Y. Armando Nieto, Executive Director
Armando is a seasoned executive and development professional, with experience in management and organizational development, membership development, annual giving, foundation prospecting and grantwriting, and special events. Successful capital campaigns include the Environmental Defense Center Cordero Adobe Campaign and Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Sea Center. He has been Associate Producer of the Kenny Loggins Christmas Unity Telethon since 1999, and prior to joining the CFJC, Armando served as C.E.O. of Redefining Progress, Managing Director with the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, and Executive Director at Eagle Eye Institute in Somerville, Massachusetts, Earth Share of California and the Environmental Defense Center. In 2005 Armando set up the Communications and Community Engagement Department at the Coalition for Clean Air and since 2005 he has served as organizing member of Summit 2007: Diverse Partners for Environmental Progress, and facilitator and report co-author for the related Western Regional Roundtable in Oakland and Southwest Regional Roundtable in Albuquerque, NM. Professional affiliations include Hispanics in Philanthropy, the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, North American Association for Environmental Education, and Golden State Environmental Education Consortium. He is president of the Tulare County Community Water Center and has served on the Advisory Boards of Just Communities, the PG&E ClimateSmart External Advisory Group, and the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy. Email: yanieto@cafoodjustice.org
Christina Spach, Program Manager
Christina received a B.A. in Anthropology and Minor in Spanish, and has been a community organizer for the last eight years. As a Rural Community Development Officer with the United States Peace Corps-Belize in a small Maya village, she taught youth and computer literacy as well as marketing to a local women’s craft group. Christina also helped establish a community resource center and a local community organization focused on environmental justice and education. Both are still strong organizations today. Upon returning to the states, Christina became ACORN’s National Trainer for Community Organizing and was the Education Organizer for San Francisco Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment before joining the food justice movement. She has organized around the country on issues that most concern our working-class communities such as neighborhood safety, immigration reform, financial justice, quality education, and community health and sustainability. Supporting a bottom-up, community empowerment approach to making sustainable change, Christina has experience developing local leadership, mobilizing communities, and working on local and state-wide campaigns. Based on her concern for our broken food system, she is excited to be a part of the CFJC team. Email: cspach@cafoodjustice.org
Erin Middleton, Community Outreach Specialist
Erin’s passion for food justice began during her tenure at University of California, Santa Cruz where she participated in their Program in Community Agriculture (PICA). There she participated in weekly gardening, food preparation, and discussions about the food system. After obtaining her degree in Environmental Studies and Math, Erin lived abroad in France. There she worked at the United Nations Environment Program developing a web-based learning tool on energy, climate change and adaptation. Erin now focuses on food justice and sovereignty movement building through regular event coordination in the East Bay. Email: emiddleton@cafoodjustice.org
Lotta Chan, Research Associate
Lotta joined the CFJC team in July 2011 with a strong background in and passion for social-ecological issues. She received her B.A. in International Development Studies from UCLA, with minors in Environmental Systems and Political Science. During her undergraduate years, she worked with numerous Los Angeles and Bay Area organizations on issues of environmental sustainability, education, and justice. Her introduction to food issues began when she helped implement a dining hall food waste watch program at UCLA to publicize the enormous amount of food waste on campus and encourage healthy, sustainable eating habits. After graduating, she moved to Connecticut to attend the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she received her Masters in Environmental Management and focused on issues of environmental and climate justice. She has spent a year in Turkey studying its environmental issues, including a summer internship working on a UNDP climate change adaptation project in the southeast of the country. The research, conducted in small-scale agricultural villages, piqued her interest in food security and the government policies that impact it. She is excited to join CFJC and continue working on food justice issues. Email: lchan@cafoodjustice.org
Holly Calhoun, Program Coordinator for Healthy Farms Healthy People Coalition (HFHP)
Holly graduated from Colorado College with a B.A. in Comparative Religion. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in local agriculture and public health. Holly began working for the nonprofit Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles (SEE-LA) as a seller for local farmers at certified farmers’ markets. For the past five years she served as Program Coordinator of the Bring the Farmer to Your School Program and Market Manager of the Echo Park Farmers’ Market. In 2010, SEE-LA joined the Roots of Change California Farmers’ Market Consortium to design and implement a Healthy Incentive Program at five of its certified farmers’ markets. Holly took on the leadership role of SEE-LA’s “Market Match” program, and worked to increase the use of SNAP/EBT at farmers’ markets throughout Los Angeles County. Holly’s passion and experience lies at the intersection of agriculture and public health. She is highly motivated and personally committed to improving the food system and the health of the nation, and is eager to serve the coalition in pursuit of these goals. In her spare time, Holly loves to garden, ride her bicycle, and take hikes to enjoy the natural beauty of California.
Courtney Hendrix, Communications Specialist
Courtney earned a BS in Health Education, with an emphasis in Community-based Public Health, from San Francisco State University. She provided nutrition education as a PEACH (Peer Educator Advocating Campus Health) and was nominated and chosen for the Community Service Learning Student Award for her commitment to food security, social justice, and health equity.
Email: chendrix@cafoodjustice.org
Jessy Gill, Community Outreach Specialist
Jessy received her B.A. in Anthropology-Environmental Studies with a minor in African Studies from St. Lawrence University. During her time at St. Lawrence, Jessy studied in Kenya, where she worked with the International NGO PISP (Pastoralist Integrated Support Programme) in the Marsibit region. This work spurred her interest in food and water as a basic human right. Her passion for food equity led her to work on food issues in the States. Jessy lived and worked on a farm in Vermont where she practced sustainable agriculture and learned about local food systems. Jessy currently works on policy and relationship building at CFJC. Email: jgill@cafoodjustice.org
Sabrina Peterson, Research and Communications Intern
Sabrina is currently finishing up a M.A. degree in Literature at San Francisco State University. She became interested in food policy and food justice as a graduate student, concentrating on nineteenth-century literature and print culture. While researching the connection between labor and the rise of an industrialized economy in Britain for her thesis, Sabrina developed a particular interest in food justice and the representation of food and labor in nineteenth-century print culture. After working at a small organic food delivery company and then at Quince Restaurant during her studies, Sabrina came to CFJC to pursue her interest in food policy and to explore the relationship between food policy, politics, and the food justice movement. At CFJC she focuses on the Budget Control Act of 2011, sequestration cuts, and the effect that such cuts would have on local communities’ access to food. She is absolutely thrilled to be a part of the CFJC team and to support a sustainable and equitable food system for all people.
Elizabeth Carlton, Administrative Intern
Elizabeth is a student at UC Berkeley, focusing on Peace and Conflict Studies and Conservation and Resource Studies. After taking a class on food and the environment, her interest in food justice issues was sparked. She is interested in community activities that promote understanding between cultures globally as well as locally, and sustainability in agricultural, community and environmental contexts. Elizabeth joined CFJC to learn more about food policy and effective community involvement, and further support the food justice movement.
Ashley McKenna, Evaluation Intern
Ashley has a solid background in public health research and evaluation. She earned her M.S. in Community and Behavioral Health at the University of Iowa, focusing her research on social epidemiology, health promotion and disease prevention, and the intersection between the built environment and community health. Recently, Ashley work the San Francisco Department of Public Health, managing the Direct Access to Housing program, which provides permanent supportive housing to homeless adults in San Francisco. Additionally, she has worked with See Change, an evaluation firm in San Francisco, and managed a portfolio of projects, throughout the Bay Area and the country, focusing on collaborative efforts for social justice and equity. Ashley has long held an interest in and passion for food justice issues, and is excited to bring her evaluation experience in her work with CFJC.
Ruby Tumber, Research Intern
Ruby is currently working on her Masters of Public Administration at SFSU, focusing on Policy and Implementation. She is passionate about sustainability and environmental stewardship, primarily in the preservation of natural resources and combating climate change (though she has a special spot for food policy). Her love for the environment began as child, helping her dad in the garden, but she cultivated this passion studying environmental
Anaïs Dodson, Research and Evaluation Intern
Anaïs is currently a graduate student at Cal State East Bay working on her M.A. in applied anthropology. Her interest in food justice began while researching the role and efficacy of urban farms in food deserts. Anaïs is passionate about controlling processes involved in our food system and is interested in global food security and food sovereignty. While not tending to her vegetable garden and chickens, Anaïs enjoys photojournalism, scuba diving and traveling.
Past CFJC Interns – 2011 – 2013
Sarah Oh
Christine Batten
Ruby Tumber
Igor Geyn
Lauren Anderson
Molly Lawrence
Ceressa Allen
LaShonda Deckard
Anita Wong
Victoria Endsley
Porus Mistry
Rebecca Eiseman
Amy Radding
Adrian Gonzalez
Shanna Atherton
Alyson Murphy
Aleisha Baldé
Nicole Willman
Marina Moro
Karen Siverson