Leadership Committee

Elected Members

Edwin A. Yowell, Leadership Committee Co-Chair, April 2011-June 2012
Ed Yowell serves as one of the Food Systems Network NYC Co-chairs and is a contributor to the FSNYC newsletter. He serves on the Greenmarket Farmer and Community Advisory Committee, is member of the Slow Food NYC Board and is a Slow Food Regional Governor for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. He represented Slow Food NYC in the NYC Alliance for the CNR and served on committees supporting the 2008 and 2009 food summits organized by the Office of the Manhattan Borough President.

Kristin Pederson, Leadership Committee Co-Chair, April 2012-June 2012
Through her position as Food Programs Coordinator at the Fortune Society, Kristin has the opportunity to work closely with an underserved, often food-insecure population. She has extended her relationships with important partners in building a healthier New York City food system, including Corbin Hill Road Farm, Just Food, the NYSDOHMH, Brooklyn Grange, Mi Kitchen es Su Kitchen, and others. Furthermore, she has sought out or done research and writing for grants to provide an additional $25,500 to meet their food program goals.Additionally, Kristin's role as a former coordinator of FSNYC gives her important insight into the invaluable role of Leadership Committee members, and the importance of their donations of time, treasure and talent in making FSNYC a successful organization. Kristin's understanding of the FSNYC budget and revenue systems would be an asset, and she would volunteer eagerly to help implement revenue-generating projects such as the upcoming ChiliFest.Kristin has experience in the work of building a sustainable food systems from a variety of perspectives. She has served as a farmers market manager, studied agroecology internationally, worked a farmers market booth for a social enterprise bakery, participated in a CSA with her Bushwick neighbors, and is now working to construct a community garden for residents of the Fortune Society?s affordable housing building in West Harlem.

Beatriz Beckford
Beatriz brings with her eight years of community organizing, education, advocacy, and activism experience, including work with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Citizens Committee of NYC, and now the Brooklyn Food Coalition. Her vision for engagement, building consensus, and connecting the struggles impacting low income communities with the greatest food/social justice movement is inspiring. Beatriz is currently working with the Brooklyn Food Coalition leading the school food reform efforts, and continues to be an active member of several grassroots organizations in addition to being a devoted mother to a wonderful little boy.

Sarah Brannen
Sarah Brannen has more than nine years of experience in the public sector working on urban policy issues. For more than four years, she was a Senior Policy Analyst at the New York City Council where she advised the Speaker on economic development and food policy issues. While there, she researched,designed, and launched the widely-recognized FoodWorks initiative to improve economic, health, and environmental outcomes in the New York food system. As a result, the city has passed legislation to encourage more procurement of regional food, reduce packaging on goods purchased by the city, publish an annual report on food system metrics and will be encouraging local food processing, improved food distribution, and urban agriculture. While at the Council, Sarah also developed a biotech tax credit for New York City start-ups, piloted an initiative to train new nurses at CUNY schools, launched a kitchen incubator at La Marqueta in East Harlem, and successfully lobbied the Mayor's Office to begin a system of expedited inspections for new businesses, now called the New Business Acceleration Team. She received a BA from Barnard College and her MPP from The Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Khin Mar Cho
Dr. Khin Mar Cho serves as Senior Extension Associate of Cornell University Cooperative Extension in New York City, which provides research-based programming in a number of areas including Family and Youth Development; Nutrition, Health and Urban Environment. She has worked on sustainable agriculture and food systems with government agencies, universities, and nonprofits for many years and currently working on Food Industry Direct Marketing NY MarketMaker program, Nutrition and Health program, and Biofuels Industry Development and Education in NYC and Mid-Hudson. The past 15 years have included diverse experiences primarily in the field of research, teaching and extension education at universities, cooperative extension, and nonprofit organizations. 
Dr. Cho holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics and a Master and a Bachelor of Sciences in Agronomy. As a specialist of International Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Education, she works at Cornell University in NYC and coordinates food industry direct marketing program and nutrition and health program.
Dr. Cho serves as a governing board member of the National Food Industry MarketMaker, Sunset Park Center for Family Life, northeast regional food distribution research center, member of the leadership committee of FSNYC, active member of national agricultural economics association, association international for agricultural extension education, national biofuel organizations, and European biomass and biofuel organization. Her present interests are the research on sustainable agriculture and economic development, the development of regional food systems, and the research needed to advance sustainable agriculture and food systems policy. Dr. Cho has published five scientific books and over 50 international publications at the journals of agricultural sciences, nutritional sciences, crop sciences, agricultural extension and agricultural economics.

Mary Cleaver
Mary Cleaver is one of the country’s foremost authorities on sustainable food and agriculture, she is the president and founder of The Cleaver Co. and The Green Table in Chelsea Market. The Cleaver Co. is a full-service event planning and catering company with a large roster of private, non-profit and corporate clients, and staff of 50. The Green Table restaurant is a sustainable eatery and wine bar where guests enjoy delicious dishes that demonstrate a commitment to seasonal, regional cuisine. The Cleaver Co. and The Green Table are widely recognized for utilizing local farms and purveyors in order to obtain the best-quality product, and for supporting small to mid-size farms and family farmers. Mary is a founder of the Farm to Chef Network and a board member of Local Infrastructure for Local Agriculture, among other professional affiliations.

Barry Crumbley
Barry’s family background shows a history of southern landowners, and civil rights activists. He has trained as a Community Land Specialist (CLS) throughout the United States and Mexico, and he is a New York certified Master Composter Educator. From 2002-2005 he managed a 30 acre farm in Southern New Jersey. Some of Brother Barry’s national affiliations include the National Network of Forest Practitioners, the BFAA, Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association in which he is a New York and New Jersey State Representative, and he is a member with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. Since 2008, he’s been involved in the Commission on Sustainable Development at the United Nations. In 2010 he was part of the delegation that traveled to Cochabamba, Bolivia to show solidarity on behalf of American Black Farmers & Landowners at the "World's Peoples Conference on Climate Change & The Rights of Mother Earth".

Mark Dunlea
Mark Dunlea has worked for the Hunger Action Network of NYS since 1985, presently in his second tenure as Executive Director. He was an advisor to the first NYS Food Policy Council in the late 1980s and was instrumental in convincing Governor Spitzer to re-establish it for four years. He is working with faith, community food and food justice groups throughout New York Sate on the re-authorization of the federal farm bill. He is a graduate of Rensselear Polytechnic Institute and Albany Law School. He was a co-founder of the NY and National Public Interest Research Group, Capital District National Lawyers Guild, Green Party of NYS and Hudson-Mohawk Independent Media Center. He has hosted a public affairs radio show on Pacifica affiliates for the last 12 years, most recently City Watch on WBAI. He has taught environmental policy and politics at RPI, where he also co-founded the Green City Project. His novel, Madame President: The Unauthorized Biography of the First Green Party President, was published by Big Toad Books.

Stacey Lea Flannagan, Co-chair
Stacey Flanagan is a director of Public Health Service Programs at Public Health Solutions. As part of her position, Stacey works to strengthen the internal capacity of the organization's Women, Infants, and Children supplemental food program (WIC), WIC Vendor Management Agency, along with Nutrition Outreach and Education. In addition, Stacey has worked with several nonprofit organizations to fight hunger and poverty including Share Our Strength, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the US Peace Corps. Stacey graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Political Science, holds an MS in Nonprofit Management from the New School, and is currently working on her PhD.

Thomas Forster

Shira Gans
Shira Gans is a Policy Analyst for Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer where she is responsible for the Borough President’s food and economic development policy portfolios. She is the architect and director of the Bank On Manhattan initiative, a public/private partnership aimed at helping unbanked New Yorkers open safe, low-cost checking accounts. As food policy analyst, she has authored several reports about creating sustainable food systems in New York City and is the liaison to the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board. In addition to her work at the Borough President’s, Shira works with local restaurant chains to develop their sustainability programs.

Before joining the Borough President’s office, Shira was a Senior Budget Analyst in the Economic Development Taskforce at the Mayor’s Office of Management Budget. Shira previously lived in San Francisco where she worked in the field of prisoner rights and as a Federal Investigator at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Shira received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a Master in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley. Shira was recently selected by City Hall news to be profiled in their 2010 “Rising Stars: 40 Under 40” issue.

Tomas Hunt
Tomas is the co-founder and director of Raise the Roof Farms, an organization dedicated to creating a replicable, cost-effective model for farming at city schools. He is currently working on another school-based garden project in Manhattan. Prior to this, Tomas worked primarily in education policy and city government. He was a senior policy analyst for the Public Advocate’s Office under Betsy Gotbaum and was on staff as an education specialist for City Councilmember Gale Brewer. The combined interests of food and education first presented itself to Tomas twelve years ago, when he was a teacher at the Little Red School House and spent a week with 25 fourth-graders on an upstate farm. Tomas did his undergraduate work at the University of Oregon and in the CUNY BA interdisciplinary studies program, and has a Master’s in education policy from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Bob Lewis
Bob Lewis is the Special Assistant for Market Development at NYS Dept. of Agriculture and Markets. He is responsible for planning and administering statewide programs that promote economic development of NYS agriculture and benefit farmers, consumers, and communities through the establishment of retail and wholesale farmer-to-consumer direct marketing facilities and arrangements. Before joining the Department of Agriculture and Markets in 1978, Bob co-founded the Greenmarket program in New York City. He led  the Department's USDA funded NYC Wholesale Farmers Market Study and is involved with the Department's Farm-to-School Program.

Sasha Loberg
Sasha Loberg worked for years in Community Investment with Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, helping to connect restaurants and chefs with community building and fundraising opportunities in and around NYC. She currently lives and works in Warwick, NY, where she directs marketing and advertising for a small farm and market operation. In this role, she actively seeks ways to promote food and farming in the Hudson Valley with agritourism, cooperative marketing, and food systems as her primary focus. She has been a proud member of FSNYC since its inception and hopes to continue to connect upstate and downstate food and farming issues. She and her husband, Erik, welcomed their first child, Olivia, in January 2011.

Kate MacKenzie

Mo Mullen

Tatiana Orlov
Tatiana is currently the Assistant Manager of Community Development, South Bronx for the Healthy Neighborhoods' Initiative at City Harvest. Her prior background spans a diverse range of capacities, including event planning and production, education, youth development, community engagement and outreach, as well as other food systems and food justice related projects. Additionally, Tatiana is a member of Community Board 11 in Manhattan, and board member and co-chair of the Special Events Committee for the Queens Harvest Food Coop. Her additional affiliations include Slow Food NYC, the Bronx Food+Sustainability Coalition and i was really, very hungry, a new supper club project.
Tatiana holds a Masters of Nonprofit Management and Community Development from Milano, the New School for Management and Urban Policy. Her graduate work focused largely on empowerment and improvement of urban communities through engagement with public space, art, culture, and food-related programs.

Sara Rosen
Sara J. Rosen has spent almost eight years working in the field of philanthropy serving as a program officer and representing high net worth individuals and families as a philanthropic advisor.  Sara currently is a Vice President and Foundation Officer within Philanthropic Solutions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.  Sara’s responsibilities include helping individuals and families to effectuate their giving plans through private foundations.  This entails providing advisory and grantmaking support related to foundation governance, strategy, program and administration.  Sara’s areas of expertise include youth, workforce and community development, animal welfare, K-12 education and human services.  Before starting her philanthropic career at the Stella & Charles Guttman Foundation and continuing on to J.P. Morgan Private Bank, Sara worked at a nonprofit organization in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Sara earned her BA in sociology from Boston College and MPA in nonprofit management and public policy with an international specialization from NYU’s Robert F. Wagner School.  While in graduate school, Sara researched and wrote about land use, agricultural development and nutrition. In her final year of study, she published a paper on malnutrition and the impact of micronutrient interventions to alleviate hunger. Sara currently teaches cooking and nutrition classes to young children and leads supermarket tours with City Harvest.

June Russell
June is the Manager of Farm Inspections and Strategic Development for Greenmarket, a program of GrowNYC. She grew up in Southwest Michigan?s famed Fruit Belt and has spent the last twenty years in numerous capacities in the food world, from baker to chef to cafe and bar manager. She has advocated on behalf of farmers and small food producers throughout her career.
June came to Greenmarket in 2004 and learned the market system through managing several neighborhood-based markets across the City. For the last four years she has been the organization's Farm Inspections Manager and has traveled extensively within the growing region, visiting producer farms and production facilities. These experiences have given her the background and insight to think strategically on behalf of growers and on re-building our local food system. Her recent strategic development project? facilitating the re-establishment of grain production and processing in New York? has helped to further enhance Greenmarket's capacity to be a progressive force in driving farm viability in the Northeast.

Jennifer Small
Jen co-owns Flying Pigs Farm in Washington County. She co-founded and helps manage Farm Camp at Flying Pigs Farm, an intensive 2-day program for food professionals, and the original Farm to Chef Express (now Basis Farm to Chef), which was a farmer and chef-owned sales and distribution service. Jen also works for American Farmland Trust, the only national organization dedicated to farmland conservation. Her volunteer work includes serving on the Board of Directors of Chefs Collaborative and as an EMT for the local rescue squad. She graduated from Union College and has a Masters in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts.

Benjamin Solataire
Benjanmin has lived in New York for most of the last the last 20 years. After a long, satisfying career in Corporate Communications Production, producing over 60 events, developing his skills in team leadership, project management and communications, he decided to pursue a new career in public service. Benjamin is now pursuing a Masters at The New School, School for Public Engagement. He has been working over the last couple of years with the Brooklyn Food Coalition on many projects and is their representative to the New York City Food and Farm Bill Working Group where he serves on the Community Engagement Committee, the Policy Committee, and the Governance/Administration Committee. Benjamin believes that the problems of access to healthy food for all New Yorkers, and how to improve a food system that is damaging to our health directly and the health of our environment are ones that have to be tackled by us all working together. He welcomes this opportunity to share resources and knowledge amongst all the sectors involved in this fight as he believes it is the most efficient way to develop real solutions.

Advisory Members

Hilary Baum
Hilary Baum produces educational conferences and special events focusing on critical issues in food and farming. She is president of Baum Forum/ Public Market Partners, and was the founding coordinating director of Food Systems Network NYC and The Public Market Collaborative. Hilary has been involved in the development of farmers’ and public markets, agricultural marketing programs, and community supported agriculture, and is co-author of Public Markets and Community Revitalization. She is an advisory board member of Food Systems Network NYC, Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, the Hawthorne Valley Association, Riverdale CSA, and was an advisor to the NYC Wholesale Farmers’ Market and a contributor to Speaker Quinn’s report, FoodWorks. For more information, please visit www.baumforum.org.

Challey Comer
Challey Comer is the Farm to Market Manager at the Watershed Agricultural Council in Walton, NY. In this position she oversees the Pure Catskills campaign, a regional buy local initiative that serves nearly 300 farm and food businesses in six counties. Market-based farmer education, regional advocacy and market connections are also components of the economic viability efforts at WAC. Previously, Challey has designed agricultural best management practices, researched watershed management and worked at numerous farms in the northeast. She has degrees in Environmental Engineering and Ecology from Drexel University and is currently pursuing a M.S. at Columbia University.

Fern Gale Estrow
A leader in her profession, Fern Gale Estrow, a Registered Dietitian and co-founder of FSNYC, served as its first chair for five years, subsequently remaining a member of the Leadership Committee and currently on Advisory. Founder of The FGE Food and Nutrition Team, she consults to agencies, organizations, educational institutions and communities to improve health and quality of life through integration of food programs, nutrition education, clinical support, media literacy, and policy development.  Using an environment and food systems approach she works to establish awareness regarding the intersection of health, agriculture, food poverty and hunger relative to policy.

Lynn Fredricks
Lynn Fredericks is the founder and guiding force behind FamilyCook Productions a national educational organization promoting community empowerment through programs providing nutrition, culinary, and food systems education. The author of, Cooking Time Is Family Time and an award-winning nutrition and culinary educator. Ms.Fredericks and her team of chefs and dieticians create and train a spectrum of programs and curricula for pre-K through adult reaching tens of thousands of families since 1995. A leading public health advocate for holistic food system planning to address obesity and the loss of family farms, she is a founding member of Food Systems Network NYC.

Sarah Shaikh
Sarah Shaikh directs the Healthy Communities Initiative at Bon Secours New York Health System. The Initiative works to strengthen capacity in Inwood and NW Bronx neighborhoods through grassroots collaborations. She is the former Coordinator of the Healthy Corner Store Initiative at City Harvest. Sarah holds a BA in Geography from the University of Denver. She has a MA In International Policy Studies and a MBA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Sarah is committed to promoting a healthier New York through the vehicles of empowerment, social enterprise and food security for all families.

Cathy Nonas
Cathy Nonas directs the Physical Activity and Nutrition program at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Trained as a clinical dietitian, she has published a number of peer-reviewed articles on type 2 diabetes and obesity prevention/ treatment. Since joining the Health Department almost four years ago, Nonas has worked to increase access to healthy foods and improve physical activity opportunities in underserved neighborhoods. Among other efforts, her team has helped develop New York City’s calorie-posting regulation, the Pouring on the Pounds anti-sugar sweetened beverage campaign, the NYC Green Cart initiative, Health Bucks and the Healthy Bodega Initiative among others.

Marcel Van Ooyen
Marcel Van Ooyen earned degrees in Social Ecology from the University of California Irvine and from the Seattle University School of Law specializing in Environmental Law. After graduating from law school, Mr. Van Ooyen worked for the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council in Washington State, where he conducted the environmental review of proposed power plants. Upon moving to New York City, Mr. Van Ooyen worked for the New York City Council as the Chief of Staff to City Council Member Gifford Miller and then as Legislative Director for the City Council. As Legislative Director, he wrote and ensured the adoption of over 30 environmental laws, including the city's landmark green buildings legislation, lead bill, clean air codes, environmental purchasing laws, and many more. Since joining GrowNYC, he has developed new and innovative programs like Learn it, Grow it, Eat it and Youthmarkets, which help teens improve their eating habits through education, gardening, community outreach and running urban farm stands in their neighborhoods.