A child of Berkeley California’s gourmet ghetto, LISA SCOTT OWEN studied fine art from a very young age, spending her summers in the artist community created at the Arizona home of her grandparents John and Ruth Waddell. It was there that she was introduced to the concepts of kitchen gardens and nutritional healing by her grandmother. But, it was in Berkeley at her neighborhood restaurant Chez Panisse that the work of Alice Waters molded her perception of quality of ingredient and the experience of a fine dining environment. Lisa began focusing on collage and photography in her early teens, her work was first published in Thrasher magazine and in her later teens she moved to Hawaii to pursue surfing. While living there, she apprenticed for portrait and fashion photographer Mary Ann Chang and began shooting with 50mm lenses, in black and white with a Nikon f3 and in color with a vintage Hasselblad. Trying modeling for a misguided moment, she had the opportunity to work with many of Hawaii’s best surf photographers most importantly Warren Bolster who became a friend and mentor. In order to improve her work in early 20′s, she took the opportunity to apprentice for Color, Light, Composition and Art History with her grandfather John Henry Waddell, who graduated from The Art Institute of Design in Illinois (also known as The New Bauhaus), studied Art Theory with Frederick Sommer and learned darkroom skills from her photographer/film maker father,Sean Wilder Owen. After that, Lisa moved to Rome, Italy, dreaming of studying with cinematographer Vittorio Storaro inspired by his writings about light and his work with Federico Fellini. There, she had the opportunity [due to the kindness of Saul Zaentz and Adriana Chiesa] to meet, get advice from and photograph Carlo Di Palma, but studying with Vittorio Storaro wasn’t meant to be. So she traveled to Florence and studied Italian, Art History and did apprenticeships in Architecture with Patrizia Petrogrande, Design withSimonetta Doni and Photography with Roberto Quagli. Living with Italian families while going to school, Lisa had her first life altering introduction to Italian food culture and she loved it. Upon returning to the states, she continued her studies at The Evergreen State College receiving a B.A. in Photography and Film. While interning with various art directors, cinematographer’s and at Panavision in Los Angeles, she got her first more serious restaurant job at The La Brea bakery and Campanile, with chefs Nancy Silverton and Mark Peel. It was a wonderful learning experience for her to watch as Nancy was designing and building the wholesale aspect of La Brea Bakery. Campanile was an exciting place for a young person were you might one day meet chef Julia Childs and the next actress Ruth Gordon. It was there that Lisa First photographed food [bread from the bakery] at Chef Nancy Silverton’s kind invitation. After eight years of working in Italian family owned restaurants, Lisa opened her restaurant, The Mark in Olympia. An organic, classic, simple, Italian influenced restaurant with an extensive full bar. During the research process Lisa was fortunate to have made the acquaintance of wonderful Seattle chef Tom Douglass. He opened his kitchens to her at both The Palace Kitchen and his Dalia Lounge learning from his team the things they felt were important for a new restaurants survival. It was Tom’s advice that influenced Lisa to cook over a wood fire at the restaurant, advice she is very thankful for. Over the years Tom and his wife Jackie have been kind mentors supporting Lisa in the difficult journey of opening and growing The Mark an organic, local, slow food restaurant long before it became fashionable. Where she has now been owner and executive chef for over a decade. The name “The Mark” is in remembrance of Lisa’s stepfather Mark Lissner Greenberg who passed after a long battle with cancer just a few years before the restaurant opened. In recent years Lisa is very honored to have been invited into the kitchen of Rome’s oldest restaurant Ristorante La Campana a very traditional Roman restaurant still owned by the Trancassini family. As well as the kitchen of another classic Roman restaurant Nino by the sisters Maria Egidio and Anna Guarnacci. Learning from these families long time experience as restauranteurs and their beautiful relationship with the quality of ingredients they use, and the simple classic recipes they make it has been invaluable to helping Lisa stay determined in her path. After more than a decade Lisa appreciates very much the long term mutually respectful relationships that have grown with a number of local farmers and ranchers. Whose hard work and dedication to sustainable agriculture assures her restaurant The Mark of a steady supply of the best quality local ingredients. She feels that doing private events with menu’s sourced almost entirely within one hour of the restaurant is some kind of joy! Lisa makes her education an ongoing effort by continuing to consult with amazing chefs, farmers, educators, environmental activists and artists in both Italy and the US.

Lisa Rogers created Feed Denver: Urban Farms & Markets to address the issues of food access, foodshed sustainability, and the creation of a local food production industry in the Rocky Mountain region.  Feed Denver creates farms in the city where people come to learn how to grow fresh food at high altitude, gain hands-on job training, and develop entrepreneurial skills that open avenues to self-sufficiency. Feed Denver’s soil regenerative, farm-based training improves not only access to food, but develops economic opportunity and employment. Our farms are a diverse network of local fresh food production and direct markets, an incubation program for multicultural urban farmers, a regional research and training center, and host to courses and workshops, as well as a series of annual urban farming events.

LISA SADLEIR_HART recently semi-retired from the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium where she managed the community nutrition and employee wellness programs for 24 years. She teaches nutrition in the UAS Health Sciences department as an adjunct faculty, and she recently finished up Sitka’s Community Food Security Assessment and serves as President of the Sitka Local Foods Network as well as the co-chair of the Alaska Food Policy Council’s governing board. She is committed to eating sustainably, improving Alaska’s food system, and working to bring about food justice and a more sovereign food system. She’s an avid gardener and enjoys the art of food preservation and home cooking and loves exploring the potential for social change through art.

LORI FREEMAN has worked in Strategic Planning and Organizational Transformation for the last eight years. She earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. Since 2000, Lori has been a Middle Georgia chapter leader for the Weston A. Price Foundation connecting farmers to consumers looking for access to organic foods and pasture raised meats, eggs, and dairy. Lori is dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism. Lori is co-founder of Land to Hand, Inc. promoting locally grown foods throughout the area.

LUCY WILSON is Edible Omaha co-publisher and a gardener, who is constantly fanatic and amazed at the provision contained in a single seed. She was born and raised in Nebraska, but currently has a home with her husband Doug and their two dogs across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa on an acreage. Her passion to see her community build a sustainable food source is only overshadowed by her desire for everyone to have access to affordable, real food and she believes Edible Omaha will be the catalyst for both.

LYDIA ATKINS is a FoodCorps Service Member with Good Food Sandhills of Moore Co. She integrates garden-based nutrition lessons into local classrooms, supports the creation of student-led school garden markets, provides support for Moore County Schools to continue their participation in Farm2School and connects FC service to the local community helping equalize access to healthy food. Lydia graduated from the University of Alabama in 2009 with an interdisciplinary degree in environmental sustainability. She has traveled to various countries in Central America and Western Europe as well as within the US to absorb the diversity of ways individuals, communities, and cultures at large are looking to permaculture and sustainable agriculture for solutions to otherwise failing systems. Last year Lydia lived in a life-sharing community in Ireland called Camphill Ballytobin where she gardened and cared for youth with special needs.

Maddy Mitchell & Sam Anawalt are directors of a student organization, the Council of Sustainable Leaders as well as student sustainability coordinators for the Sustainability Institute at Penn State. The Council of Sustainable Leaders is working to enhance student and faculty engagement in co-curricular programming related to sustainability and provides grassroots support and resources for sustainability-related student organizations across campus. They are passionate about involving and empowering community members, students, and faculty members to see sustainability as not only an environmental issue but also as a social issue (education, equality, infrastructure, etc.). On campus, Sam is involved with beekeeping and does research with honeybees for the USDA. Pictured above is Sam and Maddy visiting the bees and enjoying some fresh honey straight from the beehive!

MAREN STUMME-DIERS works with the Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness Initiative and Luther College as a Sustainable Foods Educator. At Luther Maren works on Edible landscaping, campus gardens, community gardens and the facilitation of education opportunities related to food. On behalf of Food and Fitness she is providing support to school gardens and food service directors throughout the region as they work to incorporate more local food into the menu. Maren graduated from Luther College with degrees in Environmental Studies and Spanish and will graduate with a Masters in Sustainable Food Systems from Green Mountain College in Vermont in December 2014.

Marlana Moore and Amanda Gallear have been co-chairs of the Advocacy & Policy Work Group of the New Brunswick Community Food Alliance since July 2014. NBCFA brings together city residents and youth, college students, community leaders, and local government to build a sustainable and just food system their city – New Brunswick, NJ. They work to ensure that all New Brunswick residents have access to nutritious, safe, affordable, and culturally appropriate food at all times. Marlana is a graduate student in the Bloustein School of Rutgers University, pursuing a Masters in City & Regional Planning with a focus on community development, and Amanda is a community organizer at Unity Square, a New Brunswick-based community organization that focuses on economically empowering residents.

Marsha Taylor is the Culinary Arts Teacher at Waialua High & Intermediate School.  This is a small rural (7-12th grade) school located on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.  She has developed a culinary arts program with an emphasis on health, nutrition, food sovereignty and sustainability. This is especially important since Hawaii imports almost 90% of its food and is located in the middle of the Pacific!  Supporting locally grown food and sustainability of the island ecosystem is a major concern.  Her desire is to get community members, students and interested players together to have a conversation, discuss these issues and try to come up with solutions to protect this beautiful place.  She is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and was Teacher of the Year 2013.

Matt Kehr is an Undergraduate Student seeking a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of South Carolina. He is also a professional intern for the USC Office of Sustainability (Sustainable Carolina), as well as a Research Assistant for the Environment and Sustainability Program at USC.  His passions include, but are not limited to: gardening, advocating for sustainability, hiking, biking, and snowboarding.

Megan Taylor is the Executive Director of The Edible Prairie Project located in Campbell County, WY.  It seeks to cultivate a fair, resilient and sustainable community food system that promotes thriving rural economies by supporting independent family-scale agriculture through education, market creation, food production and food distribution.

Melissa Greer, D.O. is a holistic family medicine physician practicing anthroposophic medicine in Waupun, WI through Beaver Dam Community Hospital. She has had a long time interest in biodynamic gardening and is active in a new initiative through the Biodynamic Farming Association, which bridges the fields of medicine and agriculture. Sharing the knowledge that organic and biodynamic farmers are healthcare partners who are the first line in community health through their work with soil building affecting food nutrients and their sustainable uses of natural resources is prevalent throughout her practice and community projects. Melissa has a special interest in oil dispersion bath therapy, understanding illness as a path of inner development, painting, poetry and building conscious communities.

MELISSA TERRY is a graduate student in the Public Policy program at the University of Arkansas and the Program Coordinator for Feed Communities, a regional food system nonprofit organization based in Northwest Arkansas. She considers herself a consistent social gardener who loves to read, research, write. Melissa has an affinity for kind people, theories of change, logic models, case studies, and collective impact. Married for 16 years, Melissa is raising a family on a 9 acre urban farm in south Fayetteville with 2 young daughters, 2 cats, 5 kittens, 6 hens, 15 baby chicks + 20,000 honey bees. She tries to keep up with the laundry but mostly just loves cooking, hanging out with her family, and working in gardens any chance she gets.

Since making terrariums in sixth grade, Mike Hillis has known horticulture was his calling. Mike worked his way through high school and college by growing and selling seasonal bedding plants and building an interior plantscaping design and maintenance firm. He went on to construct commercial greenhouses growing poinsettias, Easter lilies and geraniums. After earning his degree in Ornamental Horticulture from the University of Nebraska, Mike and his wife Sally went on to open a full service floral shop and catering firm specializing in the art of the party. For the past 35 years they have designed and orchestrated personal and cooperate events across the country. In all aspects of their business, it has been their mission to utilize local growers, vendors, and artisans as much as possible. They are committed to sustainable agriculture, being members of Slow Food USA and the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, promoting an agriculture and food system that builds healthy land, people, communities and quality of life for present and future generations. Mike is currently on the board of directors of Prairie Pines, which is a 145-acre property including 20 acres of woodland containing more than 200 species of woody plants, 10 acres of virgin prairie, and 30 acres of seeded prairie grasses and wildflowers. Also present are field windbreaks and waterways. Prairie Pines provides an environmental refuge, enhanced arboretum, and horticultural study area integrating county extension services, community recreation, and wildlife research and education.

MIKE TODD: teaches Environmental Science, Physics, and Biology at Ames High School in Ames, IA. His innovative teaching methods engage his students in student-driven, community-based Environmental Impact Projects that work to transform the environment, community member mindsets, and the students themselves. His students are active in managing a local prairie remnant, reconstructing prairie areas near the high school, and creating a more sustainable school campus.

MITRA STICKLEN works at the convergence of three mountain ranges and the deserts of Southern Oregon,at the Southern Oregon University Center for Sustainability. This is a living and learning laboratory for applied research and projects in sustainability. The Center for Sustainability serves as a community resource for sustainability education, fosters sustainable business development, promotes interconnectedness, and facilitates leadership training through thoughtful learning and practice.

Monica Pennell is a full-time senior technical support engineer for Oracle, a wife and a mother of two young daughters. She raises chickens in her backyard as part of her steps to become food independent. After living in a small rural town in Central Massachusetts for the last eleven years and witnessing the steady decline of her town’s only general store and final closing, she was inspired to create the “”Save Ashby Market”” Facebook page. This effort to help her community has encouraged her to not only try and restore the one store, but to engage the entire community about restoring many of the town’s historical sites and business. Many members of the community are now helping to investigate how this goal can be achieved.

NANCY KIRSTEIN was raised on a farm in Northwest Iowa. She made the unfortunate mistake of naming several of the farm animals (Bill the cow, Buckwheat the sheep, Get Away from Me the goose) and upon leaving the farm became a vegetarian and a teacher. She uses her degree in English to appropriately name all of their barnyard animals after literary characters. Jeff grew up all over the place, but mostly on small hobby-farms from Oregon to Iowa. He, too, made the mistake of naming (and occasionally riding) farm animals and consequently doesn’t eat meat. After spending most of a year riding a sailboat in the Pacific Ocean, he knew he couldn’t possibly go back to life under fluorescent lights and behind a desk and instead has chosen a life under the sun and sky and behind a tractor wheel and a hoe. He intends to have the greatest farmer-tan anyone has ever seen! The Good Earth farm and CSA turned 3 on April 1st, 2011. In addition to growing over 15 acres of vegetables, Nancy and Jeff also contribute to school gardens, Habitat for Humanity, Feeding South Dakota, The Salvation Army, and work with several area churches to provide healthy, fresh food to those in need.

Master Gardener, musician, mom, and teacher, Nann Parrett, wanted to share her passion for education and gardening with children and their families. So in the summer of 2013 she brought some friends together to form Cultivate Helena, a small nonprofit organization with a simple mission: to educate, engage and collaborate with partners in the greater Helena area to support all-season, sustainable gardening projects for our community’s health and well-being. Today, Cultivate Helena offers workshops on worm composting and sustainable gardening, visits preschool and elementary classrooms to lead gardening playshops, and coordinates community gardening projects with children and youth. In the late winter, a Cultivate Bioliteracy Series offers up readings, films, and other educational events to “keep our minds growing while our gardens lie dormant.” Cultivate Helena has an active, working board of five people who are passionate about sustainable gardening, local foods, and engaging children and youth in the art, science, and joy of gardening. The 2015 Bioliteracy Series will be greatly enhanced by the Lexicon of Sustainability art show which will include information about our community’s commitment to sustainability, readings, films, and opportunities for learning, sharing, and socializing.

NATALIE JAMES is the Coordinator of the Harvest Moon Society and a Program Facilitator at Sustainable South Osborne Community Co-operative. In both roles, she helps to grow vibrant communities rooted in a strong local food culture. While unable to turn down a juicy tomato or crunchy pea plucked from the garden, Natalie is increasingly captivated by indigenous plants and the sense of connection that comes from foraging for edibles within her ecosystem.

The entrepreneurial sprit and dedication to the environment began in me at a very young age. Both persisted all through years of education, and through years in the professional world. Early on in my legal career, my path through local food began when my wife and I started the Arvada Farmers’ Market. After starting and operating many farmers markets throughout the Denver Metro Area and in Louisville, Kentucky, we recognized a deeper need, and an opportunity, in the Local Food world.

The demand for local food by eaters, and the entrepreneurial spirit of small farmers and food producers, offers a unique opportunity to create more sustainable local economies. Beginning in 2011, my efforts have been completely focused on creating the most efficient means to: increase the supply of local food; distribute local foods; retail local food and goods through physical and e-commerce means; and to ultimately make local foods and goods more available and affordable.

While still operating farmers’ markets, I am currently working to develop the Local Foods Campus project in Westminster, Colorado. The Local Foods Campus takes bits and pieces of many successful local food projects throughout the nation, and is intended to be a place for all aspects of the entire local food chain: from farmer, to baker, to logistics, to academics, and addresses the current local food conundrum. The Campus will begin with a large retail space and a local foods company incubator and accelerator. Next, we focus on production through greenhouses, traditional farming, and a small batch processing facility. Finally, we are devoted to education through community outreach, and a culinary arts educational and display kitchen with a focus on school and university based educational needs.

Based on the breadth of this effort, the many moving parts, unique and broad aspects of the local food system, and diversity of experiences needed, the Local Foods Campus will be achieved through efforts of a dedicated community. It has been an amazing ride so far to see the incredible community support, and the amount of willing and participating strategic partners.

Nika Forte has been committed to combating food insecurity through her position as the Urban Farm Program Coordinator at the St. Vincent de Paul Urban Farm. She received a degree in Urban Farming, Nutrition and Life Coaching at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts and started her externship with St. Vincent de Paul’s Urban Farm program. She is also trained and certified as a Food Literacy Educator and is certified to lead experiential health, nutrition, and cooking education programming. After completing two terms with AmeriCorps Public Ally program she hit the ground running in her new position as the Urban Farm Program Coordinator implementing various programming, events and workshops centered around education, gardening, environmental stewardship, community engagement and working with the homeless to gain skills needed to find employment throughout the valley. She hopes to one day start a healing center with programming based on Whole Health and Wellness which would include farming workshops, life skills, meditation and healing through herbs with an emphases on nutrition. As she continues her work at St. Vincent de Paul she hopes to engage more community members on the importance of food security and environmental awareness.

OWEN MURPHY is an assistant professor of Health Promotion at Central Oregon Community College. He has a Master’s degree in Exercise Science and a passion for local food. He recognizes that what is healthy for the planet is also generally healthy for the human body. He currently teaches a Sustainable Food and Nutrition course designed to raise awareness about the ecological, social, and personal health consequences of our food choices. Off campus, Owen coordinates a local volunteer program that brings helping hands to farmers in need. He is honored to be an educator and curator for the Lexicon.