Aldyen Donnelly has been a small business developer and consultant for over 40 years. In the mid-1990s, Aldyen started to work on market-driven strategies to reduce atmospheric carbon concentrations. Having gathered together an “emission reduction credit” or “ERC” buyers group, Aldyen developed and executed the world’s first major forward ERC purchase agreement to finance carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, as well as the first ERC sales-financed carbon capture and storage project.

Amy Brinker is the Sustainability Manager for Kamehameha Schools (KS).  In her role, she supports sustainability strategy and programming across the enterprise.

Amy graduated from the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law with Environmental and Native Hawaiian Law certificates.  While completing her legal education, Amy founded the Legalize Pa’i ‘Ai movement to indigenize state law to allow for the traditional culinary practice of pounding poi.  She is a member of the 2014 class of Forty Under Forty Business Leaders by Pacific Business News.

Amy Swan is a Project Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. She has worked on a variety of research projects that evaluate the impacts of agricultural management and land use change on greenhouse gas cycling in ecosystems. She leads development of COMET-Planner, a web-based tool that evaluates carbon and greenhouse gas impacts of agricultural conservation adoption. Amy also supports development of web-based tools to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from farms and ranches in the U.S. (COMET-Farm), and sustainable land management projects in the developing world (Carbon Benefits Project). Amy’s experience in soil carbon and greenhouse gas research ranges from extensive on-farm/ranch soil sampling and analysis, simulating agricultural ecosystems in the DayCent ecosystem model, and applying US and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) greenhouse gas inventory methods from local to global scales. She was raised on a sheep ranch in western South Dakota and received a BSc in Environmental Management from South Dakota State University and MSc in Ecology at Colorado State University.

Prior to Founding Project Reflect, Angela McKee-Brown was the Executive Director of The Edible Schoolyard Project, a non-profit dedicated to designing hands-on educational experiences in the garden, kitchen, and cafeteria that connect children to food, nature, and each other. Before joining the Edible Schoolyard Project, Angela served as the Director of Innovation and Strategy with San Francisco Unified School District’s Future Dining Experience where she oversaw the redesign of the school food system of San Francisco. She has also worked to expand access to market opportunities for chefs and food entrepreneurs who are women, immigrants and people of color while at the non-profit La Cocina. Angela was a 2016-2017 Stanford University d.school Civic Innovation Fellow, and she brings an equity-centered design framework to her work. Angela holds a Master’s in Food Studies from NYU, and serves on the board of Educate2Envision International, a non-profit that invests in youth from underserved areas to be their own innovators in tackling poverty.

Anna V. Bohbot (Zulaica) is a Cal alum, Chef and cookbook author in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Prior to her position as a Senior Associate of Supply Change LLC, Anna was part of the LinkedIn Programs team helping to drive strategy and design for the global food program.  For the past four years, Anna has managed food service operations for cafes and coffee bars in the San Francisco and South Bay LinkedIn office, feeding over 5,000 people daily. She influences nutrition, team building, marketing, communication, food operations and design, as well as the onsite food education and engagement program for LinkedIn employees.

She is passionate about sustainable and just food systems and accessibility to fresh, local and seasonal food. She partners with local nonprofits and farms in order to educate and inspire the community and employees.  Prior to LinkedIn, Anna cooked for Bon Appetit at Google, where she created menus focused on whole foods, lead a small team of six, and cooked for upwards of 1000 employees every day.  Anna founded and ran a healthy catering business, Presto! Catering and Food Services for over five years and has taught healthy cooking classes and workshops for the American Heart Association in Spanish and English throughout the Bay Area.  Anna’s recipes have been featured in The Antioxidant Counter: A Pocket Guide to the Revolutionary ORAC Scale for Choosing Healthy Foods and The Essential Oils Hormone Solution and she has co-authored three books, The DASH Diet Cookbook: Quick and Delicious Recipes for Losing Weight, Preventing Diabetes, and Lowering Blood Pressure, which was also published in Spanish, The Low GI Slow Cooker: Delicious and Easy Dishes Made Healthy With the Glycemic Index, and The Matcha Miracle: Boost Energy, Focus and Health with Matcha Powder.

With backgrounds in architecture and publishing design Anne brings clear communication and bold impact to visual messaging. As principal and owner of Digges Design, her clients span diverse industries and stages from hi-tech to non-profit, start-up to Fortune 500. When not visually distilling the ideas of her clients she can be found parenting, gardening, cooking/tasting, creating/making and enjoying the great outdoors of northern California with her family.

Anthony Myint is a chef/food activist who co-founded and operates the non-profit Zero Foodprint and Mission Chinese Food (SF). His culinary career includes trailblazing the pop-up genre in 2008 and co-founding The Perennial an award-winning fine-dining restaurant championing regenerative agriculture (2016-2019). Myint is the winner of the 2019 Basque Culinary World Prize for his work through Zero Foodprint, mobilizing the restaurant industry toward climate solutions rooted in healthy soil and the development of funding mechanisms to scale regenerative practices in collaboration with the State of California.

Prior to his current position, Ben provided direction and support for the Farm to Market Team to develop and deliver programs to increase local market access for small- to mid-scale California family farmers and helped ensure that the food that they produce is available to local communities, including schools and hospitals. Ben brings ten years of experience in sustainable purchasing and believes that supporting farmers and farmworkers is key to a just and resilient food system. He has previously served in leadership and advisory roles for developing purchasing impact standards for institutions for Center for Good Food Purchasing, Real Food Challenge, Health Care Without Harm, The Fair Trade Colleges & Universities campaign and EatREAL In his spare time, Ben enjoys exploring the outdoors, traveling, improv comedy and cooking.

Founder and CEO of Community Grains, an integrated, information-driven, whole-grain products company which focuses on nutrient rich soils, advanced milling, transparency, and scientific analysis. With his wife Maggie, he is also co-owner of Oliveto in Oakland, California, a farm-to-table restaurant which uses Italian based culinary principles.

Previous professional experience includes over 30 years of communications and marketing positions as television producer, consultant, and executive. Prior to 1996, he was Director, Global Business Network-Media, where he created a new media division within that premiere business futures consulting firm. He developed television projects using GBN editorial material. He also consulted for several large media companies while at GBN.

He received a DuPont Columbia Award from the Columbia School of Journalism, several IRIS awards from the National Association of Television Program Executives, and received four Northern California Emmy awards.

Bu Nygrens is the Co-owner and Director of Purchasing at Veritable Vegetable (VV), a San Francisco-based organic produce distributor established in 1974. With a deep commitment to sustainable agriculture, and social & environmental responsibility, Veritable Vegetable has developed demand for local and organic produce, and provided expert regional logistics.  VV supports hundreds of small to mid-size growers, operates a green fleet of trucks, and serves independent markets, restaurants and co-ops across five states. Nygrens has been with the company since 1978.

Prior to her current position as Carbon Registry & NWL Specialist at the California Air Resource Board, Dr. Chelsea Carey was the Working Lands Research Director and Principal Soil Ecologist with Point Blue Conservation Science, a California-based non-profit focused on climate-smart conservation. Through this role, Chelsea developed and led priority research projects and partnerships that helped inform rangeland management across the state. Notably, she worked with TomKat Ranch and Point Blue’s Rangeland Monitoring Network to conduct and share science that supported rangeland managers in sustainably promoting desired on-site and public services across the state. Her research focused on characterizing soil properties that are relevant to soil health and climate mitigation, determining how management influences these properties across space and time, and identifying ways that explicit consideration of the soil can improve success of conservation practices like riparian restoration. Before joining Point Blue, Chelsea received her Ph.D. from UC Merced and spent time as a postdoctoral scholar at UC Riverside. You can find out more about Chelsea’s work here.

Chris is the Director of Sales for Vesta Foodservice, and was formally LA and SF Specialty. He is based in Hayward and he has been with Vesta since 1993. Chris started the northern California branch of the company in 1999 in San Francisco. Prior to working for Vesta, Chris was a chef and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.

Prior to his current position, Christophe Jospe was the chief development officer and co-founder of Nori. Nori is a start-up building a private-sector ecosystem service marketplace to help US farmers get paid for the carbon removal outcome of regenerative practices through issuing Nori Carbon Removal Tonnes (NRTs). At Nori, Christophe leads the effort to build the supply of NRTs and develop the underlying croplands methodology to create them. He loves learning, strategizing, and getting things done. He was dubbed once a “used carbon salesman” for his obsession for pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and aligning climate solutions where they provide value. When he’s not wearing his used carbon salesman hat, he’s cooking, taking care of plants, in nature, or playing music.

Darin Jensen is Founder and President of Guerrilla Cartography and a data visualization analyst at the University of California. He holds a BA in Geography from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Creative Non-fiction from Mills College. He lives in Oakland with his three kids.

Dava is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Noise 13, a branding and design agency connecting business to their core purpose. She is the connector of teams and clients and keeps her eye on the bigger business vision when planning for a brand strategy.

Dava is also the Co-Founder of In/Visible Project which produces In/Visible Talks, a conference bringing people together through conversation about the art of design.  She also sits on the advisory boards for Good People, Slow Food California, and Good Food Foundation. She is a judge for the Good Food Awards and was on the board of Slow Food San Francisco from 2008-2017. Collaborate, work with teams you love, and always eat well.

Prior to his current position, David was ESMC’s Senior Director for Strategic Business Development & Membership. ESMC is a member-based organization launching a national scale ecosystem services market for agriculture to recognize and reward farmers and ranchers for their environmental services to society. ESMC members represent the spectrum of the agricultural sector supply chain with whom we are scaling sustainable agricultural sector outcomes such as increased soil carbon, reduced net greenhouse gases, and improved water quality and water use conservation. Before joining ESMC, David was Vice President of Partners in Food Solutions, a non-profit consortium of international food and agribusiness companies helping accelerate growth of food processing in Sub-Saharan Africa. He also served as a Director of Hunger-Free Minnesota, a statewide non-profit campaign affiliated with Minnesota’s Feeding America food banks and other local organizations and companies. Dayhoff held various agribusiness marketing, strategy and analytical roles over 14+ years with Cargill, Incorporated in the USA and Brazil. He began his career working for the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee and U.S. Senator Richard Lugar. David resides in Minnetonka with his wife and two children. He is a graduate of Princeton University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Debbie is the Executive Director of the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC). ESMC is a member-based organization launching a national scale ecosystem services market for agriculture to recognize and reward farmers and ranchers for their environmental services to society. ESMC members represent the spectrum of the agricultural sector supply chain with whom we are scaling sustainable agricultural sector outcomes, including increased soil carbon, reduced net greenhouse gases (GHG), and improved water quality and water use conservation. Debbie’s role in leading ESMC builds on decades of experience in agriculture climate change mitigation and sustainability efforts at the national and international level. Debbie previously led the Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (C-AGG), a national multi-stakeholder coalition, supporting the development of tools, support systems, knowledge and programs to improve quantification of GHG from agriculture.

Dr. Dorn Cox serves as project lead for OpenTEAM (Open Technology Ecosystem for Agricultural Management) and research director for Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment, a nonprofit research and education center, and a working organic farm on 600 acres of conserved land on the coast of Maine.

Dorn also lives and works on his family’s 300-acre certified organic farm in New Hampshire. As a co-founder of the FarmOS software platform, the GOAT (Gathering for Open Ag Tech) and Farm Hack community, he is passionate about sharing open source agricultural tools, ideas information and inspiration to accelerate innovation and quantify environmental services from regenerative agriculture. In 2018 his work as a NACD Soil Health Champion was recognized with the inaugural Hugh Hammond Bennett award for excellence in conservation given by the National Association of Conservation Districts, and in 2019, Dorn was awarded the Food Shot Global Ground Breaker prize. He has a PhD from the University of New Hampshire in Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science.

Before founding Wyld Within, Elise Suronen has been an Environmental Consultant with ten years of experience in natural resources restoration.  She was contracted to help organizations promote and scale the implementation of carbon farming practices. For eight years, Elise has been the Conservation Program Manager of the Marin Resource Conservation District.  She managed the District’s multi-million dollar restoration project, Pine Gulch Creek Enhancement Project, and secured a couple million dollars to sustain the District’s oldest landowner assistance program.  Elise has helped over 40 farmers, dairy owners and ranchers with the planning, permitting and implementation of over 100 conservation practices to improve water quality, enhance soil health, protect wildlife habitat and increase carbon-sequestration on farms.  She is a member of the Marin Carbon Project’s Implementation Task Force and is the Coordinator for the Marin Carbon Project’s Steering Committee.  Elise’s work with ranchers, state and federal agencies began in Idaho, when she was evaluating fire as a restoration tool.  She holds a MSc in Natural Resources with a focus on restoration ecology from the University of Idaho.

Eric pursues an approach to brand communications that combines storytelling techniques from the world’s great narrative traditions with an ongoing study of marketplace dynamics. Viewing brand development as equal parts business discipline and art form, he and his teams have successfully addressed complex communications challenges for everything from cities and retail destinations to luxury fashion and emerging technologies. In addition to helping clients achieve their business objectives through strengthening their connection with their audiences, Eric is dedicated to advancing brand practice through the ongoing development and refinement of tools and methods—and transforming the marketplace through the power of storytelling.

Applied Storytelling is a strategy firm that solves the biggest brand challenges companies face using an inspired, story-based approach. We begin with the simple premise that a brand is a story told in the marketplace. This turns out to be a remarkably versatile and powerful springboard for building brands that capture the imagination, foster strong cultures, create new value, and drive businesses where their leaders want to take them.

Erin is the Director of the Climate Collaborative, responsible for management and execution of the Collaborative’s work, including all programming, communications, and outreach. Erin has a range of corporate campaigning and sustainability experience. She previously worked for CDP, managing corporate engagement for the We Mean Business coalition’s commitments campaign. In that role, Erin worked with hundreds of the world’s largest companies, industry groups and investors, supporting them in making leadership commitments on climate change. She has also worked in public relations and international development and earned a master’s degree in international relations and economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She is based in Oakland, CA.

Esperanza is a leader whose passions are in community driven economic equity, equitable and sustainable food systems and racial justice. Some of her work includes leading the CA FreshWorks program, the Black Liberation Initiative prioritizing Black leadership and power building, and implementing an Indigenous reparative land fee to support critical work being led by Native communities. She has worked with nonprofits for over 20 years in food systems, environmental health and public health advocacy. Prior to joining Community Vision, Esperanza served as the Executive Director of Oakland Food Policy Council.

Gary Peterson serves as Director of Communications and Philanthropy at California FarmLink. Throughout his career, Gary has catalyzed growth and impact in the nonprofit sector by securing philanthropic support and social impact capital for diverse programs, including support for beginning, immigrant and organic farmers, local food systems, land conservation, and policy education and advocacy. Currently he serves as chair of The Granary Foundation, which stewards the Center for Rural Affairs’ endowment fund. In addition to FarmLink, Gary has worked with the Big Sur Land Trust, Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and the Center for Rural Affairs.

Gina Asoudegan is Former Vice President of Mission and Innovation at Applegate where she develops the strategy for the company’s regenerative agriculture platform, creating products from meat raised on pasture using regenerative farming practices and building the supply chains to support them.

During her tenure at Applegate, Gina has worked closely with NGOs to raise awareness about the misuse of antibiotics in animals raised for food and its link to resistance in humans. She led the production and marketing of the documentary film, RESISTANCE, garnering global distribution for the film.

Gina is on the advisory boards of the Savory Institute, the Regenerative Supply Working Group, the Sustainable Food Lab and The National Young Farmers Coalition. She is also a member of the Esca Bona Innovation Cohort– A thought leadership group working on solutions to expand sustainable food supply chains.

My main role at Regen Network is to lead the integration process between the Ecological State Protocols for monitoring regenerative practices implementation and their outcomes, and the current state of satellite remote sensing. Part of my work has been focused  on defining key indicators and methodologies for monitoring the changes in the ecological outcomes across diverse biomes, production systems and climates.

I am a biologist , with a pHD in biological sciences oriented to Landscape Ecology. Prior to Regen network, I worked as consultant for several international conservation projects and worked as an associate professor in the University of Mar del Plata teaching GIS to agronomists. The mother of two little girls, I live in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

Gregory is co-founder and Chief Regeneration Officer of Regen Network.  Regen Network is leading the way towards tracking and funding ecological regeneration using blockchain technology. Before founding Regen Network, Gregory co-wrote Regenerative Enterprise (2013), a groundbreaking book outlining pathways to achieve ecological and social regeneration through business, and co-founded and grew Terra Genesis International from a Regenerative Agriculture consultancy and design firm, into a leader in the Regenerative Agriculture and Economy movement.  Other papers written by Gregory include The Levels of Regenerative Agriculture, Regen Network Whitepaper and the Regen Network Economics Paper.

Gregory’s passion for creating healthy relationships through trade and agriculture has lead him on a journey to explore all phases of the value adding process from farming and agriculture through processing and manufacture to marketing to the end customer.

Out of these ecosystem based farming approaches he has helped to grow an ecosystem of businesses and organizations dedicated to expressing the essence of a product through the entire value adding process.

Jeff Borum was born in Ventura County, but went to school and worked in a few different regions of the U.S. He then obtained a B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Physics from Humboldt State, and now his work as a Soil Health Coordinator for East Stanislaus Resource Conservation District takes him across the extremely diverse ag lands of California.

As Jeff travels throughout the state in his pop-up camper, he engages interested communities desiring assistance on the implementation of conservation-based practices, as well as designs, implements, and coordinates statewide field trials focusing on specific practices such as composting and cover cropping, as well as more comprehensive trials involving entire soil health management systems. Through his work, he has gained many varied perspectives due to the heterogeneity of California’s ag lands and the heterogeneous nature of the humans who work with those lands. His travels have given him new insight into soil and human health, along with their interconnection—insight that he was not seeking but has come to know and love.

Jeff Mitchell is a Cooperative Extension Cropping Systems Specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences Science at the University of California, Davis.  He came through UC Davis for both his Master’s and PhD degrees.  He has had the good fortune to work with California’s Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation Center which currently has over 2,200 university, farmer, Natural Resource Conservation Service, public agency, and private industry members and affiliates.

Before beginning his graduate studies, he was a teacher and served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana, in Southern Africa. He also teaches courses on agronomic and vegetable crop systems at the University of California, Davis.

Jillian Hishaw is an agricultural attorney, founder, and C.E.O. of F.A.R.M.S.  Inspired by her own family’s land loss this international non-profit provides technical and legal assistance to small farmers while reducing hunger in the farmer’s community.  Hishaw’s first book Don’t Bet the Farm on Medicaid, available on Amazon, examines how U.S. long-term care facilities can exercise their federal authority to place a lien on a resident’s property, forcing the sale if an outstanding debt is owed.  Hishaw has 15 years of professional experience in the areas of civil rights, land protection, and agricultural policy.  Her prior experience working on land protection matters for local and state agencies and on civil rights matters for the U.S. Department of Agriculture within the Office of Civil Rights in Washington, D.C. has given her immense insight on the topic of land loss.  Past academic publications include Drake Journal of Agricultural Law, The Journal of Food Law & Policy, South Dakota Law Review, Environmental and Energy Law Policy Journal, American Bar Association Environmental, Energy and Resources Agricultural Management Newsletter.

Hishaw’s recent advocacy work for Black farmers in the hemp and cannabis space has led to published op-ed articles in Civil Eats, The Counter, and HempLand U.S.A.  In 2017, Hishaw was recognized as a Food Changemaker by the Clif Bar Foundation and has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, The Atlantic, Vice News, The Washington Post, and more.  In 2019, the Food Tank organization voted Hishaw 1 of 15 women in the World Impacting the Food Industry.

Hishaw has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Tuskegee University, plus a Juris Doctorate and Legal Masters in agricultural law from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville Law school. Hishaw’s own land loss experience has influenced her commitment to law and advocacy work in agriculture and asset protection. To learn more, please visit www.jillianhishaw.com

Prior to his current position, Jonathan Wachter was running the Marin Agricultural Land Trust’s climate programs. He worked across organizations to design climate-related projects on Marin farms and ranches, measure project outcomes, and develop county-wide climate strategies for working lands. Jonathan’s background is in soil health research, agricultural policy, and environmental education. He holds a PhD in soil science from Washington State University.

Joseph grew up in a household that valued a connection to our natural world, and basic environmental ethics that apply. He holds a BS from Michigan State University in General Horticulture. While at MSU, Joseph helped to manage the newly formed Student Organic Farm operating a 48 week/55 member CSA. Upon Graduating, he found his way into a job in Produce Retail with Wholefoods Market.

Joseph has held many jobs within WFM produce world, and he currently works as a Regional Produce Buyer for the Northern California Region.

Joseph is uniquely positioned within the industry, getting to work with very large international growers, brokers, shippers, as well as the very small 10+ acre grower who specializes in one or two commodities.

Kate Scow is Distinguished Professor of Soil Science and Microbial Ecology in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources at UC Davis since 1989. She is Director of the Russell Ranch Sustainable Agriculture Facility which hosts a unique long-term experiment exploring relationships between management practices, climate, and indicators of sustainability (economic, agronomic, environmental) of row crop agroecosystems. She was previously Director of the UC Kearney Foundation of Soil Science: “Soil Carbon and California’s Terrestrial Ecosystems”. Scow received her MS and PhD degrees in Soil Science from Cornell University. Scow’s research program investigates relationships between soil microbial diversity and critical soil functions: biogeochemical cycling, soil structure, organic matter and carbon sequestration, as well as connections between soil biology and the rapidly evolving concept of soil health. Other work includes how indigenous microbial communities can help restore polluted ecosystems and design of low-cost treatment systems to promote bioremediation. Scow also works with smallholder farmers in Uganda, using participatory research approaches and local knowledge, on vegetable production and small-scale irrigation approaches.

Ken Alex is the director of Project Climate at the University of California at Berkeley, focusing on the most promising climate solutions and moving them more quickly to policy and scale.  From 2011 to 2018, Ken was a Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Jerry Brown, the Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and the Chair of the Strategic Growth Council, focusing on climate, energy, environment, and land use issues.  Before joining the Governor’s Office, Ken was the Senior Assistant Attorney General heading the environment section of the California Attorney General’s Office, and the co-head of the Office’s global warming unit. From 2000 to 2006, Ken led the California Attorney General’s energy task force, investigating price and supply issues related to California’s energy crisis. Ken is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a B.A. in political theory from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Kendra has worked in urban agriculture and farm education, CSA/vegetable and flower production, restoration landscaping and design, and for more than a decade as a consultant on farm conservation, access, and affordability. During five years on staff at California FarmLink, Kendra helped farmers with land tenure, succession, and business needs all over the Central Valley. She has worked with land trusts on farmer-oriented easement tools, and coordinated “One Farm at a Time—” a campaign to permanently protect Good Humus Produce for a future of food production and affordability by farmers. Kendra holds a Master’s of Science in Community Development from UC Davis. She lives in her birthplace of Sonoma County with her husband, a salmon ecologist (think ‘fins, feathers, farms, and floodplains’), and their three children.

Liya Schwartzman has been working in partnership with farmers on behalf of California FarmLink since 2010. She has supported hundreds of farmers and ranchers in accessing land, securing strong tenure agreements, exploring financing, and facilitating farmland and business succession plans. Liya also directs farmers to a variety of resources from FarmLink, its partners, and service providers nationwide. She is a frequent speaker at workshops and conferences on topics of importance to beginning and retiring farmers and ranchers. Liya was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and graduated from UC Davis with a B.A. in Nature and Culture. She now resides in America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital, Sacramento, and enjoys all the fruits and vegetables that California has to offer.

Matt is the Program Manager for Audubon’s Conservation Ranching (ACR) program in California. Prior to joining Audubon he worked for an environmental engineering firm as a reclamation/restoration ecologist throughout the intermountain west and as a field biologist for The Peregrine Fund in Central America. He grew up managing his families ranch in Wyoming and enjoys any time outdoors. He has a passion for food, culture, and preserving wild places and the species that utilize them.

Maura McKnight is the Executive Director of the Business Council on Climate Change (BC3) – a membership-driven nonprofit organization of corporate sustainability leaders implementing and championing tangible climate action in the San Francisco Bay Area.  As an action-oriented leader, she has spent 18 years working at the intersection of climate, energy, technology, conservation, business development and social impact. Prior to joining BC3, Maura worked for 8 years leading Corporate Partnerships for GRID Alternatives – the nation’s largest nonprofit solar installer. Early in her career Maura worked as a wildife biologist for the National Park Service. She holds a B.S. from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Conservation and Resource Studies and an M.S. in Wildlife Biology from Humboldt State.

Meghan Shellenberg has spent the past 6 years overseeing Airbnb’s Global Food Strategy – designing and programming 35+ spaces. Her experience includes procurement for farmers markets, restaurants, Whole Foods and the tech sector. She is a co-founder of Foodmuse and a native of the Bay Area.

Michael is the Global Culinary Strategy and Development Lead for Google Food Programs.  This newly created position is charged with mapping a clear set of strategies and developing organizational elements that bring the Food at Google’s culinary point of view to life. Guiding a culture of food innovation, sustainability, quality, and productivity aligned with the Global Food Team’s objectives are the key areas of focus.

Prior to this move, Michael spent 15 years as The Associate Director of Food & Beverage at Boston College. During his tenure, Michael helped focus on more local and sustainable purchasing patterns. Focusing on local, fair trade, minority owned businesses, and sustainably selected goods with various vendor partners, which helped increase year over year positive change.

After getting his Associate’s in Culinary, Michael went on to complete a Bachelor’s of Liberal Arts at Harvard University, then completed his MBA at Boston College, Carroll School of Management.

Nancy Scolari has been the Executive Director of the District for 20+ years helping farmers and ranchers with regenerative practices that improve soil, water, air, plants, wildlife and the viability of agriculture. Nancy works with a dedicated board and staff, implementing grant-funded projects such as the Marin Coastal Permit Coordination, Pine Gulch Instream Flow Enhancement, Conserving Our Watersheds and Carbon Farming Programs.  As a founding member of the Marin Carbon Project she has helped develop opportunities in addressing the health of our working landscapes with livestock producers.

Nathan runs ALBA’s Farmer Education Course, supports farmers in their early years in the Organic Farm Incubator, and manages a number of educational and research projects. He came to ALBA in March 2010 from San Luis Obispo, where he worked in various capacities (student farm manager, harvest leader, farmers marketeer, and much more!) at the Cal Poly Organic Farm, a student enterprise that provided a 300-member year round “Community Supported Agriculture” vegetable box subscription service. While there he also earned an M.S. in Agriculture, emphasis Crop Science. Nathan fondly remembers his start in organic agriculture on a 5-acre biodynamic farm in rural Scotland that grew mixed vegetables and pastured laying hens. Originally from San Diego, Nathan sees organic agriculture as way to improve peoples’ lives, the planet, and provide meaningful employment. In total, he has over a decade’s experience in organic production, agricultural education, and project management.

Nicole Mason has worked in agriculture and sustainable food systems both nationally and abroad for two decades. She currently directs community engagement efforts at Veritable Vegetable, the nation’s oldest distributor of certified organic fruits and vegetables that is women-led and driven by purpose.  She sits on the advisory council of the Kitchen Table Advisors, an organization that provides farmers with access to the tools, knowledge and resources they need to become resilient and viable businesses.  Prior to Veritable Vegetable, Nicole spent five years at Roots of Change, directing programs aimed at transforming California’s food system to a sustainable food system by the year 2030.  Nicole received a Bachelor’s degree in International Agriculture and Development from Cornell University.  In her free time, she eats her way through San Francisco and rides her bike all over the Bay Area.

Noelle’s passion for food began when she observed the powerful impacts that agriculture has on the environment, economic opportunity, community, and health while working at Root Capital. This prompted her personal exploration into U.S. agriculture, and while working on farms in Massachusetts and Nevada, she gained a deeper appreciation for the physical hard work and financial challenges that our food producers undertake every day. Noelle supported dozens of sustainable farms and food businesses on the East Coast through financial and farmland access advising. Today, she is part of the team at Kitchen Table Advisors, where she advises farmers and ranchers and builds partnerships with values-aligned food businesses to support the long-term economic viability of sustainable small farms and ranches.

Rebecca Burgess is the Executive Director of Fibershed, and Chair of the Board for Carbon Cycle Institute. She has over a decade of experience developing and implementing land based projects at the intersection of restoration ecology and fiber systems. She has taught at Westminster College, Harvard University, and has created workshops for a range of NGOs and corporations. She is the author of the best-selling book Harvesting Color, a bioregional look into the natural dye traditions of North America and the recently published, Fibershed, Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy.  She has collaborated to build an extensive network of farmers and artisans within our region’s Northern California Fibershed to pilot the regenerative fiber systems model at the community scale.

In her role, she supports the sustainable food program, waste reduction and energy and water conservation for four dining halls, four dining retail locations, and seven campus restaurants, with the goal of serving food at the intersection of delicious, nutritious, and sustainable. In addition to focusing on plant- forward cooking, Samantha works in Cal Dining to prioritize using ingredients that are locally grown, humanely- treated, and environmentally and socially responsible. She holds a degree in Community and Regional Development from the University of California, Davis.

Past work has included consulting to entities spanning North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. At present Sami is leading development of a carbon offset protocol for regenerative agricultural practices, for use in the US. Sami has a background in GHG management, climate change policy and wider sustainability consulting. He is also a stay at home single parent to one happy and curious little girl.

Sri worked in agriculture for twenty years, as a tea estate manager, as a mixed crop farmer in India, and as an agricultural engineer engaged in soil conservation in Brunei, before he migrated to Canada in 2004. He is a passionate student of traditional management practices in agriculture, and a proponent of integrating traditional approaches into modern farming methods.

Sri has a master’s degree in Capacity Development and Extension from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He is currently pursuing a part time Ph.D. focusing on evaluating the outcomes and impacts of incubator farm programs in the US and Canada, which he hopes will lead to a better understanding of how to engage with and encourage a new generation of farmers, who will be the backbone of our future food systems.

Prior to joining the Center Sri worked for FarmStart, a leader in the incubator farm movement in Canada. At the Center, Sri is the Director of the CA Farm Academy, which consists of the Incubator Farm, Beginning Farmer Training and Apprenticeship (State registered) programs. His work in this area combined with the research he is undertaking gives him an in depth knowledge of the social, economic and practical barriers that new farmers face when trying to start small-scale farms.

Susan has over 30 years in Retail and Food Service Marketing and Business Management with positions including Chief Executive Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Innovation Officer.  Susan has a passion for health & wellness and has focused her career on building and growing natural and organic brands.

Susan is currently the head of Marketing and Innovation for Clover Sonoma, where she is leading efforts to build an innovative and integrated brand marketing strategy. Prior to this role she was the CEO of Go Raw, an organic snack food brand, where she successfully repositioned the company from a focus on Seeds to Plant Powered Nutrition.  Susan was also the CEO of Project Juice, where she significantly grew sales and profitability.  Additionally, Susan has held positions including SVP  Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer at Jamba Juice, SVP Innovation and Marketing at Beautifull, Inc., a Venture Capital start-up, Group VP of Innovation for Safeway’s Consumer Brands Division, VP of New Ventures and Marketing at Del Monte Foods and numerous positions within the Quaker Oats Company.

Susan holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where she was an Austin Scholar, and she has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College.  Susan has been a Board member for The Organic Center,  BrightFarms, Traditional Medicinals and the YMCA of the Central Bay Area.

My journey started in the mid 90s at a small natural food store in San Francisco, when I learned about Organic produce, the term ‘Sustainable’ and what ‘Local’ meant.  Understanding the impact we each have as eaters and consumers was the moment that changed my life.  Since then I’ve worked to share my love and passion for Produce, Flowers, and health – offering a spark for anyone ready to be lit up by their own empowerment to transform both self and world.

2020 marks 17 years with Whole Foods Market, after several years prior working at independents such as the Real Food Company, Bi-Rite, Earls Organics and more.

Tim Bowles is an Assistant Professor of Agroecology/Sustainable Agriculture in the Department of Environmental, Science, Policy and Management at the University of California Berkeley. The primary question motivating his research is: How can reliance on ecological processes create productive, resilient, and healthy agricultural systems? With a primary focus on soil, he studies how agroecological approaches affect the plant-soil-microbial processes driving key ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling, nutrient retention, carbon accrual, and water capture and storage. His research also looks at how resilience emerges from these ecosystem processes, and through collaboration studies the socioeconomic drivers underlying barriers and opportunities for agroecological systems.

Torri Estrada is Executive Director at CCI and directs its policy and climate justice work. Torri has worked with non-profit, community-based, and public institutions to advance solutions to social and environmental justice, climate, and environmental issues for over twenty years.  Previously, Torri was the program director at the Marin Community Foundation, where he managed the Foundation’s environmental grantmaking program and climate change initiative.  He was also a program officer at the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, where he managed its environmental justice, media reform, reproductive rights, and civil rights portfolios.  Torri was the co-founder and a senior policy fellow with the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water; served as Director of the Latino Issues Forum’s Environment and Sustainable Development Program; and was a Program Director at Urban Habitat, where Torri managed the Brownfields and Community Revitalization Project and co-developed its Leadership Development Program. Torri holds an MS in Environmental Sociology and Policy (with an emphasis on environmental justice) from the University of Michigan, and a joint BS/BA degree in Environmental Science and Policy and Ecological Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Tracy Harding has more than 20 years of experience working with, on, and around farmers, farms, and food in Oregon and California.

Before moving to California to accept a position at CVFS in 2017, Tracy was a leader in the Oregon Community Food System and Oregon Farm to School & School Garden Networks on the procurement & distribution, wholesale market development, and policy subcommittees. She had a hand in state and federal legislation to improve school food and has worked with farmers to engage in advocacy campaigns. Formerly a member of the Oregon State University Extension Small Farms team, she shared her knowledge of food safety protocols, business planning, and marketing with farmers. Tracy graduated from the University of Vermont Food Hub Management Certificate program in 2016 and is a member of the program’s advisory committee.

Wendell was born and raised in Northern California on a fourth generation family farm in eastern San Joaquin County.  Heavily influenced by Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, he began his career with the USDA Soil Conservation Service (now Natural Resources Conservation Service) in 1977 as a Soil Scientist.  Then for nearly twenty years, he worked as a Field and District Conservationist in Northern California.

He was Wildlife Biologist for the NRCS Wildlife Habitat Management Institute as well as adjunct professor at Colorado State University and as NRCS California State Biologist. For the final years of his NRCS career he served as the West Region Wildlife Biologist in Portland, Oregon.

In June 2011, he retired from a 34 year career with NRCS and transitioned to work with the PRBO Conservation Science (now Point Blue Conservation Science) to direct their Rangeland Watershed Initiative which is an effort to place, train, and manage partner biologists to help deliver USDA Farm Bill Programs on private land and cultivate Leopoldian Land Stewards through their Rangeland Watershed Initiative.  The Initiative works closely with livestock producers to encourage conservation grazing management that will increase perennial plants, produce more forage, increase water infiltration and storage, sequester carbon, and improve fish and wildlife habitats.

He has written and co-authored articles in numerous publications, and given hundreds of presentations on management, restoration and stewardship of western working farm, ranch and forest lands to benefit a wide range of fish and wildlife including, shorebirds, waterfowl, neo-tropical migratory birds, bats, herptofauna, native pollinators, and other invertebrates, while at the same time keeping those working lands operations productive.