Thank you to the volunteers who will be moderating this year’s Discussion Board for the 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge.

Anna Muhammad is a backyard gardener that began gardening based on a request from her husband. After realizing that gardening assisted with lowering their food costs and provided some additional income, Sis. Anna began studying gardening more intensely. As a past Board Member of Gardening the Community in Springfield, MA, she began learning more about organic growing while serving her neighborhood at the same time. Sis. Anna is also a member of the Massachusetts Northeast Organic Association for 5 years and she currently works for NOFA/Mass as the Equity Director and Food Access Coordinator. She also graduated from their Beginning Farmers Program. Sister Anna wants to see all residents of the Mason Square Area and all communities in Massachusetts have the access they deserve to fresh, wholesome food and to assist all that wish to grow food in their homes.

Karen Spiller is Principal of KAS Consulting, where she works with diverse stakeholders, including community residents and businesses, state and local agencies, policy makers, corporations, foundations, community-based organizations and healthcare providers. With over twenty years of experience, she provides mission-based consulting with a focus on resource matching and strategic planning for health and equity focused initiatives, locally, regionally and nationally. She also serves organizations and networks that include Boston Food Forest Coalition, Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts. Involved in state-wide and regional food system work, Karen is an engaged process team member of the Food Solutions New England (FSNE) network. She serves as its Massachusetts Ambassador making connections between FSNE’s New England Food Vision and its racial equity commitment. Karen is the Thomas W. Haas Professor of Sustainability at University of New Hampshire, Durham.

Joanne Burke PhD, RD, LD is a clinical professor at the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) Department of Agriculture, Nutrition and Food Systems. She is a registered dietitian (RD) who teaches in the Nutrition Program and serves as the director of the Master of Science in Nutritional Sciences with Dietetic Internship program. She is Senior Faculty Fellow at the UNH Sustainability Institute, a founding member of its Food Solutions New England (FSNE) network. She has been a member of the FSNE 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge since its inception in 2014. She is engaged in advancing racial equity, food and nutrition justice and sustainability, and building democratic engagement in emergent food systems at the local, regional and national level.

Curtis Ogden is a Senior Associate at the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC). Much of his work entails consulting with multi-stakeholder networks to strengthen and transform food, education, public health, and economic systems at local, state, regional, and national levels. He has worked with networks to launch and evolve through various stages of development. Some of his current and past clients include: Food Solutions New England, Chesapeake Foodshed Network, Vermont Farm to Plate Network, InFACT at Ohio State, Fresno Food to Share, Partnership for the Future of Learning, Next Generation Learning Challenges, and the Cancer Free Economy Network.

Curtis writes regularly about networks and social change at http://www.interactioninstitute.org/author/curtis. In addition to his work at IISC, Curtis is on the Advisory Board of EmbraceRace, a member of the Research Alliance for Regenerative Economics (RARE) and the Emerging Networks Governance Initiative (ENGI). Curtis is originally from Flint, MI and currently lives in Amherst, MA with his wife, three daughters, 8 chickens and a lionhead rabbit.

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