Halima Ahmadi-Montecalvo is the Senior Director of Research and Evaluation at Unite Us, where she leads evaluation efforts to measure the value of social care investments. Dr. Montecalvo has extensive experience in the application and use of quantitative and qualitative methodology in behavioral health, and social science broadly. Her research focuses on the social determinants of health and health inequities, with a particular interest in issues explaining factors within the social and built environment that affect the lives of vulnerable population groups.

She has nearly 20 years of experience in program evaluation, and social and behavioral health research working with local, state, and a number of federal government clients, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS); the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); the National Institutes of Health (NIH); The Department of Labor (DoL); the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD); and the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

Mr. Anson-Dwamena has over 13 years of experience in Social Epidemiology and is the developer of Virginia Health Opportunity Index (HOI) tool which is used to identify areas and populations that are most vulnerable to adverse health outcomes by the Social Determinants of Health. Rexford expertise include epidemiological methods, procedures, and statistical techniques and research designs to identify High Priority Target Areas by applying geospatial techniques; performing predictive models to help identify healthcare disparity among racial groups; analyzing, evaluating, cleaning, editing and managing large databases for underserved areas designations; performs spatial analysis using different software programs to assist medically underserved communities to improve healthcare outcomes; using GIS to determine geographical distribution of disease. Mr. Anson-Dwamena has given dozens of presentations and is published.  He is highly creative and resourceful and his knowledge of epidemiological methods and use of GIS to identify priority areas

Karen Bailey is a natural born teacher, motivator and problem solver. She has a gift for inspiring youth, career seekers, professionals and business owners to see past their current situations, create winning strategies and work toward their personal academic, business and career goals. She encourages audiences to prepare and position themselves for their opportunities! She advises that they surround themselves with positive people, read, visualize, use affirmations, and enjoy the journey. She believes we all need individuals in our lives who motivate us and hold us accountable. Her business and career training sessions are conducted one-on-one and in group settings. She has hosted numerous think tanks, seminars, meetings and training sessions. She believes that each one of us has a purpose and she believes her role is to inspire individuals to re-discover theirs, despite obstacles, issues and difficult beginnings.

As an influential leader in the business community, Ms. Bailey strives to make a positive difference in the lives of students, business owners and clients. Ms. Bailey is the C.E.O. of The Resource King Intl. and Executive Director of Youth & Family Empowerment Services. She founded Youth Earn and Learn Jobs-for-Kids©, a business and workforce development training program for youth ages 12 - 17. Because so many adults lacked the same basic skills, Adult Learn and Earn Jobs-for-U© (Unemployed or Underemployed) was created. Their mission is to keep kids off the streets and train and develop the next generation of Leaders, CEOs and Entrepreneurs. They connect healthy eating with helping Youth, Seniors and reducing the impact of food deserts on marginalized communities. Youth Earn and Learn Mobile Fresh Produce Stands, Fresh Produce Grab Bags, Meal Preps/Healthy Home-Delivered Meals, Signature Snacks, Call-In Grocery Shopping & Delivery Service, culturally relevant Cooking Classes with Nutrition Education and growing Business Service Divisions (including Yard Care, Administrative Support, Senior Care, Flyer Distribution, Moving Services and Job Placement) provide real-world work experience, stipends and a platform to directly serve residents living in underserved, food desert communities. To better serve youth and their families, Ms. Bailey founded the Community of Support Network© an informal gathering of people who quietly and seamlessly get things DONE! Additionally, she served as a Career Transition Specialist for Virginia Job Corps, where she provided career counseling, job placement, and mentored young adults to achieve success that lasts a lifetime. She believes preparing tomorrow’s diverse workforce to compete and build legacy businesses are imperative to the success of the local, domestic and global economy.

Maureen McNamara Best is the Executive Director with Local Environmental Agriculture Project (LEAP), a 501c3 non-profit based in Roanoke, VA. LEAP nurtures our food community to create an equitable food and farming system which prioritizes health and abundance by supporting community initiatives, markets, farms, and farmers. To tackle the complicated problems in our food system, LEAP works closely with community members, farmers, and organizational and government partners. LEAP programs include LEAP Farmers Markets (West End and Grandin Village), LEAP Mobile Market, LEAP Farm Share, Healthy Food Incentives (financial incentives for produce for people who participate in SNAP, Medicaid, WIC), The LEAP Kitchen, Farm to School planning, and regional food system development. LEAP also serves as the fiscal agent for Virginia’s statewide Nutrition Incentive Network, Virginia Fresh Match, to make fruits and vegetables more affordable for people who participate in SNAP (food stamps) at over 90 farmers markets, farm stands, and community-based grocery retailers across the Commonwealth.

Maureen has over fifteen years of experience working with food, agriculture, and community. Her work and professional experience is wide-ranging and includes teaching high school agriculture in Raleigh, NC, working with migrant farmworkers in eastern NC and in the Colorado plains, doing food safety inspections in Boulder CO, and studying the economic viability of the local food system in Northern Colorado. Maureen has a MA in Anthropology from Colorado State University and undergraduate degrees in Agriculture Education, Spanish, and Anthropology from North Carolina State University. Maureen is currently pursuing a master’s in public health at Johns Hopkins University where she is a Bloomberg Fellow. You can contact Maureen at maureen@leapforlocalfood.org.

Elizabeth Borst is a Director with Virginia Community Food Connections (VCFC), a 501c3 non- profit based in Fredericksburg, VA. VCFC’s mission is to connect people, producers and communities to increase consumption of healthy, Virginia-Grown fruits and vegetables. VCFC operates SNAP and Virginia Fresh Match incentive programs at 7 farmers markets in Central Virginia, partnering with community markets to provide equitable access to affordable local foods. Working with many community partners, VCFC addresses food insecurity in the Fredericksburg region through innovative produce distribution programs, and by facilitating a local food alliance. Elizabeth is also a co-lead of Virginia Fresh Match, Virginia’s statewide Nutrition Incentive Network and supports the USDA GusNIP grant to increase nutrition access at Virginia farmers markets and community grocery stores.

Maria Bowman, MPH, serves as the Director of Health Initiatives at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. Her current work explores and acts on the question, “how can we as a food bank contribute to dignified, accessible, culturally familiar, and health-promoting nutrition security within our community?”. Maria received her Masters of Public Health in Behavioral and Community Health from the University of Maryland. She currently lives in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley with her family.

Maria Boyer is a Senior Vice President and Regulatory Compliance, Fair Lending, & CRA Officer at Capital Bank National Association an OCC Bank with over $ 2 billion in assets. She holds a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager (CRCM) designation from the ABA and Virginia Property and Casualty Insurance Producer license. With over 20 years of experience in community banks, she has served in roles within Risk Management, Compliance, Corporate Insurance, Information Security, and Loan Operations.

Previously served as Vice President Compliance, Risk, Information Security and Corporate Insurance Officer for Bank of Clarke County and Associate Vice President Compliance Officer for Middleburg Bank. Maria is not only committed to Capital Bank N.A, its clients, and its employees, but to family and community as well. She currently serves as Chair of the Community Reinvestment Coalition of Virginia (CRCVA) Board, President of the Dormition of Virgin Mary Philoptochos Society Board of Directors, and Member of the Metropolis of New Jersey Philoptochos Society Board of Directors.

Christopher Bradshaw is a Black, justice-oriented, social entrepreneur whose expertise is using social innovation through the food system to grow meaningful community economic development within marginalized communities. Chris and his organization see the food system as a lens to examine and dismantle systems of oppression, and lead towards Black liberation. Since its founding, Dreaming Out Loud, Inc. has impacted farmers, food-makers, and community members through cooperative social enterprise and advocacy. Under his leadership, Dreaming Out Loud has grown to include 17 full-time team members, and 4 seasonal farm and food hub assistants. He is a frequent speaker on the intersections of racial justice, class, gender, and food sovereignty — his appearances include the Atlantic Ideas Festival, Bloomberg American Health Summit; and both regional and national gatherings for farmers and food activists. Christopher is also the recipient of Georgetown University’s John Thompson Legacy of a Dream Award for 2021 and one of Eating Well Magazine’s 2021 American Food Heroes.

Dr. Jewel H. Bronaugh is Deputy Secretary of Agriculture for USDA. She was appointed the 16th Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in 2018 by Governor Ralph Northam. She previously served as the Virginia State Executive Director for the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), appointed by Governor Terry McAuliffe and then-U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, in July 2015. Prior to her FSA appointment, she served as Dean of the College of Agriculture at Virginia State University (VSU) with oversight of Extension, Research and Academic Programs. Previously she was the Associate Administrator for Extension Programs and a 4-H Extension Specialist.

In spring 2019, Dr. Bronaugh launched the Virginia Farmer Stress Task Force to raise awareness and coordinate resources to address farmer stress and mental health challenges in Virginia. In the fall of 2020, she helped establish the Virginia Food Access Investment Fund and Program, the first statewide program of its kind to address food access within historically marginalized communities.

Dr. Bronaugh received her Ph.D. in Career and Technical Education from Virginia Tech. She is passionate about the advancement of youth leadership in agriculture. Dr. Bronaugh is from Petersburg, Virginia. She is married to Cleavon, a retired United States Army Veteran.

Cheryl Bursch has been the Market Manager for River Street Farmers Market for over 5 years but is excited to transition to her new role as Food Access Director for PHOPs. Cheryl oversees the River Street Market, POP! Mobile Market, The Market @ PPL as well as our ongoing Produce Rx and Healthy Corner Store initiatives. She is also Regional Lead for Virginia Fresh Match. Cheryl and her husband Troy live in Petersburg with their dog, Xoey and cat, Tate and 2 adult children living in Richmond. She is a Certified Market Manager, State Certified Horticulturist, Master Gardener and working on a Certificate in Plant Based Nutrition.

Meaghan Butler is the Health Equity Project Manager for the Federation of Virginia Food Banks. In this role, she strengthens our network’s capacity to reduce health disparities and promote nutrition security across the Commonwealth. She also holds 5+ years of healthcare experience as a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist who practiced trauma-informed and client-centered nutrition counseling.

Kathryn Crosby, VDH’s first Chief DEI Officer, joined the agency in October 2021. In this capacity, she is responsible for designing, implementing, and sustaining diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and efforts for the agency. This includes overseeing public health equity programs and operations within the Office of Health Equity, as well as partnering closely with managerial leadership throughout Central Office and the Local Health Districts as a key resource to enhance and guide DEI for all staff. As the Chief DEI Officer, Kathryn manages the transformational change necessary to establish and/or improve DEI agency-wide while fostering a vision for advancing the agency’s goals and nurturing an inclusive workplace infrastructure and environment.

Before joining VDH, she served as the DEI and Health Equity Officer for the VA Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) where she worked to destigmatize Medicaid and promote health equity for 1.9 million Virginia Medicaid beneficiaries. Prior to this, she worked as the Managing Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DIB) at a marketing-technology agency, where she worked to institute and enhance DIB across the organization, as well as help clients strategically implement equity and inclusivity in the technological solutions they created and used.

Kathryn received both her bachelor’s degree and MBA from Averett University in Danville, Virginia, and her Master of Human Relations, concentration in Diversity, Equity, and Social Justice, from the University of Oklahoma. She earned her graduate certificate in Industrial & Organizational (I/O) Psychology from Grand Canyon University and completed Cornell University’s Diversity & Inclusion certificate program.

Lauren DeSimone advises creative ways to finance food system projects across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Currently she consults with Virginia Community Capital on behalf of its Virginia Fresh Food Loan Fund (VFFLF) as well as the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services grant program Virginia Food Access Investment Fund (VFAIF).

To support this work, she provides technical assistance rooted in expertise that intersects food system planning, community engagement, and economic development. Lauren represents partnerships with local, state, and federal agencies as well as corporate and philanthropic funders to ensure that access to financial and technical resources is equitable as needed by all individuals and businesses who make up our local food system.

Lauren is a participating member of the National Food Lenders’ Network, Virginia Food Access Coalition, Virginia Good Food Fund, Eastern Food Hub Collaborative, Mid-Atlantic Food Resilience and Access Coalition, and various food policy councils in small towns and big cities across Virginia. Top of Form

For fun, Lauren volunteers with food and arts organizations and otherwise spends as much time as possible outside: racing sail boats, road biking, and concocting formulas to fight off pests that like to devour plants in her garden.

Kofi Essel, MD, MPH, is a community pediatrician and Director of the GW Culinary Medicine program with over 10 years of experience as a nutrition educator, researcher, and anti-hunger advocate. His advocacy work and research revolve around health care training, health disparities and community engagement, with a special interest and national recognition in the areas of addressing obesity and food insecurity in families.

Victor has 6 years of FDIC experience serving as a Community Affairs Specialist for North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, South Carolina and Alabama. He serves as the Alliance for Economic Inclusion (AEI) manager for West Virginia and Alabama-Black Belt and provides technical assistance to Bank On Virginia Beach, Bank On Roanoke and Bank On Charleston, SC. He played a lead role the development and expansion of the Virginia CRA Bankers Resource Collaborative and Carolinas CRA Bankers Collaborative. He has served as a team lead and member on interdivisional and interregional projects across federal agencies.

Victor has several years of executive management experience in the banking, lending, economic and community development and financial product and services development with expertise in working across multiple business channels, public institutions and government agencies.  He is the former Senior Director of the National Institute of Minority Economic Development where he had oversite responsibility for  Research and Policy, Minority Executive Education Leadership Institute, the US DOT Small Business Transportation Center Mid-Atlantic Region, Minority Business Development Agency of North Carolina and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) National Engagement Initiative. He served as the US Segment Market Leader for Community Banks for GE/Genworth Mortgage Insurance. Victor is the former chairman of Reinvestment Partners a national community development and civil rights organization. He has served as an adviser to senior White House staffers, Federal Reserve Banks, Federal Home Loan Bank, congressional members and state government officials on affordable housing, small business lending, student debts, mortgage lending, rural development, racial wealth gaps and racial disparities and community economic development.

Sheryl Garland is a native of Richmond, Virginia who received an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University in 1982 and a Masters in Health Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1988.  Since joining the VCU Health System in 1987 as an administrative resident, she has served in various leadership roles including Vice President for Health Policy and Community Relations, Vice President for Community Outreach, Director of Ambulatory Care Services, and Director of Planning.  In her current role as Chief of Health Impact, Sheryl is responsible for building programs and partnerships to improve the health of populations and communities served by VCU Health System.  In addition to her health system responsibilities, she currently serves as the Executive Director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Office of Health Equity.  Previous positions within the University include Director of Community Outreach for the VCU Institute for Women's Health, Administrative Director of the VCU Center on Health Disparities, and Director of the VCU Office of Health Innovation.  Sheryl is the recipient of several awards including the American College of Health Care Executives Regent’s Early Career Healthcare Executive Award, the VCU Presidential Award for Community Multicultural Enrichment (Administrator Award), VCU/MCV School of Medicine Dean’s Award for Community Service, YWCA of Richmond Outstanding Woman of the Year Award in the field of Health/Science, the VCU Department of Health Administration Alumni of the Year Award, and the First African Baptist Church Community Leader’s Award.  Participation in leadership programs include Leadership Metro Richmond, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems’ (America’s Essential Hospitals) ambulatory fellows program, the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute, and LEAD Virginia.  Sheryl is a fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives and a member of SisterFund, an African American Women’s Giving Circle.  She currently serves on the Virginia Board of Social Services as well as the boards of the MCV Foundation, University Health Services-Professional Education Programs, American Heart Association Mid-Atlantic Affiliate, The Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond, and the Institute for Public Health Innovation (Board Chair). She is past chair of Vizient’s Vulnerable Patient Population(Health Equity) Network.

Spriha Gogia is Senior Director, Insights Solutions at Unite Us, an enterprise technology company connecting health and social care services. At Unite Us, Spriha leads a team of innovative data professionals including analysts, engineers and subject matter experts who are building data products which enable stakeholders to understand, monitor and evaluate social services. Spriha is passionate about using data and technology to improve health outcomes and strengthen communities. Prior to Unite Us, Spriha spent 5+ years at NYC Health + Hospitals, the city’s safety-net hospital system, and oversaw the development and deployment of a clinical risk score for the 1M+ patients served by the system annually. She holds a PhD in Biology and an MPH in Epidemiology. Growing up, Spriha trained in Indian classical dance and music and would have been a performer in an alternate life.

Leahmarie is a strategic and entrepreneurial leader with talent and experience in maximizing opportunities, making optimal decisions, and turning ideas into profitable results. She is successful at connecting ideas to actionable solutions by liaising with subject matter experts and ensuring the development of the most effective strategies that lead to productive outcomes. Having a philanthropic mindset, she is committed to environmental and social culture improvements while serving individuals, families, and businesses in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Currently, her commitment to healthy food access, workforce and business development is culminated in her roles as President of the St. Paul’s Community Development Corporation.

The St. Paul’s Community Development Corporation (SPCDC) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, high-impact, community-operated social enterprise established to build a community that is prosperous, inclusive, diverse, and equitable. Comprising of residents, business, and other non-profit organizations, it will expand and strengthen its core values and principles aimed specifically at community-based economic empowerments.  The SPCDC’s Four Pillars of Purpose are Affordable Housing, Business Development and Wealth Building, Workforce Development and Education, and Health and Wellness. Under Health and Wellness, the SPCDC has developed and implemented the Norfolk Food Ecosystem, the Food Pharmacy Program, and the Critical Needs Fund.

Pam joined Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture in 2013 after a career in national security journalism, including covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2007. After a brief foray into national politics as a communications director on Capitol Hill, Pam returned to her first love: food and sustainable farming.

In 2011, she took the helm of a local food and wine magazine that celebrated the sustainable food movement in the Capitol Foodshed, and in the course of it, met and fell for Arcadia. Under Pam’s leadership Arcadia launched the Veteran Farmer Program, now in its 7th year; the doubling of the Mobile Market fleet, a 500 percent increase in sales and the introduction of a new point of sale and impact measuring system now used by more than 50 other organizations; the quadrupling of farm production; and the expansion of field trips, farm camp, and other educational programs. She also created the Farmer-Chef Speed Sourcing Happy Hour, an annual event that introduces farmers and chefs to start new local sourcing relationships.

Pam was a plenary speaker at the USDA’s 2016 Transforming Agriculture conference and testified to the House Agriculture Committee on SNAP use at the Mobile Markets.

Dr. Michelle Hesse, RD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Professions at James Madison University. Michelle's has been working in the nutrition security space for the past 7 years, with her most notable accomplishment, working with a multidisciplinary group of food bank and academic stakeholders to develop Nourish, a cloud-based platform used by the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank (BRAFB) to make informed procurement decisions based on nutritional quality. From 2018-2020, Michelle served as the Director of Agency Relations and Programs at Blue Ridge. Returning to academia in 2020, Michelle continues to work with Blue Ridge, VA Food Banks and Feeding America on various health and nutrition initiatives. Michelle recently served on the Nutritious Foods Realigning Task Force at Feeding America and the Federation of VA Food Bank's Health Equity Working Group. She has also served on the BRAFB Board of Directors in 2017, was a college liaison to the JMU Center for Entrepreneurship from 2017-2018, and currently serves on JMU's basic needs advisory board. Michelle received her PhD in 2010 from the Ohio State University Nutrition Program and completed a distance dietetic internship with Iowa State University. Michelle became a RD in 2011.

Tiffany Hollin Wright is the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Community Development Regional Manager serving Virginia (VA) and West Virginia (WV). Previously Tiffany was a Senior Bank Examiner at the Atlanta Fed specializing in Community Reinvestment Act. She was Vice President and Community and Economic Development Manager at Fifth Third Bank Georgia. There she informed community development lending, services and investments to support economic mobility and resilience for communities and small business. With nine years of financial services and 26 years of non-profit management experience, she is committed to servant leadership. She serves on the Board of Directors for HousingForward VA and Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Atlanta Homes, LLC, the WV United Way ALICE Research Advisory Committee, and as an advisor to the National Association of Business Economics Diversity Committee. After completing the Georgia Department of Community Affairs Academy for Economic Development, Tiffany was recognized by the Atlanta Business League as one of Atlanta’s Top 100 Women of Influence. Tiffany holds a Master of Science in Social Administration (MSW equivalent) from Case Western Reserve University and a Master of Public Health from New York University. She lives in Virginia as the proud mother of three promising adults and two dogs.

Emma A. Inman, APR, was named Chief Impact Officer of the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore in July 2021. She joined the Foodbank as the Vice President of Programs and Development in January 2021 and was responsible for strategic leadership and implementation of community-based feeding programs and strategic partnerships and fundraising to deliver the foodbank’s vision for “a hunger-free community.”

With her promotion to Chief Impact Officer, Emma is now responsible for strategic leadership of Advocacy, Communications, Programs, and Resource Development.

Emma has 30 years of experience leading corporate communications and corporate philanthropy. Prior to joining the Foodbank, she led External Communications and Community Relations for Food Lion across its 10-state footprint, including strategy and execution of Food Lion’s hunger-relief philanthropic platform, Food Lion Feeds. She led the retailer’s philanthropic strategy aimed at providing 1.5 billion meals to neighbors experiencing hunger and food insecurity by 2025.

She is a passionate advocate for racial justice, food justice, and developing data-based programming that applies an equity lens to addressing hunger and food insecurity.

Mark is the Vice President & Community Development Manager at Truist.  In this role, Mr. Johnson is responsible for overseeing the Community Development activities in the state of Virginia.

An exemplary steward of community service and champion of philanthropic efforts in the Hampton Roads community, he is consistently working to align the bank with charitable organizations and initiatives that promote positive change within the community.  Mark’s continued efforts have been recognized through several awards, such as the Hampton Roads Inside Business Top 100 Power List -  the people who shape and influence Hampton Roads, the Urban League of Hampton Roads Silver Star and MLK Community Leader Awards, which recognizes leaders who have made a difference in their communities; the SunTrust Bank Performance Excellence Award, which recognizes the outstanding performance of teammates in both sales and non-sales roles who demonstrate exceptional achievements in support of the bank’s guiding principles (the first professional in his position to receive the award); the National Association of Leadership Program’s Distinguished Leadership Award, which recognizes exemplary service and commitment to the community (only 1 of 15 professionals that received the award across the country in 2015) and the Hampton Roads Community Action Program’s Community Builder’s Award (given to recipients based upon their proven track record of outstanding leadership, exemplary service and advocacy for positive change).  Mark was also the lead visionary in the creation, planning, and organization of SunTrust Bank, Hampton Roads first annual of Diversity and Inclusion Awards Celebration in the Greater Hampton Roads Community in 2011 and led the effort that brought the cast members of the hit nineties TV show A Different World, which emphasized the value of higher education and the value of HBCUs – Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Norfolk State University in April of 2015.

Adam LaRose is the Director of Advocacy & Public Policy for the Capital Area Food Bank where he oversees the governmental strategy and the Client Leadership Council for the food bank in the District of Columbia, the two largest counties in Maryland, and Northern Virginia. The food bank is one of only six food banks in the Feeding America network with three states in its service area, and from a political and policy perspective, is one of the most unique regions to navigate governmentally of any other in the country.  Adam comes from a working poor background, and he firmly believes that the interests of the poor, the neglected, and the vulnerable should always be of the utmost priority. Previously, Adam was appointed one of the Social Security Administration’s two Presidential Management Fellow’s (PMF) in 2016. As a PMF, he spent 2 and a half years in three rotations: U.S. House of Representatives with Congressman Al Lawson (FL-05), where he oversaw the Congressman's 2018 Farm Bill nutrition portfolio; the U.S. Senate with Senator Bernie Sanders, where he handled labor, social security and pensions; and in the Anacostia SE, D.C. Social Security field office where he processed Supplemental Security Income applications. He received his master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in 2016 with a concentration in social welfare, however, he is most proud of his collegiate beginnings at Tallahassee Community College and Florida State University. During his time at HKS, he founded Students for the Alleviation of Poverty and Social Inequality and lead the effort to bring the inaugural, domestic-focused Poverty Conference to the Harvard campus.

Meredith Ledlie Johnson manages the Policy, Systems and Environmental Change Programming for Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Family Nutrition Program. These programs are designed to ensure that all Virginians have access to healthy, culturally appropriate food in their communities through farmers markets, gardening, and healthy choices at emergency food and retail outlets. She holds a master's degree in social work with a concentration in community organizing from Hunter College, CUNY. Before living in Virginia, Johnson worked as a farmers market manager for Greenmarket in New York City and as an urban park advocate with New Yorkers for Parks. She is excited by the possibilities offered by the local food movement to strengthen the resiliency of Virginia’s families and communities.

Erin serves as Director of Programs at Shalom Farms in Richmond. Her career spans the spectrum of food systems work: increasing market opportunities for farmers, providing technical assistance and networking opportunities to food hubs, teaching college courses on food systems and nutrition, and helping develop partnerships between emergency food programs, healthcare systems, and nutrition support in aims of building food and health equity for the most nutritionally vulnerable. She is always looking for innovative ways to deepen impact, creatively collaborate, and bring people together (yes, usually over food). Erin holds an MA in Social Ecology and Community Food Systems from Prescott College. Erin lives in Church Hill with her family, and when she's not cooking or talking about veggies and food equity, you can find her riding her bike, teaching yoga, or playing guitar with her band.

Iris Lundy is the Senior Director of Health Equity for Sentara Healthcare, which is a large integrated delivery health system serving Virginia and north-eastern North Carolina.  She works with internal and external stakeholders to integrate health equity into its culture, values and policies.

Prior to accepting this role, she served as the Sentara Director of Accreditation and Regulatory Standards.  Iris has 20+ years of healthcare experience, serves on several boards and facilitates Sentara’s Health Equity Advisory Board.  Her personal goal is to educate and inspire others to live their best and healthiest life.

Iris served her country as a non-commissioned officer in the United States Army.  She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Old Dominion University and her Master of Health Leadership from Western Governors University.

Paula Masters is the Vice President for Health Programs in the Department of Population Health for Ballad Health. She has responsibility for development and implementation of many community and social health programs/services such as the Faith Community Nurse Program, Mobile Health (including mobile COVID vaccination), Community Health Worker Programs, CMS Accountable Health Communities Program, Appalachian Highlands Care Network, PEERhelp Recovery Program, Social Needs Council, STRONG Accountable Care Community, and various others throughout the system. Prior to coming to the health system, she served as Assistant Dean of Student Services and Director of the Tennessee Public Health Training Center-LIFEPATH at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) for over seven years. She also is Co-Founder of the Center for Rural and Appalachian Health at ETSU and was with the Tennessee Department of Health for seven years before that time. Paula has a doctorate in Community and Behavioral Health, Master of Public Health in Health Services Management and Policy, and graduate certification in Health Care Management. She has conducted extensive work in health promotion and improvement, social determinants of health, social marketing, community mobilization, rural health disparities and community and organizational engagement. Paula also currently serves as a board member of Virginia Health Catalyst, Appalachian Mountain Project Access and Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians.

Allison McGee serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for Feeding Southwest Virginia and focuses on new business strategies, strategic planning initiatives, and collaborative community partnerships. Allison oversees the Mobile Marketplace Program, a new direct client service program, as well as multiple Health and Hunger initiatives in partnership with healthcare providers throughout the region. Prior to joining the organization, she served on the board of directors.

Allison holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech and has extensive professional experience, including 14 years in top management positions at Kroger. In her previous role as Kroger Corporate Affairs Manager, she oversaw media relations, government relations, and community relations for the Mid-Atlantic division covering 112 retail stores in five states. She served as the company spokesperson, allocated over $1 million dollars annually to community organizations, and lobbied on grocery-impacted legislation to pass several laws. Allison has donated her time to over a dozen non-profit organizations, several in leadership positions.

She has been married to Charlie McGee for 13 years and they have two children; Kinley (12) and Jackson (7). She is an avid runner and enjoys snow skiing, hiking, volleyball and cheering on the Virginia Tech Hokies in football and basketball.

Tom was born and raised in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York State. He grew to love the rolling country, and learned to question the suburban sprawl that took over one cow pasture after another around his childhood home. After moving to DC to finish school, he was introduced to business concepts that had been foreign to him: corporate social responsibility, externalized costs, triple-bottom line, social entrepreneurship, true cost accounting, and others. His first job after college had him traveling back and forth to China where he saw first hand what externalized costs really looked like. He experienced the impacts that producing all of our "stuff" elsewhere had on people’s lives, the environment, and the social construct of a backyard, far far away. It was a jarring, eye-opening experience for him, one that ultimately led him to launch 4P Foods in an effort to be part of the solution.

While he and his wife were participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) of their own, and after reading one too many Michael Pollan books, Tom found himself on a life-changing path of working towards food systems change, and more broadly, business systems change. What, really, is the true purpose of business in our society? What should it be? He’d love to know your thoughts.

Clint Merritt is an internal medicine physician and currently serves as the Chief Clinical Officer for Population Health at Augusta Health in Fishersville Virginia.  Clint has spent most of his career as a hospitalist physician.  He has served in different health system leadership roles, such as directing hospitalist practices, leading quality and process improvement initiatives and serving in medical staff leadership positions.  In his current role as a population health chief, he leads health system efforts to improve access to care for underserved community members, reduce local health disparities, and guide work on value-based contracts for healthcare.  Clint also feels very fortunate to be a member of the Board of Directors for the Blue Ridge Area Foodbank. 

Richard Morris joined Cultivate Charlottesville in June of 2018 as Urban Agriculture Collective Program Director. In 2021 he also became our Farm & Foodroots Co-Executive Director. He grew up in the desert valley of Phoenix, Arizona and began an apprenticeship in the family garden sometime between learning to walk and ride a bike. He earned a degree in graphic design from Arizona State University and went on to become an instructor of design at the National Education Center. For over two decades, Richard has worked across the healthcare, education, aerospace, and financial industries as a graphic and software designer/developer and team manager. In that time, he has always maintained a garden of one sort or another. In 2005, he completed a Summer internship on the Flack Family Farm in Vermont. More recently, he comes to CSG from a ten-year stint at Polyface Farm. He has done volunteer work with local Charlottesville food equity organizations and is the author of “A Life Unburdened: Getting Over Weight and Getting On With My Life”. Currently, Richard lives on a few green acres with his family where he practices small-scale food production on a home foodstead.

Eddie Oliver is the Executive Director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks. Under his leadership, the seven regional food banks serving the Commonwealth are working together to improve access to nutritious food for all Virginians. Prior to his start with the Federation in January 2018, Mr. Oliver served as the No Kid Hungry Virginia State Director, leading the statewide campaign to increase participation in federal child nutrition programs in partnership with First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe. His efforts led to an annual increase of 10 million school breakfasts and 2 million afterschool meals and snacks served to Virginia students. For the past three years, he has worked with a broad range of partners across the Commonwealth to build a better food system that works for everyone, and is continuing that mission by leading the collaborative priorities for Virginia’s food banks.

Joanna is a Community Investment Manager at Unite Us, specifically working with community-based organizations participating in North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilot. She has a master of public health from UNC-Chapel Hill and specializes in health behavior, strategic planning and evaluation, and community-based participatory research. Joanna has experience in outreach and engagement leveraging community health narratives for health equity.

Maggie is the Regional Coordinator for The Health Collaborative, a cross-sector coalition of individuals and organizations working together to improve health in the Dan River Region. In this role, she works with residents and local organizations to identify and address the root causes of health disparities by creating policy, systems, and environment changes so that all people can thrive. She is passionate about achieving health equity through authentic community engagement and collaboration. Maggie is a native of Palos Heights, Illinois but now calls Danville home along with her fiancé and dog, June.

Sara Santa Cruz (she/her) is the Program Coordinator for the Virginia Food Access Investment Fund (VFAIF) program within the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Her love of all things related to the food system began during her undergraduate degree while working at the campus greenhouse and farm in Colorado. After completing her M.A. in Applied Geography with a focus on food systems, she spent two years with Peace Corps Madagascar as an agroecology and food security advisor. Sara now lives in Richmond, VA with her partner and their dog, and spends her time cooking, hiking, and reading. You can reach Sara at sara.santacruz@vdacs.virginia.gov.

Dr. Serrano has worked with populations of limited resources for over 25 years. Dr. Serrano currently serves as the Director of Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Family Nutrition Program aimed at promoting food security, dietary quality, and food access among limited resource families and participants of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly referred to as food stamps). In this capacity, she coordinates two federally funded statewide nutrition education programs totaling $8 million each year and over 110 employees. Dr. Serrano boasts the publication of over 100 journal and extension articles and is the co-author of the textbook, Food and Nutrition Economics. She has also published reports for lay audiences and other key stakeholders and has presented to a wide range of groups, including the Virginia General Assembly.

Traci Simmons, MPH, CHES is a senior manager on the Health Systems Innovation team at Feeding America based in Chicago, IL. She joined Feeding America in May 2017. In her current role, Traci manages strategic thinking and program development for health care partnerships and leads the organization’s health equity initiatives to advance learning, competency development, and action on ways to address food insecurity, health and equity through partnerships and interventions.

Barbara Markham Smith, JD is an expert with more than 20 years’ experience in health care policy and health care reform implementation.  In her current role as Vice-President of Community Health and Innovation at VCU Health System, she creates new partnerships and models that improve local community health and health equity, helped launch payment reform initiatives, and fosters health technology innovation within the health system.

In addition to her private sector work, Barbara worked to implement components of the Affordable Care Act at the US Department of Health of Human Services. Serving as founding director of the CO-OP program, she led the team that established 23 new health insurance companies in 18 months to promote competition in the health insurance industry.  She also worked previously as a senior health advisor in Congress, leading at the staff level a major proposal for universal coverage.

Barbara is the author of numerous articles and published studies on health reform. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Boston University Law School with a joint curriculum with the Harvard School of Public Health. She has returned to her home town of Richmond, VA after living in Washington, DC for most of her career. She is married and has two children.

Rickeya Smith is a nutritionist in the Hampton Roads area.  A proud graduate of Howard University, she truly believes in the old adage “you are what you eat.”  Rickeya has been a nutritionist for over 10 years, working in the community, with children, in retirement homes, and specialty clinics.  She loves all things food and nutrition, and enjoys bringing knowledge to the public about how to truly use food as medicine.  Rickeya has made it her mission to increase the equitable access to nutrition education and healthy food within the Hampton Roads community and beyond.

Fancie Terrell is a Black/ADOS/indigenous mother, creative and community organizer living in Petersburg, Virginia. They identify as a gender non-binary queer person and use pronouns they/them as well as she/her. Fancie has worked for nonprofits that focus on social justice and electoral politics on the local and national level, including working on both President Obama's election and re-election campaigns for over 15 years.

Fancie studied at University of Central Florida for Mass Communications and Community and Social Sciences at Midwest Academy in Chicago, Illinois.

Fancie now serves as the Local Project Director for Petersburg Healthy Options and Partnerships (PHOPs) as well as the coordinator for the Healthy Community Action Team (HCAT) and supports other local community organizations by volunteering.

Bria Williams is a native of the Historically Black 10th and Page Neighborhood in Charlottesville, VA, and is also a 2015 alumnae of Charlottesville High School. After leaving CHS, Bria matriculated to Howard University in Washington, DC with a full academic scholarship where she studied Urban Education on an honors track. Through volunteering and constant youth engagement during her tenure, Howard led Bria to her deep love for social justice, equity, and community advocacy work. She brought this love back home to Charlottesville in 2019 where she began a teaching career with her alma mater, Charlottesville City Schools, in addition to volunteering with several local non-profit organizations. After working with Cultivate Charlottesville’s Covid-19 emergency food response efforts, Bria learned and fell in love with the aims and mission of the Food Justice Network. A few months later, Bria joined their staff as Program Director where she now leverages her personal ties to the community and a commitment to uplifting the underserved through leadership and the cultivation of food equity. Since joining the Cultivate Charlottesville Team, Bria has acclimated well to the local and regional landscapes of Food Equity. She is actively contributing to a National Community of Practice with John Hopkins University, in addition to leading a conglomerate of more than 20 local Food Service Organizations in the work of food justice.  An avid proponent for advancing opportunities for Black and Brown citizens, Bria believes food equity is one of the first keys to overcoming the many systemic pathways of oppression found in Charlottesville, the state of Virginia, and across the US.

Lauren Winston is a population health strategy lead at Humana, overseeing community health strategy, program and product implementation in the Virginia Medicare market. Lauren aims to create innovate, community-led solutions to persistent healthcare access and equity challenges in Virginia.  At Humana, Lauren is responsible for developing insurance products for Virginians that address health-related social needs, and building collaborative solutions with clinician and community partners to address persistent structural and social inequities.

Teri Zurfluh, the Regional Outreach Coordinator in Western Tidewater, started as a Foodbank volunteer during the pandemic. She fell in love with the mission of the Foodbank and decided that if she ever had a chance to join this organization, she would jump at the chance. And she did!

Teri has had a broad range of employment experience: working in Human Resources and Training/Development positions with Union Camp/International Paper (manufacturing) for over ten years, workforce development consulting and training for Paul D. Community College for over fourteen years, and two years as the first Family & Community Engagement specialist for Franklin City Public Schools. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia in English and has a Master of Arts degree in Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures (Concentration in Media Communications) from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

Teri currently serves as the Theatre Coach and Director of Franklin High School and has been a long time community volunteer in Franklin. She has been married to Aaron, who is a Maintenance Engineering Manager at Newport News Shipbuilding, for almost 30 years, and together they have two children, Maura and Miller. Maura, also a graduate of the University of Virginia, and works as a Community Educator for the Suffolk City Library system. Miller, a high school senior at the Appomattox Governor’s School of the Arts in Petersburg, Virginia, is studying theater and audio production. The Zurfluh family resides in Sedley.