Alison Gustafson, PhD, MPH, RD Martin Gatton Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor in the Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, at Martin Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment and College of Nursing.  Dr. Gustafson also serves as the Director of the Food as Health Alliance in Kentucky. Her research focuses on how various components of the food environment are on the pathway to poor dietary outcomes among rural and geographically isolated communities, funding through NIH, CDC, USDA, and other non-profits. Dr. Gustafson addresses health disparities through the food insecurity lens to improve policy approaches for those in social safety networks. As Director she leads the Food as Health Alliance’s collective mission to build and expand the translational research between clinical and community interventions to target food insecurity as an approach to improve diet-sensitive disease and health outcomes.

Ashley C. Smith is a native of Lexington and co-founded Black Soil: Our Better Nature, an agribusiness with a mission of reconnecting Black Kentuckians to their heritage and legacy in agriculture in August 2017. Under her leadership as Chief Operating Officer, Smith rebranded the company to Black Soil Ky to reflect its broader impact in agriculture regionally, nationally, and globally. Currently, as CEO, Smith leads the one-of-a-kind Black woman owned agribusiness which specializes in procurement, sourcing, grant writing and education for Kentucky Black farmers, chefs and makers representing less than 1.4%. Smith has brought forth barrier breaking inclusivity to Kentucky agriculture and its local food system by centering Black farmers and elevating their visibility and perpetuation of Black farming and land ownership. An award winning and nationally recognized company, Black Soil Ky has invested over $1 million into Kentucky’s tiny, yet mighty Black farming sector since 2017 through strategic partnerships, product placement, and cooperative economics. Her industry leadership includes The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Agribusiness Industry Council, Kentucky Black Farmers Conference Founding Organizer, Kentucky Black Farmer Fund Founding Member, and Farming Consultant to Agriculture Coalitions and Alliances in Indiana, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Smith Holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Kentucky. She is the proud Mother to fraternal twins, Caroline and Trevor, Jr.

Amber Fuller is a native Kentuckian, agribusiness owner, and marketing professional. Fuller serves as the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for Black Soil KY, where she creates, designs and cultivates the organization's ongoing promotion and sales efforts on behalf of Kentucky Black farmers, chefs and makers. Fuller possesses 10 years of marketing experience and 8 years of administering CSA and grant programs across Kentucky serving communities stricken by food insecurity with high populations of socially disadvantaged communities. Her passion for agriculture continues outside of the office as well. Fuller homesteads with her husband on 5.5 acres raising chickens, ducks, flowers, and herbs. She also co-owns Flora & Fauna Amor, an Appalachian-based and inspired locally sourced line of artisanal teas, spices, and goods. Fuller holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Kentucky with minors in Communication & Art History.

Beth Douglas is the Director of Our Home Place Meat at the Berry Center and joined the staff in 2019.  While she didn’t grow up in a farming community, The Berry Center and its agrarian community have helped make her a native to Henry County.

Bethany Pratt is a Senior Extension Associate with the University of Kentucky's Nutrition Education Program. Her work focuses on making local food accessible to all Kentuckians, regardless of socio-economic status, through projects such as: Farmers' Market Toolkit, Farm to School Hub, the Recovery Garden Toolkit as well as supporting projects aimed at cultural and linguistically inclusive gardening resources. Bethany lives in Louisville where she is an active member of the Louisville Urban Agriculture Coalition & Food In Louisville Neighborhoods, and works to support local agriculture in an urban environment.

Crystal Wilkinson, a recent fellowship recipient of the Academy of American Poets, is the award-winning author of Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, a culinary memoir, Perfect Black, a collection of poems, and three works of fiction—The Birds of Opulence, Water Street, and Blackberries, Blackberries. She is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, O. Henry Prize, a USA Artists Fellowship, and an Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. Named Kentucky’s Poet Laureate from 2021 to 2023, she received recognition from the Yaddo Foundation, Hedgebrook, The Vermont Studio Center for the Arts, The Hermitage foundation, and others. Her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in The Atlanta, The Kenyon Review, STORY, Agni Literary Journal, Emergence, Oxford American and Southern Cultures. She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky where she is the Bush-Holbrook Professor in Creative Writing.

Dalla Emerson is the food service director at Bowling Green Independent Schools in Kentucky, a diverse district with over 54 languages spoken by students. Emerson was born in Brazil, and for her, the food program goes beyond merely providing meals. As a Latina immigrant, she recognizes the impact of exposing children to diverse culinary experiences. Emerson fosters a sense of belonging, curiosity, and acceptance. Her kitchen features classic American favorites like burgers, as well as dishes that mirror the school’s population. “Food is a basic need, but it's also how we share love because we're not asking anything of them,” shared Emerson. “We're not asking them [to do school work]. We just want them to eat and be happy.”

Danielle Bozarth is the Vice President of Mission Delivery at God’s Pantry Food Bank, where she has been a part of the team since 1995. Originally hailing from New Jersey, she considers Kentucky her home. In her role, Danielle oversees Operations, Transportation, Programs, Agency Services, and Food Procurement at God’s Pantry. She holds a degree in Dietetics from the University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture. Beyond her role at God's Pantry, Danielle is actively involved in various community organizations. She serves as a Board Member for the Bob Brown House, served as the President of the Woodford Theatre, is a Sustainer within the Junior League of Lexington, and previously held the position of President of the National Commodity Supplemental Food Program Association. In 2016, Danielle was appointed to the Kentucky Hunger Initiative Task Force. In her free time, Danielle finds joy in reading. She and her husband, Tom Bozarth, have two grown children, Alex (27) and Zachary (24).

David Wagoner established Three Springs Farm in 1997 and spent the next two decades as a Community Supported Agriculture grower. Holly Hill Inn was his first restaurant account, providing a valuable outlet for his surplus produce and other hard-to-sell farm goods. David joined forces with Chef Ouita Michel full-time in 2017, the year she opened Honeywood restaurant, which proceeded that same year to consume Three Springs Farm’s entire CSA crop. Since then, David has served in various ways within the Holly Hill company, seeking to secure and strengthen ties between local growers and the restaurant group. To that end, he works with a local food aggregator to source, procure and distribute produce to restaurants in the group. More recently, drawing on his earlier Landscape Architecture (UKLA '91) background, David has been designing and planting edible gardens for the company's flagship Holly Hill Inn and its other locations. And he has developed a company-wide program called DirtWorks, in which restaurant staff are trained to cultivate and maintain those edible gardens at each site.

Dominque Brown is a holistic educator and facilitator committed to dismantling systemic oppression by pursuing systems of care. This ethos is carried into her facilitation practice and community work. She brings over 10 years’ experience teaching social change frameworks and facilitating critical dialogues. In 2022 she successfully defended her dissertation exploring Black women’s wellbeing in predominantly white institutions. Dominique received her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Miami University. She is also a published academic, writer, traveler, and supporter of grassroots community organizing.

Jann Knappage works with the University of Kentucky’s Nutrition Education Program focused on local food access through home gardens, farmers markets, farm to school and wild game consumption. Jann also founded the Red River Gorge Farmers Market and owns and operates Fox & Hen Farm in Menifee County with her partner, Kevin, and daughter, Aster.

Kacy McLean-Hillard holds BA degrees in Finance and Business Administration from Georgetown College. She is the Grants Administrator for the LFS and Patrick Leahy Programs. Kacy enjoys serving at church, hunting, and running her own business, a women’s boutique.

LaToya Drake, a Program Coordinator at the University of Kentucky Nutrition Education Program with Cooperative Extension, specializes in nutrition media and marketing. She has an MS in Integrative and Functional Nutrition and a BA in Sociology from the University of Louisville. She is dedicated to improving food security by engaging people in nutrition and food education across the state.

Leah Bayens joined The Berry Center’s work in 2012, where she is Director of the Farm and Forest Institute. This “education for homecoming” applies Wendell Berry’s writing to learning. She lives in Port Royal, Kentucky.

Leandra Forman has been at FoodChain since May of 2015. For the first two years she worked as the farm manager, however she transitioned to overseeing the Processing Kitchen and Food Sector Job Training Program in 2017. Since the pandemic shut down began in March of 2020, she has coordinated with restaurant partners, farmers, food pantries, and meal recipients.

Lynsey Crumbie holds a BA and Master of Public Health from the University of Louisville and has experience in community health programs management, agriculture and education. Crumbie directly manages over $13 million of USDA grant funds between the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency Grant and Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Grant programs.

Mary Berry founded The Berry Center in 2011 to advocate for farmers. She is a proponent of parity, agriculture of the middle, and restoring a culture and an economy that have been lost in rural America. She and her husband are lifelong farmers.

Martin Richards Living and working in steel-towns, tobacco fields, and coal towns, Martin Richards has a long history of working with communities addressing economic revitalization, sustainability, and resiliency. With an educational background in architecture, he has extensive experience in agriculture, economic development, and land-use. Martin has been an active member of Community Farm Alliance for over 28 years, serving on the Board, Board Chair, and as Executive Director from 2010-2023. He was the first CFA Fellow during the passage of HB 611in 2000 that utilized Master Tobacco Settlement funds to create the Kentucky Agricultural Development Fund. Besides having served on numerous boards and councils, Martin has served on the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Adjustments in Berea, KY, and the Bluegrass Regional Planning Council.Most recently, Martin has participated on the Task Force to inform the White’s National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, testified before the US Senate Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition on Food is Medicine, presented at the Tufts University Food is Medicine National Summit, and represents CFA on the National Produce Prescription Collaborative.

Megan Sharpe is a farmer and a powerhouse multitasker, decision maker and organizer of the HomeGrown Direct Farm. She is the face behind all HomeGrown emails/texts/calls/social media, audit documentation, CSA promotion and business management. Megan creates the processes and expectations for the farm to keep things moving in a constant forward direction. She is our grant writer, novice QuickBooks connoisseur, legal representative and community liaison.

Michelle Howell is a full-time farmer, life partner, and mother of five who was encouraged by a powerful experience with fresh food at the age of seven.  A dedicated community organizer, she has been the impetus behind a number of food expansion and policy initiatives that have given under-resourced consumers, minority farmers, and relational providers innovative ways to connect around healthy food.  Michelle’s ‘Food is Medicine’ work began in 2009 in collaboration with public health and school systems. In 2022, the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky recognized her as a Healthy Kentucky Champion.

Michele West is the Marketing and Media Specialist for the Nutrition Education Program at the University of Kentucky.  Michele also serves as administrator of NEP’s online resources including PlanEatMove.com and kyfarmtoschool.com. From 2016 to 2021, she was the Program Coordinator for a USDA funded social marketing research study aimed at improving the dietary quality of SNAP-eligible Kentuckians through Mobile Technologies.

Mya Price is based in Washington, D.C., and is Feeding America's Food Security Equity Impact Fund Director. Mya is an accomplished leader with over nine years of experience with equitable access initiatives and programs across communities. She excels in federal nutrition guidance and food banking.  In addition, she is also pursuing her Ph.D. in Urban Leadership and Entrepreneurship from the University of the District of Columbia with a focus on Urban Government and Political Leadership. She is happy to bring her Kentucky roots, diverse expertise, and food bank experience toward combating hunger across our nation.

Ouita Michel is an eight-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee, including nominations for Outstanding Restaurateur and Best Chef Southeast. Michel and her restaurants are regularly featured in local and national media, such as the New York Times, Southern Living, Garden & Gun, Food Network, and the Cooking Channel. She was a guest judge on Bravo's Top Chef series. She lives in Midway, Kentucky, where she oversees her latest venture, Holly Hill, a lifestyle brand that celebrates farmers and agriculture, culinary traditions old and new, chefs and local talent—and the bonds that unite them in cultivating a true sense of community. This includes her most recent venture, the Holly Hill Cooking Studio in Versailles, a space designed to bring people together around these culinary traditions.  She’s also the host of the video series, Up Home with Ouita Michel, and was recently appointed to the U.S. State Department American Culinary Corps, where she’ll serve our country as a Culinary Ambassador. 

Sandra Ballew-Barnes is a native Lexingtonian with strong roots in Madison, County KY. Both of her parents were born in Madison County, and she has generations of family tied to agriculture (both past and present) residing there. She obtained an AA Business Administration, BS Individual and Family Development and MS Vocational Education (college of AG) from the University of Kentucky.  She has spent most of her career helping others find their footing by connecting them to resources in the community. Through this avenue she, along with some dedicated friends, established the Woodhill International Market. Sandra Coordinates FreshRX for Mom's for Community Farm Alliance across the state of KY for Farmers Markets and Farms.

Tyler McNabb learned to love cooking, and how to cook with love, from his grandmothers, Mamaw and Nan. As culinary director for Chef Ouita Michel’s Holly Hill restaurant group, Tyler has expressed that love many times over.  Tyler is a 2012 graduate of Sullivan University’s Culinary Arts program; he’s worked his way up the line from dishwasher to executive chef during his tenure with Holly Hill. Tyler now oversees kitchen operations for all of Ouita’s restaurants and works with staff farmer David Wagoner and a local food aggregator to ensure a constant flow of seasonal local produce to each location. Local sourcing and sustainability are at the heart of the Holly Hill restaurant group, and that focus speaks to Tyler. Tyler lives in Lexington with his wife Brenna, their infant twins Ruby and Theo, and their two cats Nigel and Merle.

Valerie Horn is a community leader from Eastern Kentucky striving to grow a healthier community. Valerie is Director of the Cowan Community Action Group, Inc. and Board Chair for CANE Kitchen and the City of Whitesburg Farmers Market. She also serves on the Board of Community Farm Alliance. Val has a strong background in and passion for food security issues. Valerie is a retired school counselor and now focuses on community development and is a partner in Appalachian Groundswell.

Lewis Hughes is the Local Commodity Coordinator for the Local Food Connection team at Creation Gardens/What Chefs Want. Lewis is a recent graduate of the Food Studies MA program at Indiana University studying global food systems and regenerative agriculture. He has spent the past decade working in the organic agriculture industry as a grower, food hub operator, and educator and has conducted research on farming methods in Asia, Europe, and throughout the US. Lewis is interested in connecting food producers with eaters in more equitable and efficient ways and the societal impacts created by various food distribution models.

Anna Haas is the Local Food Program Director for What Chefs Want (Creation Gardens) and its internal food hub, Local Food Connection. Anna's 20-year career launched in local food via part-time work at farmers’ markets booths and in specialty crop vegetable production, but now focuses on a strategic leadership role building multi-state food distribution systems. She brings to her work additional leadership experience in non-profit management, professional education, community engagement, and fundraising.