Angela Davis is the Director of the Division of Food & Nutrition for the Jersey City Department of Health & Human Services. Before coming to the Department of Health & Human Services in January 2017, she spent almost a decade managing two food and nutrition education programs for Just Food, a nonprofit based in New York City that empowers and supports community leaders in their efforts to increase access to locally grown food, especially in underserved New York neighborhoods. Angela has more than 20 years of program management, education, and public relations experience. Throughout her career, she has served a variety of institutions including the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, the National Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and the Children's Defense Fund. She has a Masters of Education degree from the George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College. She holds a certificate in Culinary Nutrition from the Natural Gourmet Institute and is a 2009 Environmental Leadership Program Fellow.

ari rosenberg is a passionate activist working to create a more just society through community building, anti-racism trainings, and radical financing. She currently lives and works in Philadelphia with her amazing cat, Opal. ari has been growing food for over 15 years in both rural and urban environments and supporting urban youth in connecting with their food, gaining entrepreneurship skills and developing and enhancing leadership skills for over 11 years. She is involved in a number of community initiatives that center leadership of color including Rooted in Community, a national grassroots network of youth and adults that works to create a just food system centering youth leadership, and Soil Generation, a black & brown led coalition of growers in Philadelphia. For paid work she is the Finance & HR Manager at Greensgrow, a nonprofit focused on food, flowers, and neighborhoods. When not growing, cooking, or preserving food you can find her biking or running around the city, reading a book, or writing letters to dear ones.

Aunnalea Grove has been a resident of Philadelphia for nearly 15 years. She has an M.A. in Public Anthropology from American University. She has worked in non-profit education, social services, program management, and outreach for over ten years. She currently serves as the Get HYPE Philly! Program Manager at The Food Trust. Her interest in food systems began while she served in restaurants in college, and she is excited to bring her love of youth development work and her passion for food justice together to support NESAWG.

Hannah is the Food Policy Advisory Council Manager at the Office of Sustainability. She manages subcommittee projects and fundraising for FPAC, and oversees the Council’s meetings and general operations. She previously served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with FPAC through SERVE Philadelphia and the New York City Coalition Against Hunger’s Anti-Hunger and Opportunity Corps. Hannah developed an interest in food systems while studying the history of commodities at Cornell University, where she worked as a line cook and graduated in 2013 with a BA in History and International Relations. In another life, she lives in Paris, operates a food truck, and plans her vacations around places to eat.

Iyeshima Harris started her mark in the food justice movement at the age of 14. As a Jamaican native, she struggled with the process of assimilation into a new culture. Through farming she found great comfort in her community. Throughout her involvement in the movement, Iyeshima has taught food justice, advocate for universal free school lunch, assisted in the development and sustainment of a youth-led organization, and is now the organizer for the Youth Food Justice Network. She is dedicated to integrate youth empowerment and leadership into adult dominated sectors. With a double major of Political Science and Sociology, Iyeshima wishes to combined her passion for food justice and her knowledge of the American politics to drive the importance of food in people’s everyday life.

Lorette Picciano has served as Executive Director of the Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural, a Washington, DC-based alliance of more than 70 culturally diverse community based organizations representing small producers and farmworkers in the US and Mexico, since 1992.

Marla works with grassroots members to link identified priorities and needs with policy efforts and advocacy opportunities on a national scale. She facilitates NSAC’s work on equity within the food and farm system through the Diversity Committee and alongside member leaders. Having grown up in Los Angeles with deep farming roots in Guatemala, her previous experience includes progressing community-based and leadership initiatives with people of color, migrants and indigenous communities both in the U.S. and abroad. Marla holds an M.A. in International Development from American University and a B.A. in Global Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reana supports National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s policy and grassroots efforts by translating challenging policy language into digestible communications and by providing the development support needed for robust fundraising. Reana grew up in the Chicago area and earned her BA in Urban Policy from De Paul University. She later moved to NYC, where earned her MA in Urban Policy Analysis from The New School for Public Engagement. While there, she helped create healthier school food programs and policies for NYC children as part of the Wellness in the Schools team. Reana also served as Legislative Aide for Food Policy under New York City Council Member Gale Brewer, with whom she helped develop NYC’s first package of local food sourcing legislation in 2011.

Souhair is a budding urban farmer with a background in youth education. She spent a summer building community gardens in under-served communities while also teaching the beauty and liberating activity of gardening through comprehensive STEM programming in group homes and juvenile detention centers. One project was leading youth from three NYC detention centers in growing and harvesting peppers for the award-winning Bronx Hot Sauce. A Brooklyn College graduate of International Business and Philosophy, Souhair approaches her home borough of Brooklyn with a universal philosophy: that growing food and sharing both the experience and the (literal) fruits of your labor is one of the most powerful things we as humans can do for each other, connecting us not only to each other but also to nature. Passionate about plants, she continues to learn and teach about the healing power of plants for both the body and the community.

Since graduating from Muhlenberg College with a BA in environmental studies, Ty has had extensive expereince in youth development, food justice, and education reform. Previous to his work as one of the founding directors of the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden, he served for ten years with the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Community Partnerships as Director of Health Promotion and Director of the West Philadelphia based Sayre Community School. He has also spent time in the classroom as Philadelphia Teaching Fellow and Philadelphia School District science teacher, as well as two years of national service as a member of Habitat for Humanity AmeriCorps, and a teaching fellow at the esteemed Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center in Estes Park, Colorado