Introducing Our 2024-2025 Alumni Advocacy Leads

We are thrilled to announce the 2024-2025 cohort of FoodCorps Alumni Advocacy Leads! This program, made up of motivated and passionate FoodCorps alumni, focuses on building collective power among alums and their networks through justice-centered leadership development. Alums use these skills to engage in policy and advocacy efforts supporting our 2030 goal.

With guidance and support from our partners and alumni community, Alumni Advocacy Leads will play a meaningful role supporting campaigns and policy priorities at the state and national levels. These advocates will work in partnership with FoodCorps staff to raise community and constituent voices toward policy change.

These leaders come from across the country, representing 10 different states and a variety of industries, including nonprofits, education, urban agriculture, dietetics, and environmental justice, and more. They are motivated leaders excited about policy work centered on community empowerment, school food reform, and federal programs supporting local priorities. We can’t wait for you to meet them!

Meet the Alumni Advocacy Leads

Clancie Sorrell (she/her), Arkansas

Clancie Sorrell is a program educator at Apple Seeds Teaching Farm, where she helps plan and organize field trips and farm activities for more than 8,000 students each year in Northwest Arkansas. She aspires to spark curiosity about gardening and create joy around the foods that we grow and eat. After earning her M.S. in Community Health Promotion, she served two terms as a FoodCorps member in Van Buren, Arkansas. During that time she participated in Arkansas’ first Farm to School Institute, where she grew her knowledge of the outdoor education community. Both of her schools received Arkansas School Garden of the Year awards in 2023, which inspired her to continue her work in nutrition education so that more students and families can cultivate the foods they eat. Her students called her Ms. Plantsie, and she loves wearing that title to share her passion for fresh fruits and vegetables with everyone she meets. In her spare time she enjoys reading, crafting, running, and staying active.

Ann Dang (she/her), California 

Ann Dang is a Program Manager at Garden School Foundation, where she oversees campus-wide composting programs across 5 LAUSD Title I elementary schools. She joined GSF as a FoodCorps member and garden educator prior to stepping into the role of Cafeteria to Compost Program Manager and Supervisor to a cohort of ten California Climate Action Corps Fellows. Ann is an active Master Gardener and co-leads the LA County MG School Garden Network. She is also part of the ILSR Community Composter Coalition.

Genesis Mena (she/her/they/them), California 

I am a passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture, local seafood, and food education. With a background in media production and extensive experience working with sustainable businesses, I combine creativity with hands-on expertise to inspire and educate others. As an educator, I have guided young learners to develop an appreciation for nutritious food through engaging lessons in gardening, cooking, and sustainability. I also spearhead innovative campaigns that bring local seafood into school meals, collaborating with districts to make sustainability both accessible and impactful. Deeply committed to community building, my work bridges the gap between food, culture, and the environment, fostering a healthier and more connected world.

Vetiveah Harrison (she/her), Connecticut 

I’m Vetiveah Harrison, originally from Louisiana and grew up in Chicago, where I first saw urban farming at 16 years old. I’d never seen farming in the city before, and learning that people were growing food to fight back against food apartheid sparked my passion for food justice and set me on the path I’m on today. That experience gave me a deeper drive to break down barriers in the food system, which led me to work in urban farming, food entrepreneurship, and advocacy.

Now based in Connecticut, I co-founded the Liberated Land Cooperative, a BIPOC farmer cooperative that runs a statewide CSA program, and I work as the Food Entrepreneurship Program Manager at CitySeed. I love supporting new food entrepreneurs and assisting them to source locally from farmers. I loved my FoodCorps service so much that I continued on teaching gardening and nutrition to youth in after-school programs, inspiring them to become the next generation of food advocates, just like I was inspired at their age. When I’m not working, you’ll find me cooking dishes from back home and growing okra, hiking, or spending time with my family and my Yorkie, Tego.

Laurel Costello (she/her), Maine 

Laurel Costello is a Registered Dietitian from Maine who currently works in the clinical healthcare setting with both pediatric and adult patients. Her passion is to effect change through community nutrition, social justice, food policy, and racial equity. She strives to make a measurable difference to end hunger, increase access to healthy food, and increase access to nutrition education for all. When not working toward her mission to ensure all kids have access to nutrition education and nutritious meals, she loves gardening, cooking, traveling, any and all water sports, and spending time with her baby boy River, family, and dog Casco.

Carolina Jimenez (they/them), Massachusetts

Carolina served as a FoodCorps food education corps member from 2022 to 2024 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. They now live in the Boston metro area. Carolina is particularly interested in how access to food and the environment shapes experience, including the barriers that exist and how to make access more equitable. In a world increasingly shaped by climate change, Carolina hopes to explore solutions that prioritize ecosystem health and harmony.

Alexxa Standifer (she/her), Michigan 

I graduated from UofM-Flint in December of 2023. During my time in college, I found the AmeriCorps programs in Flint and started at the Crim Fitness Foundation as a full-time CEDAM service member. During this time I became very familiar with the FoodCorps mission as I worked on a team with five food education corps members. The following year I served with FoodCorps as a school nutrition corps member. In this position I highlight the partnerships and projects funded by grants for the school gardens.

Amarilys Olivo Mockabee (she/her/ella), New Jersey 

My name is Amarilys Oliv Mockabee, and I am a Cooperative Education Coordinator and agricultural educator with Essex County Schools of Technology. As a proud descendant of immigrant farmers, I am deeply passionate about promoting equity, sustainability, and education within urban communities. My work focuses on empowering students—particularly those from underserved backgrounds—through innovative programs in agriculture, culinary arts, and health sciences.

Beyond the classroom, I serve on the Essex County Board of Agriculture and the New Jersey Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee, where I advocate for sustainable farming practices and food justice. I am also a Master Gardener, beekeeper, and founder of urban and community gardens, dedicated to addressing food insecurity and strengthening local food systems.

Alhelí Caton-Garcia (she/her), New Mexico

Alhelí is a proud New Mexican, born and raised in the South Valley of Albuquerque. Alhelí works at the Southwest Organizing Project as their Environmental Justice Organizer. In her free time she enjoys playing with her pups and rollerskating with her homegirls and is pursuing a degree in Philosophy.

Kate Ginder (she/her), Rhode Island 

Kate grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she majored in Economics and minored in Exercise Sports Studies. She has always had a strong interest in nutrition. During her time as a FoodCorps member in Providence, Rhode Island, she focused on sustainability, education, and nutrition. Currently, she works at the Rhode Island Department of Education as a Farm to School Coordinator, where her efforts aim to increase state participation in Farm to School Network opportunities. In her free time, Kate enjoys playing ice hockey, painting, and reading.

Carla Manuel, Oregon

Carla is a first-generation Filipina Immigrant who has lived in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and now resides in Portland, Oregon. Carla’s journey has taken her from luxury hotel properties in Santa Monica to corporate dining at Kaiser Permanente NW and Kroger, to an ECE Nutrition provider for NIKE and Atlas Immersion Academies. Over a decade of service to Portland Parks & Recreation, she piloted, developed, and was the lead instructor within a Farm to School program. After completing her two-year service term with FoodCorps, she is now an educator in the Youth Grow division of Growing Gardens. 

Her first influences for food are memories of sugarcane and rice fields of her grandmother’s village in Culasi and her grandfather’s abundant vegetable garden in Silicon Valley. As a professional chef, Carla’s lasting message from her instructors was to “respect the land.” This classical instruction taught her the essence of terroir: how the land and farming techniques have a direct relationship to the nutrition and flavor of what we eat and drink. Carla hopes to cultivate Farm to School policies inviting the entire school community. Her dream is to help plant seeds of relationship-building with the land, solutions to climate shifts, and aligning families with food sovereignty.

We’re excited to welcome these alums into their new roles! If you have any questions about the Alumni Advocacy Leads program, please contact Annalise (annalise.vanvranken@foodcorps.org).