Greg Zahn is an architect, turned farmer, permaculturist and advocate.  After 20 years running an architectural firm in downtown Washington DC Greg has moved back to the Lake Michigan shores of eastern Wisconsin to establish Circle Union Farm.  While pursuing a graduate certificate in Environmental Policy in DC, Greg traveled to Kenya for his Permaculture Design Course then to Nova Scotia as a WWOOFer (World Wide Opportunities in Organic Farming).  Greg purchased Circle Union Farm in 2013 and is developing it as a permaculture homestead farm and educational demonstration site. Volunteering with Nourish, a food justice and education nonprofit, Greg works with elementary school children and is active in the growing local food and sustainability movements in Manitowoc and Sheboygan counties Wisconsin.

HANNAH HEPNER is the Manager for Quincy Certified Farmers’ Market in Plumas County. Quincy’s rural setting – among tall pines and pristine mountain lakes – is home to many local food proponents, budding farmers, bicycle enthusiasts, and backcountry skiers. A place Hannah found perfect to settle down in.  After studying Forestry and Natural Resources at UC Berkeley, she spent several years in Australia where her passion for local food blossomed.  Upon returning to the US, she took courses in landscape design and completed a farmer training program.  A “”modern homesteader”” she raises livestock, has a close relationship with her kitchen, spins yarn, makes soap, and has recently added to the list bringing up triplet daughters.

HASSAN RASHID DEL CAMPO NICHOLAS is an emerging artist and native of West Los Angeles. Hassan discovered his talent for visual and performing arts at an early age; spending a handful of California summers enrolled in art, dance and theater camps. With the encouragement of his peers and teachers he applied for and was granted admission into Parsons School of Design in New York, but economic challenges rendered the prospect too expensive and Hassan instead put down the charcoal and dry pastel in favor of calculators and graphs to study Economics at Loyola Marymount University. When “life happened” as Hassan often narrated, he rediscovered art again not only as therapeutic exercise but also as a romantic rebellion against art for art’s sake. Hassan’s art today is a snapshot of a growing artist – still developing artistically without the anxiety of having to fit in a box. In 2012 Hassan started L.A.undry, a guerrilla-styled “pop-up” that re-purposes laundromats in low-income areas into art galleries for one night only. The concept was conceived from the challenge as an artist to find an unconventional platform to exhibit work. After several failed submissions to art galleries Hassan thought about laundromats and how they anchor so many neighborhoods. “I was learning about popups and thought laundromats could align low-income communities with the broader art community in a way that wasn’t done before.” Hassan has exhibited and curated three laundromat pop ups, which have also included the works of several local and emerging artist from around the city. L.A.undry events continue to attract artists looking for unorthodox platforms to exhibit while also bringing purposeful art demonstrations to communities that normally don’t have the infrastructure to host them.

Heather Bunch loves healthy food! After living in urban areas with easy access to farm fresh produce, Heather returned to her roots in the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia and found the only way to have some of the foods she wanted was to grow them at home. In the first year, she transformed from a market shopper to a fearless gardener with gloves and a shovel.

In 2012, Heather met a handful of people who were hoping to start a community garden and helped found Sprouting Hope (www.sproutinghope.org). The garden continues to grow — adding a perennial berry patch and asparagus, low maintenance fruit trees, hoop houses for season extension and increased summer harvests, an edible riparian buffer featuring native fruits and nuts, and a home gardening program to help families grow food for themselves and for market. Sprouting Hope is committed to feeding people and starting conversations about local foods, food insecurity, food access and self-sufficiency.

Heather serves on the Sprouting Hope board and enjoys growing interesting varieties of veggies, tinkering with indoor seed starting and season extension techniques, learning about food preservation, and shopping small as our farmers market offerings become more diverse.

HEATHER MERCHANT is the Environmental Education & Community Outreach Manager for the City of Plano where she has been employed for the last 17 years. She has spent the last 6 years overseeing the Environmental Education and Community Outreach division and the previous 11 years developing and overseeing the compost education and marketing programs. In these roles, she has been responsible for: developing an environmental volunteer program that continues to serve as a benchmark for other cities across the state; planning and development of a comprehensive master plan for the LEED Platinum certified Environmental Education Center which includes a backyard compost demonstration site, interpretive signs and interactive learning exhibits for children, an education building, demonstration landscape, youth teaching garden and accompanying educational programming; development and construction of Plano’s first community garden; oversight of educational programs for community and schools focused on composting, recycling, special waste, litter prevention, water conservation, air quality and energy conservation; development and implementation of the Live Green in Plano brand and education campaign and the first Live Green Expo; development and implementation of award winning 1st grade field trip curriculum; restructuring of the Environmental Community Awards program; securing numerous grants that have allowed for implementation of new programs and features or enhancement of existing programs. In addition she has 10 years prior experience in the education/environmental education field.Ms. Merchant holds a B.S. in Environmental Education from Western Washington University; Graduate Studies and a Teaching Credential from Pacific Oaks College, and a M.S. in Instructional Research and Development from Purdue University.

Heather Ratliff is the School and Special Projects Coordinator at Cherry Capital Foods, a leader in the Northwest Michigan Food and Farming Network, and a lover of all things that thrive in soil. After several years living in Portland, volunteering and talking about the problems with the industrialized food system, she moved to Traverse City, Michigan and decided to dedicate her life towards food system change. As the School Coordinator for Cherry Capital Foods, she works with schools in Michigan to help them procure locally grown produce. As a leader in the Northwest Michigan Food and Farming Network, she facilitates the conversation among leaders in the local food industry to collaborate on their good work. And as a wife and a mother-to-be, she votes with her fork, every day choosing locally grown, clean food to nourish her family.

Ian Szalinski – Ian is the founder of Evoke Healthy Foods, an organic cereal company in Rochester, NY.  Growing up with homegrown food, Ian has always been immersed in sustainable, high quality food, even though he didn’t appreciate it until his mid-20’s.  Now immersed in the food industry, Ian grows some of his own food and works with farmers and millers through his company.  He enjoys the outdoors year round, including mountain biking, hiking, and snowboarding.

Jacob Nachel is an occasional farmer and full time foodie who is committed to growing food and educating people about local, sustainable food systems. He started his journey at a goat dairy in Oregon, worked on the country’s largest CSA in Colorado, and ended up farming and providing groceries for people in Reno, where he works at the Great Basin Community Food Co-op and shares with people how their food choices affect their bodies, their community, and their environment.

He hosts classes on topics ranging from urban beekeeping to backyard chicken raising to caring for a sourdough starter, and is starting an interactive blog to help people wade through the mess of diet advice bombarding hopeful foodies everywhere. There is a rumor that he has a photographic memory, and if you ask him anything about food, you just might start to believe it.

When he’s not trying to save the world one bite at a time, you can find him running through the beautiful hills around Reno, cooking amazing food with his wife Elena, or writing stories to entertain himself.

James Lee studied Horticulture at the University of Georgia and also completed a certificate in Organic Agriculture. He continued on to work on farms in Georgia, Maine, Florida, and Tanzania. He has worked with ECHO International for two years in continuing their mission of finding innovative and sustainable hunger solutions for small farmers in the tropics, both at the headquarters in Florida and also at the regional office in Tanzania. He’s currently the Environmental Learning Coordinator at Greater Atlanta Christian School in Metro Atlanta teaching students about food and sustainable using their green house, chickens, fish, trout hatchery, edible food forest, aquaponics, vermiculture, and tropical rainforest.

Jamie Purcell is the Co-Founder and Director of Wyoming Food for Thought Project – a local organization dedicated to creating equitable food access for everyone in the community. Her experience working in grassroots organizing and localized approaches comes from her life-long willingness to question the status quo. She and program director Cassandra Bush, work with a team of dedicated partners, volunteers, and community leaders to create systemic change in the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed.

JANET KATZ will complete her Master’s of Science in Sustainable Food Systems from Green Mountain College in Summer 2014. After graduating with a degree in chemistry from Kenyon College, and a MS in Organic Chemistry from The Ohio State University, she worked for 15 years in product development for Goodyear, Mead and Glidden. During these years she and her college sweetheart, Andy had two wonderful children, now ages 25 & 21. Though their family always had a large garden and shopped at local farm stands, it was their son who introduced them to the beauty of fresh local eggs, the joy of seasonal eating and the importance of questioning whom they supported with their food purchases. After seeing many creative local food initiatives across the country, Janet hopes to help develop a vibrant local food system in her own community. She chose to pursue graduate studies to strengthen her understanding of the complexity of the issues and to gain credibility beyond that of a passionate locovore in order to pursue her role as an effective advocate for improved sustainability in her region. She plans to utilize the Lexicon of Sustainability pop-up shows to help advance these conversations. In Spring 2014, Janet and her husband will break ground on a new home designed to hopefully attain LEED Platinum status. Their goal is for Green Oak Farm to be a meeting space and educational catalyst for promoting sustainability in their community.

Janette Wesley currently serves as the Slow Food USA Regional Governor for SC, NC  and helps coordinate regional meetings with Slow Food across the southeastern USA. She has served as chapter leader for Slow Food Upstate, SC for the past 5 years and led the way for the first Earth Market in the USA to be opened in Greenville SC, a farmers market certified by the Slow Food Foundation of Biodiversity.
She works as a business development partner with Salute! LLC, a family owned import and micro-distillery located in Greer, SC.  She oversees the herb and fruit garden called the Garden of Earthly Delights, which is located behind the distillery and supplies various aromatic herbs and blackberries for liqueurs made at Salute! Janette and her family own a small vineyard in Cortona Italy, and are producing DOC Cortona red wines under the VICARIO brand. She also works as an artist in the field of oil painting, and writes for AT HOME magazine, published quarterly by the Greenville Journal. Historic places, good food and wine, travel and art are her passions.

Janie Burns –Janie Burns has been active in providing local food for local people since 1989 when she started selling organic vegetables at Boise’s first farmers’ market. Over the past 26 years, she has raised a wide variety of crops and sold to restaurants, CSA’s and to retail stores.  Currently, she grows high quality grass and forage for the grass-fed lamb and pastured poultry on her 16-acre Meadowlark Farm south of Nampa, Idaho

Janie is a founding member of the new food and ag-centric Boise Farmers Market.  Under her leadership, the Market initiated the Mobile Market in 2015 to bring local foods to underserved areas of Boise.

Janie serves on the boards of the Boise Farmers Market, and the Treasure Valley Food Coalition, and is on the advisory committee of the University of Idaho’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. She has previously served on the board of Rural Roots, Idaho Organization of Resource Councils, and the Idaho Department of Agriculture Organic Advisory committee.

Janie was raised in Ontario, Oregon and holds a B.A. from the College of Idaho. She was named the College of Idaho’s Distinguished Alumni in 2009 and one of the Idaho Business Review’s Women of the Year in 2010.

JAVAN KERBY BERNAKEVITCH started Permaculture BC in 2010 (www.permaculturebc.com) with the realization that humanity’s current mental operating system is the crux of our predicament. Javan believes that beyond the bricks of regenerative practices, the way we think sets the course for how any tool, strategy or design will be employed; well begun is half done. Building a tool belt riveted together with permaculture Javan integrates land management strategies with social development techniques. As such, Javan combines the teachings of Sepp Holzer, Geoff Lawton, Darren Daugherty, Richard Walker and Mark Shepard with the application of Holistic Management and Keyline Design paired with Deep Listening, Council Work and The Art of Hosting to refine and hone the craft of regenerative land design. While hosting and teaching PDC’s Javan’s oft quote “”The Thinking is Revolutionary, the solution is just interesting””, spurred an idea to start applying permaculture and Holistic Management Goal setting techniques to students’ lives. “”Finding Your Niche in Permaculture”” was born and with it a model of life design that has helped students begin permaculture focused income streams right out of their PDC. Based on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada he works with clients in his native country, the USA, Kenya and Uganda to produce ecologically sound and economically profitable systems while working to move locally connected communities towards a paradigm of Planet and People first. He is the Co-Founder of the open source Southern Vancouver Island Permablitz Network, and the soon to launch BC Permaculture Map and Directory

JAY MARTIN has been married to his best friend, Kathy, for 33 years. They have 3 children and 2 grandchildren. Jay says, “” Kathy and I started Silver Seed Greenhouses in 1985. We wholesaled vegetable and herb transplants to farmers, primarily in the Mid-Atlantic area but also to growers elsewhere. At our zenith we were growing over 1 million transplants a year. SSG was certified organic by Md. Dept. of Ag. in 1991. Kathy finished a degree in education and started teaching in the local public school system. We sold SSG in 2000 and I started a CSA named Provident Organic Farm. I dropped organic certification when the USDA took the program over as I saw no need for it in the CSA model. We grew the CSA to serve over 200 families and recruited other farmers to form a multi-farm CSA. We quit the CSA in 2009 and currently market our produce in 3 farmers markets, one of which I started in Salisbury as an outgrowth of one of our CSA pick up locations. I currently manage that market. I have been teaching a class on organic gardening at Salisbury University for 3 years and just finished designing a student farm for SU that we hope to begin putting in the ground this fall””.

JESSE DELIA is at Common Ground High School, Urban Farm, and Environmental Education center, which is an organization in New Haven committed to cultivating habits of healthy living and sustainable environmental practice among a diverse community of children, families, and adults. We accomplish this mission through three tightly connected efforts: our high school which is the nation’s longest-running environmental charter school, creating the next generation of successful college students and powerful environmental leaders; our urban farm that models practices of sustainable agriculture and contributes to a healthy food system for New Haven residents; and our environmental education center which offers programs that connect people of all ages with the natural world while helping them develop habits of sustainable living.

Jessica Muntunga is passionate about good simple living that focuses on relationships, food and creating a supportive healthy environment. She is a Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner, Permaculture designer and graduated with BA in Environmental Studies.  She brings to the table wisdom, her own health journey and varied education in natural science.  Jessica lives with her husband and three children in beautiful Belle Plaine, MN. When not working you can find her busy in the garden, creating in the kitchen, enjoying good food with friends and family or practicing yoga.

Jodee Ellett leads the Community Engagement element of the Sustainable Food Systems Science initiative at Indiana University, working to enhance partnerships with communities as they address food system issues.  Her asset-based community development approach involves communities in the exploration of ideas and opportunities in the food system and provides ongoing support in sustainable food systems science.  Jodee steers the Indiana Food Council Network, supporting our grassroots community food system councils and is working with farmers and buyers to build an Indiana Value Chain Network.  Jodee earned a BA in Botany from the University of Montana and an MS in Plant Biology from the University of California, Davis.

JODI DALEY began her career in the public health arena, she has always cared about people and their health. Upon moving to middle Georgia, an area rich in farmland, where 80% of the food grown in Georgia is shipped out of the state, she started a farmers market. After 5 years of building the market, it is now a year round market with up to 30 local producers that participate every year and with over 2000 shoppers that come for local grown seasonal fruits and vegetables. With a dream to bring awareness on the need of a local system, Jodi and Lori Freeman started Land to Hand, Inc. Land to Hand, Inc’s  purpose is to improve family health, enhance household standard of living, and grow the local economy by stimulating a local, profitable, and equitable natural food system

Josh Dansdill is currently serving as the Regional Farmers Market Coordinator at Northeast Iowa Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) a regional non-profit.  Graduating from Luther College with a business degree he never imagined he would be working to promote local food.  After spending time abroad in Europe and living in other states across the USA it became clear how vital local food is to the local economy.  Working with 26 different farmers markets across Northeast Iowa The Lexicon will have the opportunity to reach a variety of communities members.  Josh believes deeply in the power of collaboration and sees the local food economy asan opportunity for rural Iowa to thrive.

JOYCE JIMERSON: has coordinated educational volunteer programs at WSU Whatcom County Extension in Bellingham, WA for over 15 years. In 2008, she designed and developed a new service learning volunteer education program, Carbon Masters. The training launched in 2009, and focuses on the science of climate change, and ways volunteers can help the community both change behaviors that contribute and provide tools to adapt. She is continually amazed at the creative and innovative community projects volunteers have developed, and the positive impacts they have in the county.

Judy Adler is an environmental educator who has offered unique ecology-based, hands-on field trips for schoolchildren in Mt. Diablo State Park for the past twenty years.  A passionate gardener, she offers classes in sustainable horticulture and seed-saving for the general public.  Her gardens –  part farm and part nature preserve – feature rainharvesting and graywater systems. Her goals include fostering biodiversity and restoring wildlife habitat.

JULIE KRAMER is a photojournalist in Cincinnati and publishes Edible Ohio Valley with her family. After spending 15 years in the commercial photography world she has turned her lens toward recording the sustainability movement in the midwest. Edible Ohio Valley magazine works with local government, business, and non-profit organizations to build public will for local foods while teaching readers that sustainable agriculture is part of the conservation movement.

JULIE ROSS and her husband Bill own a 40 acre organic farm on the plains of South Dakota called Good Roots Farm and Gardens. Julie says, “”I am a third generation owner. We raise beautiful veg (200 different varieties) for CSA families and Farmers Market ( our 3rd year). We also raise commercial Aronia and have started an orchard and u-pick berry garden.We are a learning farm and grow some of our veg in a large high tunnel. We live sustainable values. I am also a work-at-home health coach for United Health Care and have professional life coaching credentials. We spent many years working in international ministry. We savored being a part of the transformation process. I love the power of a good question and helping others learn wiser ways to live. Bill and I have four sons who understand sustainability. Recently were talking about what it would take to pull together definitions around sustainable concepts and create learning curve tools to help more people get on board. In that same week we found the Lexicon website and I promptly applied!”” Visit their website at goodrootsfarmandgardens.com