Bios
Keynote Speakers
Mark Winne
From 1979 to 2003, Mark Winne was the executive director of the Hartford Food System, a private non-profit agency that works on food and hunger issues in Connecticut. He is the co-founder of the Community Food Security Coalition where he now works as the Food Policy Council Project Director. As a writer on food issues, Mark’s work has appeared in the Washington Post, The Nation, Sierra magazine, Orion magazine, and Yes! magazine, to name a few. His first book Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty was released in 2008. Mark’s second book Food Rebels, Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart Cookin’ Mamas is scheduled for release in October 2010. Both books are published by Beacon Press. In addition to writing, Mark speaks to groups across the world on topics related to community food systems, food policy, and food security, and was recently appointed to the position of Visiting Scholar at the John Hopkins School of Public Health. He also serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations in his home state of New Mexico as well as in other parts of the country.
Mark Winne
41 Arroyo Hondo Trail
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87508
Phone: (505) 983-3047
Email: win5m@aol.com
Website: www.markwinne.com
John Talmadge, Social Compact
John Talmage joined Social Compact as deputy director in January 2006, before his appointment as president and chief executive by the organization’s board later that year. Under John’s leadership, Social Compact has greatly expanded its DrillDown market research program, which documents the market strengths of communities throughout the United States. In response to the challenges facing underserved urban markets around the country and abroad, John continues to coordinate the development of Social Compact’s next-generation of DrillDown tools and practices that contribute to innovation in the community development field.
John is a frequent speaker at numerous conferences nationwide. In 2009, John delivered the keynote address at the Food Desert to Food Oasis: A Symposium to Revitalize South Los Angeles through Grocery Store and Business Development, an event sponsored by the California Endowment. In 2007, he was the keynote speaker for the Washington, DC Economic Partnership’s Annual Meeting. He is also the recipient of several awards including New Orleans’ Idea Village’s Entrepreneurship Supporter award in 2004.
John is a Ph. D. candidate in Tulane University’s sociology department concentrating on economic development and labor markets. He received his Master of Arts degree from Tulane University’s Stone Center for Latin American Studies and finished his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Columbia University. John lives in Florida with his wife Melissa and their two children, Olivia and Benjamin.
Panelists and break-out speakers
Edwin Marty, Jones Valley Urban Farm
Edwin Marty is currently the director of Jones Valley Urban Farm (JVUF) in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Before returning to Birmingham to start the non-profit “teaching farm,” Edwin earned a BA in anthropology from the University of Oregon and completed an “Apprenticeship in Agroecology” from the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2006, Edwin left Southern Living to begin working as the full-time director of Jones Valley Urban Farm. Since then, the farm has grown to include over 28 acres of urban farm land, employs 20 people and teaches thousands of youth every year about growing and eating good food. He has also consulted on numerous urban farm projects around the country, including work with the American Institute of Architects Sustainable Design Assessment Team project in Detroit, MI.
Rachel Reinhart, Jones Valley Urban Farm
Rachel Reinhart is the Program Director of Jones Valley Urban Farm. A lifelong organic gardener and teacher, Rachel has been working to improve the environment and health in Birmingham for 25 years in local non-profits. She develops, directs and teaches farming, nutrition, policy and outreach programs for JVUF, and helps manage a passionate, professional staff in their farming and community activities.
Melissa Oliver, Alabama Arise
Melissa Oliver has bachelor's degrees in English and history (including a Political Science Special Semester - American University) from Birmingham Southern College. She is retired from the Department of Human Resources where she was a child welfare worker and protective service supervisor. She worked as a legislative consultant at the Children's Trust Fund before becoming legislative co-coordinator for Alabama Arise. Melissa and her husband, attorney John Oliver live in Dadeville, Alabama.
Scott Douglas, III
A native of Nashville, TN, Scott Douglas serves as secretary of the Birmingham Center for Affordable Housing and is a board member of Democracy South, the Alabama Poverty Project, the Progressive Technology Project, the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, AIDS Alabama, and Equality Alabama. Scott also serves as a member of the advisory council of the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health and the steering committees of the Alabama Organizing Project and the PushBack Network. Scott is an alumnus of Leadership Birmingham and Leadership Alabama and is a founding board member of the Nonprofit Resource Center of Alabama.
David Buys, University of Alabama at Birmingham
David is a PhD candidate in medical sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham with interests in the intersection of food security and health, particularly for the geriatric population. He earned a Master of Science degree in sociology at Auburn University where he was extensively involved in student initiatives to raise awareness about hunger and food security both locally and globally. David and his wife Katie now live in Birmingham's Five Point's South neighborhood with their one year old son, Peter.
Heather Lee, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Heather is a program coordinator with the UAB Sparkman Center for Global Health. She has played an instrumental role in the initiation of a campus wide effort at UAB to spread awareness and encourage action around food insecurity both at home and abroad. She will also be co-teaching a course at UAB on food security in the spring.
Rev. Leanne Pearce Reed
Rev. Reed is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) who currently serves as director of Montevallo Seed to Table, a community and educational garden, and as co-manager of the Montevallo farmers market. She lives in Montevallo with her husband Mark and her sons Thomas (5) and Adam (2).
Miriam Leibowitz, Re/Storing Nashville
Program Coordinator, Miriam Leibowitz, of Community Food Advocates comes from a diverse background as a trained community organizer, fundraiser, writer and marketer. In 2000, Miriam was nominated for an American Jewish Press Rockower Award. In 2002-2003, Miriam was recognized as a Jewish Organizing Initiative Fellow and a Community Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, while working for the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers, where she stayed until moving to Nashville in 2005. Miriam studied studio art, Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, and peace studies at Brandeis University, and currently spends her free time teaching her Sunday school class, cooking, gardening and crafts. She also serves as the director of Marketing and Communications for www.circle7radio.com.
Rev. Sally Allocca
Rev. Allocca is the director of P.E.E.R., Inc. (Promoting Empowerment and Enrichment Resources) which is a non-profit agency in the eastern section of Birmingham that focuses on health, education, and economic development by providing access to and education about fresh, healthy food. P.E.E.R. operates a seasonal, producer-only farmers' market, a fall market with canned and frozen produce, production gardens and an after-school enrichment program.
Cathy Crenshaw
Cathy Crenshaw serves as president and CEO of Sloss Real Estate, a multi-disciplined commercial real estate firm in Birmingham. Cathy founded the Pepper Place Saturday Market in 2000. She served on the Farmers’ Market Advisory Board for the Ford Foundation and recently returned from a two-year fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design where she studied healthy cities.
Ama Shambulia
Ama Shambulia is a trained natural foods chef and master gardener, and has combined the two passions to become an advocate and educator as the program director of the West End Community Gardens project in Birmingham, Alabama. Through the West End Community Gardens (we gardens) Ama has implemented community educational sessions on gardening and health and a community plot program for families.
Maurice Bothwell
Maurice Bothwell is the director of the Alabama Farmers Market.This market was started in 1921 by the Jefferson County Truck Growers Association and moved to its present location in 1956. There are over 200 farmer members and over 1,000 farmer/vendors in the market throughout the year.
David K. O’Neil
David O'Neil works with Project for Public Spaces (www.pps.org) to revitalize public markets and local economies. He is the former general manager of Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia and has worked on over two hundred market projects around the world.
Henry Fudge
The driving force behind Fudge Family Farms, Henry Fudge, recalls "I was going outside [to raise pigs] as everyone else was going inside. My research showed me that raising pigs outdoors was natural and better for the animals and they are healthier when they're on pasture. It's important to respect the animals in your care." By breeding Duroc pigs with Berkshire pigs, Henry Fudge has created a line of hogs that have incredible marbling, tenderness and flavor. “We believe that healthy, happy hogs make healthy meat,” Fudge says.
Maggie Wade Johnston
Maggie Johnston is the director of McDowell Environmental Center (MEC). She has worked for MEC for six years. She grew up in Winona, Mississippi, and attended the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Montevallo for graduate work. She taught science and environmental education at the Alabama School for the Deaf for 21 years, volunteers for the Alabama Sierra Club, and is active in several other outdoor organizations. She is married to Mark Johnston and has one daughter, Alison, three sons, Noah, Ethan and Adam, a daughter-in-law, Emily and two grandchildren, Carter and Mary Charles. They have 3 four-legged family members, Buddy, Peanut and Ollie. Maggie enjoys canoeing, hiking, fishing, gardening, creating pottery, traveling, reading and living in the country.
Beth Miller, PhD, RD, LD
Beth Miller is a registered dietitian with a wide range of work experiences in the area of nutrition and foodservice. She has worked as a dietitian in various hospitals, nursing homes, community settings, and the educational unit. She taught for 6 ½ years at Samford University in the nutrition department. She taught a wide range of classes (fundamentals of nutrition, community nutrition, clinical nutrition, quantity foods, and foodservice management) for undergraduate nutrition majors. Currently, she holds a position as a child nutrition supervisor for Jefferson County Schools in Birmingham, Alabama.
The David Matthews Center for Civic Life
The David Mathews Center for Civic Life administers a community-based research internship program drawing students from the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Miles College and the University of Montevallo. Started in the 2008-2009 school year, the Jean O’Connor-Snyder Community-Based Research Internship Program provides learning experiences in which the interns research the use of deliberative practices to develop an on-going community capacity to address common concerns. They will facilitate reflection on the Food Charter during the 2010 Food Summit.
Lindsay Mullen, University of Alabama
Lindsey Mullen is the Community-Based Research Internship Program Coordinator for New College at the University of Alabama. She began her work with the Mathews Center as an O’Connor intern in September of 2008. In Spring of 2009, graduated with a B.A. from the University of Alabama, and, after spending a summer working on a short film in Kenya, she began working full time with the internship program in fall of 2010. She is a graduate of the interdisciplinary New College program, and her depth study was in African Studies and Documentary.
