He is the author of the books 'Sustainable Vegetable Production from Start Up to Market' and 'With an Ear to the Ground: Essays on Sustainable Agriculture'. His most recent area of inquiry and outreach is on climate change, renewable energy, and agriculture.  Vern also provides leadership to the UVM Extension Farm Energy community of practice.  

Diane Imrie

  Diane Imrie works as Director of Nutrition Services in the largest hospital in Vermont, and has been able to develop and implement a sustainable food program that is nationally recognized.She is a Registered Dietitian and graduate of McGill University in Montreal and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Vermont. She has a passion for local, seasonal, and sustainable food, and speaks nationally on the topic of implementing a sustainable food system in health care. Diane Imrie has been involved in the local food system in Vermont for many years, and has implemented a local and sustainable food program that is nationally recognized. In her professional life, Ms. Imrie has been lucky to be able to express her passion for local and sustainable food, and translate it into action on a larger scale.

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Victor Izzo

Victor Izzo is a graduate student in the Plant and Soil Science Department at the University of Vermont (UVM). He received his M.S. in Conservation Biology from Drexel University and is currently finishing up his Ph.D. research on the evolution and invasion ecology of the Colorado potato beetle.

As a lifetime educator, Victor has spent the majority of his career teaching ecology and conservation biology to a wide range of audiences and cultures. From high schools in Mexico City to university field courses in New England, Victor strives to create a more ecologically literate population. Owing to his dedication to education, Victor has received numerous awards for teaching excellence including the 2012 Graduate Student Teaching Award of Merit from the North American Colleges & Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) and the 2012 Plant and Soil Science Teaching Assistant of the Year Award.

Prior to arriving at UVM Victor served as a staff biologist and educator on several domestic and international Earthwatch conservation programs. As part of these programs he had the unique opportunity to witness the complex interaction of local communities and conservation policies. These experiences led Victor to “move up the chain” from conservation ecology to agricultural systems. He believes that many of the current conservation issues are intimately linked to the management of agricultural lands and the modern high input agroecosystem.

“By bringing a more ecological perspective to the existing concept of agricultural, we can create both a more integrated and sustainable system of food production while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of our wild lands.”

Joe Laur

 

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Joe Laur is the author of The Necessary Revolution  and a founding partner of SEED Systems, a company dedicated to creating businesses as living systems in harmony with nature, so that all life can flourish for all time.  Mr. Laur co-founded the SoL Sustainability Consortium in 1998 and is vice president of content for Greenopolis.com.  Mr. Laur was the Executive Director of the Inner Resource Development Corporation from 1992 —1996 and is a consultant to corporations, focusing on organizational learning, personal effectiveness skills and sustainable development.   Mr. Laur has worked with whole systems change for over 20 years and is a certified practitioner of Structural Integration, an applied physiology practice invoking whole systems change in human body structures. He received his BFA in 1975 from the University of Wisconsin. 

Robert S. Lawrence

  Robert S. Lawrence, MD is the Center for a Livable Future Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with joint appointments as Professor of Health Policy, International Health, and Medicine. He is the founding Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, which supports research and develops policies related to the public health impacts of industrial food animal production, improving food security, and adopting healthier diets. Dr. Lawrence graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School and trained in internal medicine at the MGH. He has been a faculty member of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina and Harvard. From 1980 to 1991 he served as chief of medicine at the Cambridge Hospital. From 1991 to 1995 he directed the Health Sciences Division at the Rockefeller Foundation. He is the founding director of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), serves on the Board of Directors of the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, and is a member of the Global Health Advisory Committee of the Open Society Institute.  

Karen Lehman

  Karen Lehman is the director of Fresh Taste, a funder collaborative formed to advance the growth of diverse local agriculture and healthy eating in Chicago and across Illinois. Fresh Taste partners are committed to changing the manner in which food is produced, distributed, and consumed in Illinois.  Lehman's food system work spans three decades, beginning with an award-winning PBS documentary on women's leadership in farm movements. She directed both

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the Local Food and Regional Economy programs at The Minnesota Project, co-founded the Youth Farm and Market Project in Minnesota and directed the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Food and Agriculture Program. Lehman also held an endowed chair in agricultural systems at the University of Minnesota, consulted with the Ford Foundation in Mexico and received a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government as a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow.

James B. Macon

 

James has spent his career as an operator, investor and advisor taking a hand-on approach to corporate and financial design, market analysis, partnership development, capital formation, team building and exit strategy and execution. Prior to co-Founding Closed Loop Capital, James founded Barbour Alliance, L3C, a start-up and venture capital advisory services firm and new economy innovations incubator.

Prior to Barbour Alliance, James served as Venture Director at Criterion Ventures where he designed and launched new social enterprises in healthcare finance, sustainable fisheries, urban education and renewable energy. James served as Executive Vice President at e2e Materials, an Ithaca, NY-based greentech start-up founded on Cornell University bio-composite research and technology. At e2e Materials, he was responsible for corporate financing initiatives, strategic planning and client acquisition. James was an Advisory Board Member for e2e Materials’ subsidiary Comet Action Sports, a skateboard manufacturer and founding B-Corporation. In 2007 James was an Associate with CEI Community Ventures in Portland, ME where he focused on new financing rounds for portfolio companies and the creation of a new fund targeting consumer product, software and renewable energy ventures in underserved regions in New England. James spent five years at eSecLending, a global financial technology start-up in Burlington, VT where he focused on global client acquisition and corporate strategy with particular emphasis on the sale of the business (sold 2006).

As an undergraduate, James received a BA from Hamilton College with additional study at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He earned an MBA at the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University where he focused on venture creation and financing, and led the Ithaca-based venture capital fund BR Ventures.  As an alumnus dedicated to venture creation and development, James was recognized as a Jonas Weil Entrepreneur Fellow. James lives in beautiful Shelburne, Vermont with his wife and two children.

Travis Marcotte

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  Travis Marcotte is Executive Director of the Intervale Center, a non-profit organization that develops farm- and land-based enterprises that generate economic and social opportunity while protecting natural resources.  The Intervale helps farmers bring their products to market, build and sustain their businesses, and maintain Vermont's working landscape.  The Intervale Center includes the Intervale Conservation Nursery, Intervale Agricultural Consulting Services, and the Intervale Food Hub, plus 12 small, private farms developed in the center's incubator program.   Mr. Marcotte brings a breadth of experience and joy to his work strengthening integrated food systems and running the Intervale Center. He also enjoys more simple pleasures like cooking and home gardening with his family. Prior to joining the Intervale Center, he worked in agriculture and community economic development in Vermont, Central America and the Caribbean. Travis Marcotte graduated from the University of Vermont Community Development and Applied Economics program and received his Master's degree in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis. He grew up on his grandparents' dairy farm in Charlotte, Vermont and now lives in a farmhouse in Fletcher where he raises chickens, vegetables and pigs with his partner Sue and their son.

Corie Pierce

 

Corie began farming as a teenager in New Hampshire on Barker’s Farm in Stratham, NH. It was supposed to be just a summer job, but she fell in love with the work growing food, being outdoors, running a family business, interacting with the community, the teamwork to run a successful farm, etc. She knew it would become part of her livelihood eventually! She also loved teaching and working with kids and people. So, the vision of a community farm that also engaged people by sharing with them where food comes from and connecting people back to the food they are eating and how it is produced became a goal for her. In 2005, Corie and Adam met in California at the UC Santa Cruz Farm and Garden Apprenticeship. It was there where the two began discussing ideas of this “community farm” and combining their passions and vision for a farm. After a wonderful stint in Michigan co-managing the Michigan State University Student Organic Farm and developing and teaching in their Apprenticeship, Corie moved back home to New England with her partner, Chris Dorman, and their son Henry, to collaborate with Adam to begin their farm.

Corie and Adam found out about the Leduc Farm preservation led by the Vermont Land Trust and submitted their proposal to buy the farm. In August of 2009, they were selected to buy the

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farm and in September 2009 they purchased the farm and launched their dream. Corie continues to teach for another year and a half at Sterling College while working on the farm on weekends. As of January 2011, Corie joined Adam full time on the farm helping to grow the vegetable production on the farm and to expand the dairy operation. Together, Corie and Adam are building all production areas of the farm the bakery, the meat, the dairy, and the veggies and are excited to grow their dream of creating their family farm and community farm!

Rich Pirog

Rich Pirog joined the newly created Center for Regional Food Systems at Michigan State University as senior associate director in May 2011. His current work includes developing a statewide food hub learning and innovation network and providing oversight to new Center work groups that include Center and MSU faculty and staff. From October 1990 to May 2011 he was associate director and program leader for marketing and food systems at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. At the Leopold Center Pirog directed the Value Chain Partnerships (VCP) project, an Iowa-based network of food and agriculture working groups that provides technical assistance to farmer-led food businesses in Iowa. Through VCP, Pirog lead the Regional Food Systems Working Group, which focuses on making the case for investment in local and regional food businesses and networks. There currently are 16 local food groups representing more than 80 Iowa counties that participate in the Regional Food Systems Working Group. Pirog lead the development of Iowa’s Local Food and Farm Plan in 2010-2011, which was mandated by the Iowa legislature and includes funding and policy recommendations to develop a stronger local food economy in Iowa.

Pirog's research and collaborations on local foods, food networks and communities of practice, food value chains, and ecolabels has been publicized in magazines and media outlets across the globe, used by local food practitioners, and are often cited in books and college courses. He currently is consulting and writing publications with the Ford Foundation, Wallace Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and the Kellogg Foundation.

Will Raap

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  Will Raap works to create and nurture local food, waste recycling and land restoration enterprises that support a more sustainable economy and future. His innovative efforts extend from the mountains of Vermont to the tropical forests of Costa Rica. Mr. Raap serves as chairman of Burlington, Vermont-based Gardener's Supply Company, which he founded in 1983.  In 1987 Mr. Raap founded and was past chairman of the Intervale Center, a non-profit organization that develops farm- and land-based enterprises that generate economic and social opportunity while protecting natural resources.  Will Raap is a member of the New Economics Institute Board of Directors and has served on numerous non-profit and corporate boards including Vermont Natural Resources Council, Vermont Business Roundtable, Vermont Land Trust, Champlain Valley Greenbelt Alliance, Intervale Center, Vermont Sustainable Agriculture Council, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, University of Vermont School of Environment and Natural Resources, Champlain College, Living Technologies and Seventh Generation. Will Raap holds a BA in Economics from UC Davis and a Master's degree in Business and Urban Planning from UC Berkeley.

her passion for local and sustainable food, and translate it into action on a larger scale.

LaDonna Redmond

  LaDonna Redmond is a Senior Program Associate for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and a long-time community food security activist who has successfully worked to get Chicago Public Schools to evaluate junk food, launched urban agriculture projects, started a community grocery store and worked on federal farm policy to expand access to healthy food in low-income communities. Redmond is a frequently invited speaker and occasional radio host. In 2009, Redmond was one of 25 citizen and business leaders named a Responsibility Pioneer by Time Magazine. LaDonna was also a 2003-2005 IATP Food and Society Fellow. In 2007, she was awarded a Green For All Fellowship. LaDonna attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Taylor Ricketts

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  Taylor Ricketts is Professor of Natural Resources & Environment and Director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. Taylor’s interests focus on the overarching question: How do we meet the needs of people and nature in an increasingly crowded, changing world? In his research and teaching, Taylor integrates natural and social sciences to address both fundamental scientific issues and real-world conservation problems. Taylor’s recent work has focused on the economic benefits provided to people by forests, wetlands, reefs, and other natural areas. He is co-founder of the Natural Capital Project, a partnership among universities and NGOs to map and value these natural benefits. Taylor also served as Convening Lead Author for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a 5-year, UN-sponsored effort to assess global ecosystems and their contributions to human wellbeing. These and other collaborations are part of a continuing effort to link rigorous research with practical conservation and policy efforts worldwide. Before arriving at UVM in 2011, Taylor led World Wildlife Fund’s Conservation Science Program for nine years, and he remains a Senior Fellow at WWF. He is the author of over 70 scientific publications, and his work has been featured in over 100 stories in more than 20 media outlets. Taylor received his B.A. in Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College and his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Stanford University.  

Stephen Ritz

  Stephen Ritz is a South Bronx teacher/administrator. With the help of extended student and community family they have grown over 25,000 pounds of vegetables in the Bronx while generating extraordinary academic performance. His Bronx classroom features the first indoor edible wall in NYC DOE which routinely generates enough produce to feed 450 students healthy meals and trains the youngest nationally certified workforce in America. Stephen has consistently moved attendance from 40% to 93% daily, helped fund/create 2,200 youth jobs, captured the US EPA Award for transforming mindsets and landscapes in NYC, recently won the ABC Above and Beyond Award, helped earn his school the first ever Citywide Award of Excellence from the NYC Strategic Alliance for Health and attributes these results directly to growing vegetables in school. His speech at Columbia University, “From Crack to Cucumbers,” along with the release of a You-Tube Video (Urban Farming NYC) resulted in a national

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following including an invite to the White House Garden. Dedicated to harvesting hope and cultivating minds, Stephen dreams of opening a nationally replicable Career Technical Education public school in the poorest Congressional District in America rooted in urban agriculture, green and sustainable initiatives. For more information, see Stephen Ritz.

David Schwartz

  David is the Campaign Director at Real Food Challenge. David graduated from Brown University in December 2009, where he spent more time organizing with the Real Food Challenge than he did in class. Coming from a Jewish household where issues of economic and racial justice were common dinner table discussions, David came to the world of food justice and sustainable agriculture in high school and hasn’t looked back. On campus he helped start a student garden, a local distribution scheme for local produce, and a campaign to redirect over $1 million of school food dollars to “real food.” Other things David feels passionately about: playing dress up, cheap Chinese food, participatory education, immigrants’ rights, and the color blue (sometimes orange).  

Irit Tamir

  Irit Tamir is the Senior Advocacy and Collaborations Advisor for Oxfam America's US Regional Office. She works on both campaigns and collaborations for better conditions and wages for migrant farm workers. Ms. Tamir alo advises Oxfam America's Gulf Coast Program where she works with grassroots organizations in the Gulf to ensure that coastal communities are more resilient to climate hazards. She is the co-author of the recently published Oxfam America report, Weeding Out Abuses: Recommendations for a law-abiding farm labor system.

Prior to working at Oxfam, Ms. Tamir was the Director of Government Relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston where she successfully lobbied for an extensive federal and state legislative agenda. She co-lead the effort to pass the Sudan Divestment Bill in Massachusetts which required the state pension funds to divest from companies doing business

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with the Government of Sudan in an effort to halt its human rights violations in Darfur. Ms. Tamir is an attorney with a masters in international law. A devoted human rights activist, she has spoken publicly about the issues in Darfur. Ms. Tamir has had years of experience in government relations and is a former prosecutor that supervised civil rights prosecutions and hate crimes.  

Mark Youndt

Dr. Youndt’s research activities revolve around the intersections of strategic management, intellectual capital, innovation, and competitive advantage. More specifically, his most recent work examines how human, social, and organizational capital influence organizations innovative capabilities; how strategic human resource management activities help develop and leverage intellectual capital for competitive advantage; and how the strategic management of human capital influences the performance of service firms. He has a B.A. degree in management and economics from Gettysburg College, a MBA from Rollins.

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