Keynote & Invited speakers
Jess Halliday
Elizabeth Mitcham
Jess Halliday
"Building climate resilient urban and regional food systems"
Dr. Jess Halliday is an associate at the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems. She is presently working with partners from the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at Wilfrid Laurier University and the CGIAR Water Land and Ecosystems programme on a project led by the FAO to strengthen resilience of city region food systems to climate-related shocks and stresses. Jess holds a PhD and an MSc in food policy from the Centre for Food Policy, City University London, and gained her bachelor’s degree from Cambridge University. She lives in a small village near the city of Montpellier in southern France.
Charles Rice
Elizabeth Mitcham
Jess Halliday
"Urban Agriculture, Climate Change, and Food Security: Potential Solutions and Synergies"
Dr. Charles Rice grew up in Yorkville, Illinois which had a population of about 1,500 people at the time. Throughout the years he became involved in many aspects of 4-H. Rice received his B.S. in Geography from Northern Illinois University. He then completed his Masters and Doctorate from the University of Kentucky. In 1988, Rice joined the Agronomy faculty at K-State. Rice specializes in soil microbiology, carbon cycling, and climate change. His extensive research has allowed him to gain
helpful insight in order to help his students. Dr. Rice spends his remaining free time relaxing by doing the things that he enjoys most, reading and gardening.
Elizabeth Mitcham
Elizabeth Mitcham
Elizabeth Mitcham
"The Role of Urban Farming in Nutrition Security"
Dr. Elizabeth Mitcham is director of the Horticulture Innovation Lab, a USAID-funded program housed in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis,
which advances fruit and vegetable research to support the needs of smallholder farmers in developing countries. She also serves as a technical resource on horticulture and handling of produce after harvest to reduce postharvest losses. Mitcham joined the UC Davis faculty in 1992 as a UC Cooperative Extension specialist. She holds degrees in horticulture from the University of Maryland (Ph.D. and B.S.) and North Carolina State University (M.S.).
Jill Clark
Karen Washington
Elizabeth Mitcham
"Fixes that Fail: Using community based systems modeling to diagnose injustice in the food system"
Dr. Jill Clark’s research is agrifood system policy and practice, centering on community and state governance of food systems, the policy process, and community engagement. Primarily using a community-based research approach, she works with local communities across the United States. Currently, Professor Clark provides statewide
leadership for the Ohio Network of Food Policy
Councils and national leadership as an advisory
board member for Johns Hopkins Food Policy
Network. Professor Clark has a Ph.D. in geography from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree from the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of
Wisconsin.
Jennifer King
Karen Washington
Karen Washington
"Fixes that Fail: Using community based systems modeling to diagnose injustice in the food system"
In her leadership role at the Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health, Dr. Jennifer King supports postdoctoral scholars and trainees, facilitates monthly seminar series
presentations, and manages daily operations to provide state-wide technical assistance to SNAP-Ed practitioners for the implementation of community nutrition policy, systems, and environmental interventions. She received both her Bachelor’s (Kent State University) and Master’s (Bowling Green State University)
degrees in Nutrition before returning to Kent to earn her PhD in Public Health with an emphasis in Health Policy & Management.
Karen Washington
Karen Washington
Karen Washington
"Food Justice is More than Growing Food and Feeding People"
Karen is a farmer and activist. She is Coowner/
Farmer at Rise & Root Farm in Chester New York. An activist, food advocate; in 2010, CoFounded Black Urban Growers (BUGS) an
organization supporting growers in both urban and rural settings. In 2012, Ebony magazine voted her one of their 100 most influential
African Americans in the country and in 2014 was the recipient of the James Beard
Leadership Award. Karen serves on the boards of the New York Botanical Gardens, Soul Fire Farm, the Mary Mitchell Center, Black Farmer Fund, and Farm School NYC.
Mark Winne
Mark Winne
Mark Winne
"The Hydra-Headed Food System: Imagining the Whole and Connecting the Dots"
From 1979 to 2003, Mark Winne was the Executive Director of the Hartford Food System (HFS), a private nonprofit agency that works on food and hunger issues in the Hartford,
Connecticut area. From 2002 until 2004, Mark was a Food and Society Policy Fellow, a position supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Mark currently writes, speaks, and consults
extensively on community food system topics including hunger and food insecurity, local and regional agriculture, community food assessment, and food policy. Since 2013,
Mark has served as a Senior Advisor at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future where he works on local and state food policy. He is the author of Food Town, USA (Island
Press 2019), Stand Together or Starve Alone: Unity and Chaos in the U.S. Food Movement (PraegerPress 2018)… just to name a few.