Our Board of Directors
Sierra Burnett Clark
Sierra Burnett Clark is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. Her interests lie in the intersection of culture and commerce, specifically in the tension between food as a commodity and its role as a marker of identity and distinction. Her dissertation analyzes the politics of ‘quality’ and the meaning of heritage, craft, and innovation in the production and marketing of American bourbon. Sierra teaches courses at NYU on food and culture and contemporary food issues, from policy to media and restaurants. She holds a B.A. from Brown University in International Relations and a Grand Diplôme in Culinary Arts from the French Culinary Institute. She has worked as a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations and as an editor at Saveur magazine, and she currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Beneta Burt, M.P.P.A.
Executive Director, Mississippi Roadmap to Health Equity
Beneta Burt is the Executive Director of the Mississippi Roadmap to Health Equity, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting systemic, incremental solutions and programs to help fight obesity in the state. Burt is the former president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Greater Jackson, a civil rights organization that focuses on economic empowerment, where she initiated job-training programs for disadvantaged workers and developed a community technology center. In the 1980s, she served as the director of the Governor's Office of Economic and Community Development under former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus. Burt also acts as Host Site Supervisor for the FoodCorps program in Mississippi.
Ian Cheney, M.E.M.
Co-Founder, FoodCorps; Producer & Director, Wicked Delicate Films
Ian Cheney grew up in Massachusetts and Maine and received bachelorʼs and masterʼs degrees from Yale University, where he was a co-founder of the Yale Sustainable Food Project. After graduate school, Ian co-created and starred in the feature documentary King Corn, which was released theatrically in 60 cities and awarded a George Foster Peabody Award in 2009. Ian subsequently directed the feature documentary The Greening of Southie, featured in The New Yorker and on Good Morning America, and Truck Farm––the story of urban agriculture in New York City. His most recent film, The City Dark, explores light pollution and the disappearance of darkness from the planet earth. Ian travels frequently to show his films, lead workshops, and give talks about environment, agriculture, astronomy, and the human relationship to the natural world. In 2011 he was awarded a Heinz Award with longtime collaborator Curt Ellis for their work advancing the conversation about sustainable food in America. He lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he maintains a 1/1000th acre farm in the back of his old pickup truck.
Neil D. Hamilton, Esq.
Director, Agricultural Law Center, Drake University Law School
Professor Neil D. Hamilton is the Dwight D. Opperman Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa. Hamilton has taught and written about agricultural law for 30 years. Since 1983 he has directed the Agricultural Law Center at Drake, helping establish its national and international reputation for excellence in research, education and public extension on food and agricultural law. Hamilton makes frequent trips to Washington, DC to discuss beginning farmer issues with Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack, and serves on the board of Seed Savers Exchange.
Anupama Joshi, M.S.
Executive Director, National Farm to School Network
Anupama Joshi is a recognized leader in the field of Farm to School research and evaluation, an expert on local food systems, and a longtime food justice advocate, having recently co-authored a book, "Food Justice". Since 2002, Joshi helped build a movement of Farm to School programs across the country by providing training and assistance for program development and evaluation, promoting networking opportunities, facilitating policy advocacy, developing informational resources and undertaking media and marketing activities designed to connect school food systems with local and regional suppliers of high-quality food. Joshi has over fifteen years of experience working on nutrition, agriculture, and food system issues in various countries around the world. In the past she has worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the Pesticide Action Network, and consulted with various non-profit organizations in Asia.
Oran Hesterman, Ph.D.
President and CEO, Fair Food Network
Dr. Oran B. Hesterman is President and CEO of the Fair Food Network, a national nonprofit organization working at the intersection of food systems, sustainability and social equity to guarantee access to healthy, fresh and sustainably grown food, especially in underserved communities. During his 30-year career, much of it spent building the food philanthropy program at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Hesterman has become a national leader in sustainable agriculture and has made a significant contribution to the funding of healthy food and farming nationwide, including playing an essential role in the establishment of the Michigan Food Policy Council and the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders Network.
Crissie McMullan, M.S
Co-Founder, FoodCorps; Agriculture Specialist, National Center for Appropriate Technology
A sustainable agriculture specialist for the National Center for Appropriate Technology, Crissie McMullan earned her MS in Environmental Studies from The University of Montana, where she founded a Farm to College Program that has since returned over $3 million to local and regional food producers. Building on that program’s success, McMullan founded and directs Montana’s FoodCorps, a model for the national program. She has also served as the director of the Grow Montana coalition, a farmhand, Sierra Club field organizer, and a member in a slapstick comedy troupe that explains how and why to buy locally grown food, The Local Yokels.
Jenny Shilling Stein, MBA, M.Ed
Executive Director, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
Jenny Shilling Stein is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. The Foundationʼs focus is to select, fund and support early stage social entrepreneurs. Draper Richards seeks to foster innovation in the social sector by supporting these talented leaders as they build organizations that go to scale. Prior to joining Draper Richards, Shilling Stein was Director of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships at RealNames Corporation, where she managed the company's relationship with Microsoft. Previously, she worked in account management at BBDO New York on the Pepsi, HBO and Campbell's Soup campaigns. She received both her Master of Business Administration and her Master of Education from Stanford University.
Curt Ellis
FoodCorps Executive Director Curt Ellis is recognized as a leading voice in America's food movement. After growing up in Oregon and finding his passion for food and agriculture at The Mountain School and Yale, Ellis moved to Iowa to investigate the role of subsidized commodities in the American obesity epidemic. The film he co-created there, King Corn, produced with Ian Cheney and Aaron Woolf, received a national theatrical release and PBS broadcast, helped drive policy discussion around the Farm Bill, and earned a George Foster Peabody Award. Ellis next produced The Greening of Southie, and distributed the film through a theatrical release, Sundance Channel Broadcast, and an Earth Week in the Union Halls screenings tour. Under a Food and Community Fellowship with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Ellis helped launch Cheney's mobile garden project Truck Farm, and directed Big River, a sequel to King Corn, for Discovery's Planet Green. Ellis is a Draper Richards Kaplan Social Entrepreneur and a recipient of the Heinz Award. He has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC and NPR, is a frequent speaker on college campuses, and serves on the Board of Directors of Slow Food USA.
