Dr. Barry Colley is CEO and co-founder of Seven Harvest, Inc. a nonprofit with a mission to scale-up the economic development impact of farm and food enterprises in underserved urban and rural communities. He has conducted extension training internationally on topics such as food safety, greenhouse production, and food hub development including collaborations in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa.
Effie Gant
Highways to Hedges
Effie Gant is the CEO/President of a nonprofit, she serves her community through agricultural education and promoting local businesses.
Gaidi Faraj, PhD
Global Citizen. Educator. Entrepreneur. Solutionist.
Professor of History, Grambling State University
Expertise in Education and Business in East Africa. As previous Dean at ALU Rwanda, Dr. Faraj led a student-centric curriculum to a diverse Pan African student. Global Challenges & Food Justice Mentor.
When DJ Cavem coined the term eco-hip hop in 2007, he didn’t know it would sprout into a global movement. His mission to rap about climate change, food justice and plant-based foods spread far beyond his Denver hometown. Having performed at the Obama White House and been featured in Oprah Magazine and on the Rachael Ray Show, Dr. Ietef “DJ Cavem” Vita became known as more than just a rapper — but an activist, educator and vegan chef. Now, several years after the release of The Produce Section, his award-winning album that fused hip hop with lessons on eco-friendliness, Cavem has shifted his focus to new material. His latest project BIOMIMICZ is being released as an album/seed pack to get people involved and spur listeners into action. Visit: https://www.chefietef.com/dj-cavem-bio/
Salim Rollins is the Co-director of Synergy Yoga, a registered Yoga Alliance school that offers yoga teacher training; international retreats; Thai massage certification; and online wellness programs. He has maintained a dedicated yoga practice since 2000 and studied with several master teachers throughout India and the U.S. . Salim has curated numerous wellness festivals and retreats including Synergy Journeys Peru; Feel Good In Zanzibar; Nairobeing: The Wellness Experience; the Divine Feminine, Sacred Masculine series in Kenya; and Yoga on Dub among others. In addition to his work with Synergy, Salim is a Contra-Mestre of the Afro-Brazilian martial art, Capoeira Angola, an art form that he has been practicing since 1995. For more than twenty years, Salim has managed and taught youth empowerment programming. He is the founder and director of Kibera Rising – a community program that uses Capoeira Angola, breakdance, and an empowerment program for teen girls to impart critical life skills and expanded choices to youth in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Salim’s focus as a facilitator centers on community upliftment; self-accountability; liberation from pain; cultivating an intuitive practice that enables students to find the source of their healing within; and ultimately conscious reconnection with the divine self. Salim deeply values his mission of sharing healing practices and curating wellness spaces with communities throughout the world.
Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, PHD, MPH
Community Health
Professor of Preventive Medicine, USC Keck School of Medicine; Associate Director, Community Outreach & Engagement; Director, Center for Health Equity in the Americas.
Her work focuses on reducing disparities and achieving health equity throughout the Americas. She develops and tests innovative interventions that help modify cultural and lifestyle risk factors for improved community health.
California Women in Agriculture Association
Let's Be Whole Mobile Food Pantry
Mission is to use a holistic approach to eradicate poverty, reduce health disparities and promote food sovereignty. Our parent organization, the California Women in Agriculture Association works hand in hand with us to promote urban agriculture education to under-resourced communities. We support the United Nations SDG #2 Zero Hunger.
The Apothecary is a health and wellness company with an aim to empower every being to take health into their hands. The aim is to increase the accessibility of the most effective herbal teas and therapeutics from across the land and sea for optimal wellbeing.
James Brady is well known worldwide for his contributions to the Moringa plant as a specialty crop and urban agriculture in general. He often says, “It is my belief that a healthy community is one that meets the basic needs of all residents.” Mr. Brady works daily on his farm in California to ensure the quality and sustainability of the environment, provides adequate levels of economic and social development while assuring social relationships that are respected and supported. Over the years he propelled and pushed for the rise in community empowerment through Urban Agriculture. For example, there are well over twenty-seven cities around the country implementing Urban Ag Ordinances that include zoning codes that will establish a new food economy for local growers. Some even include TIZ tax incentive zones. TIXs are for the purpose of allowing landowners to receive tax credits from the city that will incentivize both landowner and urban farmer. James is proud to be a board member of the Louisiana Association of Cooperatives (LAC) under the direction of Mr. Harvey Reed, a well-respected leader in the food revolution.
Edye Kuyper M.S.
International Agricultural Development
CommuniCare Health Centers
Connecting and healing through food; Food is Medicine; clinic-based food programs CommuniCare Health Centers is committed to providing comprehensive, high-quality health care services to anyone in the Yolo County community regardless of their ability to pay or their insurance status. CommuniCare’s Food Programs connect patients, staff and the larger community to good food and to each other in order to improve health and well-being. Our Garden & Outdoor Classroom is adjacent to our Woodland clinic; it produces vegetables for patients and hosts food education and group medical visits. Food Justice Mentor.
Dedicated, committed and determined to raise world consciousness through music, dance, and the arts. She promotes unity in diversity while teaching world peace. Food Justice Mentor.
Three Sisters Gardens was founded by Alfred Melbourne, a Fort Peck Sioux. Alfred grew up in the Broderick neighborhood and felt determined to offer an alternative to the youth of his neighborhood. Alfred saw that youth in the Broderick neighborhood were not engaged in the community, and instead were involved with crimalized activities that put them at risk and contribute to the neighborhood’s instability. From personal experience, Alfred saw how poor nutrition, coupled with a lack of role models and mentors contribute to the challenges faced by the Broderick neighborhood and the broader Yolo county. As he imagined a healthy community,
