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 Coordinator
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, Healthy Farms, Healthy People Program Coordinator
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, Research and Development Intern
Courtney earned a BS in Health Education, with an emphasis in Community-based Public Health, from San Francisco State University. She has been recognized for her efforts at SF State by graduating Cum Laude and being nominated and chosen for the Community Service Learning Student Award for her commitment to food security, social justice, and health equity. Courtney is passionate about improving social, political, and economic conditions that negatively affect the ability of communities to access nutritious and safe foods, and hopes to do so through her work at CFJC. She strongly believes in the values of liberation education and collegiality as community-based approaches to creating positive, sustainable changes. In her free time, Courtney volunteers on the Growing Youth Project’s urban farm and plays roller derby for the Golden State Roller Girls.
Jessy Gill, Research and Community Outreach Intern
After graduating from St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, Jessy packed her bags and moved West. Her degree in Anthropology-Environmental Studies with a minor in African Studies encouraged her interest in the food justice movement. Jessy studied in Kenya in Fall 2009, where she worked with the International NGO PISP (Pastoralist Integrated Support Programme) in the Marsibit region. Jessy studied and surveyed water catchments for schools and houses, and interviewed community members to develop a priority list for aid distribution. This work spurred her interest in food and water as a human right, and she continued on this quest with a personal project, where she raised money to build a spring protection for Khalaba, Kenya. The money went to a Kenyan contractor and was constructed by local men to further community development. After her time in Kenya, Jessy decided to focus her efforts within her own country, however it was her summer in Vermont living on an organic farm that set her sights on Food Justice. Jessy looks forward to pursuing her interest in the development of a nutritious food system for the availability of all Americans at CFJC.
Jennifer Johns, Artist-in-Residence
“It is not every day that an artist achieves the ability to stir the heart and soul through song and vibration. My heart has not yet stopped stirring since I have heard Jennifer Johns.” – KRS-One
Vacillating between Hip-Hop, R&B, Soul, Electronica, Funk, Reggae, World and every kind of rhythm in between, sultry voiced Jennifer Johns crafts stirring tunes that are both heart-rending and head-bobbing. The Oakland, California music powerhouse proved that she is in fact “well on her way to establishing herself as one of hip-hop soul’s elite.” — Chicago Tribune
The standout songstress has toured with and opened shows for some of the most respected names in the industry including Lauryn Hill, Black Eyed Peas, Mos Def, Common, KRS-1, Les Nubian, Blackalicious, Zap Mama, Res, Capelton, Junior Reid, Shaggy, Slum Village, Bebel Gilberto, Sean Kingston, Talib Kweli and Black Thought of The Roots, to name a few. Johns music abounds with experiences that are both familiar and inspiring, which is an instant reminder of her hit-making prowess.
In addition to amplifying her voice for the masses, Johns also lends her time to a variety of community based organizations, namely after-school music programs. Jennifer hold a fellowship with both Green For All and BOLD Food. In recent years Jennifer has decided to make it a part of her life’s work to produce culturally relevant media and music to inspire more sustainable lifestyles for urban and historically oppressed communities through an initiative she is producing called Go Live!
Email: jenniferjohns@goliveonline.net
Ruby Tumber, Food Policy Research Intern
Ruby is a volunteer research intern for the CFJC who is committed to advocating food equity and sustainable agricultural practices. She is a UC Berkeley graduate with a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies, with a focus in Environmental Sustainability and Public Health. During college, she was involved with clean air advocacy for Calpirg as well as an active member of the Berkeley Student Food Collective, a group dedicated to educating the Berkeley community on contemporary environmental and agricultural issues, as well as providing them with locally-grown, organic goods. Since graduating in 2010, she has been working for a private consulting firm, with hopes of progressing her career in environmental policy. Ruby is eager to implement her assistance and knowledge to the CFJC in order to fuel support for a more sustainable and equitable food system.
Molly Lawrence, Food Policy and Outreach Intern
Molly graduated with a B.S. from Lesley University. Within the honors program she created a self-designed major titled ‘Public Health and Social Behavior’ that allowed her to explore elements of sociology, social welfare policy, ecology, holistic health and nutrition. She wove these subjects together to further explore her passion for public health and the creation of sustainable food systems. While an undergraduate student, Molly had the opportunity to intern with the Cambridge Public Health Department and volunteer with the non-profit Food for Free which delivers nutritious food to low-income, medically house-bound individuals in Cambridge. After graduating, Molly served a one-year AmeriCorps VISTA term with Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services. As the health, nutrition and wellness VISTA, she helped manage the food supply of the food assistance program to ensure adequate quantity and quality. Molly is currently pursuing meaningful work in the realm of food access, public health policy, and health education. She is currently volunteering as the midtown/downtown Harvest Sacramento coordinator; a project of Soil Born Farms that organizes volunteers to glean local fruit from neighbor’s trees and share the bounty with underserved individuals in the community.
Anita Wong, Community Outreach and Development Intern
Anita is currently completing her B.S. in Health Education with an emphasis in Community-Based Public Health at San Francisco State University. While majoring in Health Education, her education is focused on health inequities disproportionately affecting low income and ethnic communities that are caused by our political system. One of her main interests revolve around food and she joined CFJC in February 2012 as a way to be a part of the food justice movement and do her part in reducing health disparities. She strongly believes that community organizing is an effective strategy for empowering community members to advocate for change and influence the political system. She is looking forward to learning more about food justice, food security, and food policy working here at CFJC.
LaShonda Deckard, Communications Intern
LaShonda was born and raised in Oakland, California, and she is currently completing her BS in Health Education with an emphasis in Community-Based Public Health and a minor in Women’s Health Issues at San Francisco State University. LaShonda has always had a passion for helping to reduce particular health issues such as heart disease and teen prostitution as well as supporting under-served communities while using a cultural humility lens. LaShonda is very familiar with conditions she faces in her community of East Oakland, and she joined California Food and Justice Coalition in February of 2012 to help reduce the health disparities in her community. Additionally, she joined CFJC because her mother, who is breast cancer survivor, inspired her to unselfishly educate others about the basic right to healthy food. When she graduates, LaShonda hopes to work in communities to improve health and enable residents to make better decisions and explore variables that affect people’s health. Also, one day she hopes to have a platform to articulate her ideas and use her own struggles as a means to Educate, Motivate and Inspire young women from dysfunctional families. And when she leave this earth, she does not want to be remembered by her mistakes, but what she has contributed to this world and lives she has touched.
Ceressa Allen, Community Outreach Intern
Ceressa Allen will graduate from San Francisco State University’s Bachelor of Science program in Health Education in May 2012 with an emphasis, minor, and Certificate in Holistic Health. She has been a long time performer in African based dance styles, specializing in Hip-Hop and Jazz. Currently, Ceressa teaches children’s dance classes and is a co-founding member of H.I.V.E, an Oakland based artist collective whose mission is to merge social justice with the arts. She believes that access to healthy foods is a basic human right that every individual should have. She is a native to the Bay Area, with a firsthand understanding of the local social climate as it relates to health outcomes. She is committed to addressing the inequities that exist in communities of color, which she believes are institutionally structured. Her approach is multi-layered, consisting of food policy reform, liberation education, and community organizing to increase access to healthy, affordable, and culturally-appropriate foods. She hopes to be one of CFJC’s Artist-in-Residence in 2012 and to contribute to CFJC’s Mothers Taking Action pilot program. Ceressa plans to integrate her passion for performing, choreographing, and teaching dance with her work at CFJC to address health inequities within specific under-served populations.
Past CFJC Interns – 2011
Victoria Endsley
Porus Mistry
Rebecca Eiseman
Amy Radding
Adrian Gonzalez
Shanna Atherton
Alyson Murphy
Aleisha Baldé
Nicole Willman
Marina Moro
Karen Siverson
