The Future of Federal Food Purchasing: Transforming Policy & Practice

José Andrés

José Andrés is the founder of the Global Food Institute at the George Washington University. Born in Spain, where he learned the craft of cooking first from his parents and then in the kitchen of Ferran Adrià’s groundbreaking avant-garde restaurant elBulli – José Andrés immigrated to the United States in 1991, first to New York City and later to Washington, D.C., where he and his partners established a global group of restaurants that has earned countless fans and won numerous awards over the years.

A proud "Washingtonian with an accent" who serves as Chairman Emeritus of DC Central Kitchen, José holds close both his identity as a Spanish immigrant and an American citizen, placing upon himself the responsibility of both culinary ambassador and immigrant representing the two nations. He is a visionary and a humanitarian, establishing World Central Kitchen in 2010 – a first-to-the-frontlines nonprofit organization providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.

José has long been a beloved member of the GW community, launching his famous "World On A Plate" class for undergraduates a decade ago and delivering the University’s 2014 Commencement address on the National Mall, at which he received his honorary doctorate in public service.

He has been widely recognized for both his culinary and his humanitarian work, including by the James Beard Foundation – which has named him Outstanding Chef and Humanitarian of the Year; TIME Magazine, which included him on the list of 100 Most Influential People in 2012 and 2018; and President Obama, who awarded José the National Humanities Medal in 2015. In 2022, President Biden appointed José to co-chair the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.

 

Dr. Rajiv J. Shah

Raj Shah is president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution committed to promoting the well-being of humanity around the world through data, science and innovation. Under his leadership, the foundation raised and deployed more than $1 billion to respond to the COVID pandemic at home and abroad, launched a $10 billion Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to help secure a just and green recovery, and is currently seeking to advance human opportunity even while reversing the climate crisis. Raj serves on President Biden’s Defense Policy Board and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. In October 2023, he published Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens, sharing a dynamic new model for realizing transformative change, inspired by his own work, the Foundation’s, and changemakers from around the world. He is married to Shivam Mallick Shah and they have three children.

 

Christine J. Harada

Biden-Harris Administration Presidential appointee Christine Harada serves as the Senior Advisor for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in the White House. Harada is responsible for implementing acquisitions policies covering more than $690 billion in annual Federal contract spending.  Previously, Harada served as the Executive Director of the Permitting Council, where she managed a portfolio of nearly $100 billion in large-scale infrastructure projects—most of which are renewable energy, coastal restoration, and electricity transmission projects. Her work advanced the administration's infrastructure agenda to rebuild the economy.

Harada brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in the public and private sectors in a variety of industries, including: clean energy technology; impact investing; management consulting; and aerospace engineering. Harada also served as the Federal Chief Sustainability Officer under President Barack Obama, where she oversaw all federal sustainability-related initiatives in energy, vehicle fleets, and acquisitions. Harada also served as the Acting Chief of Staff, the Associate Administrator of Government-wide Policy, and Chief Acquisition Officer at the U.S. General Services Administration.
 
She holds a master's degree in international studies from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at Penn. Additionally, she has a master's degree from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Aeronautics and Astronautics.

 

The Honorable James P. McGovern

Congressman Jim McGovern represents the Second District of Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives. He is a champion for the people of his home state of Massachusetts, and a global leader working to end hunger, protect human rights, and promote peace. He believes public service should be about bringing us together and working to make life better for all our families.

Jim has been the top Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee since 2018, serving as Chairman during the 116th and 117th Congress. Jim has worked hard on the Rules Committee to change business as usual on Capitol Hill and make Congress work in a more open, transparent, bipartisan way. For example, he put in place rules to give all Members of Congress more time to read bills. He required that bills to go through the committee process instead of just being written behind closed doors, and he created a new office to recruit and retain congressional staff that reflect the diversity of the American people.

On the House Agriculture Committee, Jim has been a global leader in the fight to end hunger. He fought for and successfully secured a White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to make ending hunger a national priority. Thanks to Jim's advocacy and tireless work, military families are being screened for hunger for the first time ever, families with children get enhanced food benefits, schools are able to provide more nutritious meals, and America now has a plan to end hunger within the decade.

Jim has spent his career in public service working to strengthen America's global leadership when it comes to protecting human rights and promoting peace. He serves on two commissions that monitor, investigate and advocate on behalf of international human rights, the rule of law, and good governance: the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. He has written and successfully passed into law several bills that help America identify and hold accountable corrupt foreign officials and human rights abusers. He has also authored and passed into law several pieces of legislation to hold the government of China accountable for human rights violations, including the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the Tibet Policy and Support Act, and the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

Jim's concern for human rights goes back to his time as a Congressional staffer, when he led an investigation into the murders of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador. Jim uncovered that the murders were committed by Salvadoran soldiers who had been trained by the United States Government–leading to a major shift in public opinion and a change in U.S. policy that made future military aid contingent on improved human rights in El Salvador.

 

The Honorable Chellie M. Pingree

Chellie Pingree became an organic farmer on the small island of North Haven, Maine in the 1970’s. After graduating from College of the Atlantic with a degree in human ecology, Chellie sold produce to summer residents and raised sheep for wool, eventually starting a mail-order knitting company that employed ten people in the community.

In Congress, Chellie relies on her experience as a certified organic farmer to support the diverse range of American agriculture, including sustainable, organic, and locally-focused farming. As a member of the House Agriculture Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, she has been a vocal advocate for food policy reform. Her Local Farms Food and Jobs Act was partially incorporated into the 2014 Farm Bill, including programs to support farmers markets, local food producers and help SNAP recipients take better advantage of fresh food at farmers markets. And because of her leadership, the 2018 Farm Bill more than doubled funding for organic research, created the first federal produce prescription program, and established the first federal local food program with permanent funding.

Pingree has pioneered legislation to reduce food waste across the American food system and is the founder and chair of the Food Recovery Caucus. In early 2020, she introduced the Agriculture Resilience Act, a comprehensive bill that recognizes farmers as an integral part of the climate solution.

 

Mara Fleishman

Mara Fleishman’s career in food systems advocacy started in her early 20’s when she looked to the power of food after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. Mara has over 20 years of experience in leading systems change initiatives in the for-profit and non-profit sectors including over a decade at Whole Foods Market where she served as Global Director of Partnerships. In Mara’s current role, CEO of the Chef Ann Foundation, she has spent the last 10 years fighting for healthier food for our nation’s kids. Mara’s niche is system-based change and although she takes on many roles as a leader, her favorite is programmatic engineering; breaking down problems to their foundation and building programmatic solutions through dynamic and integrated approaches. This type of programmatic engineering can be seen through the work of the Chef Ann Foundation, an organization recognized as the national leader in driving fresh, healthy scratch cook food in schools.

Mara also serves on regional and national boards, has spoken at conferences and academic institutions across the country, and has been recognized in publications as a champion and national advocate for change.
 

Madeline Janis, Esq.

Madeline Janis is the co-founder and executive director of Jobs to Move America.

For over 35 years, Madeline has been on the inside and outside of local and state government, working to create high road, equitable economic development, and strong industrial policy. She serves as an appointee of Speaker Anthony Rendon to the California Competes Tax Credit Committee, which awards tens of millions in state tax credits to California businesses each year. Madeline has written opinion pieces for a variety of publications including Forbes.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Huffington Post and has been cited as an expert in dozens of publications across the country. She has extensive experience leading nonprofits, working on urban economic and industrial development, women’s rights, immigrant rights, and racial justice. She helped to negotiate the first community benefits agreements in the U.S. and co-authored a book on the subject.

Madeline was previously the founding executive director of the non-profit the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, which she led from 1993 to 2012. Madeline also served as a commissioner on the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency from 2002 until 2012. She has received many honors, including being a Durfee Foundation Stanton Fellow (2014-15), a Senior Fellow at the UCLA School of Public Affairs, the recipient of the UCLA Law School’s Antonia Hernandez Public Interest Award, and commendations from the Los Angeles City Council and the California Assembly and Senate. She received degrees from UCLA Law School and Amherst College in Massachusetts and was granted an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Amherst College in 2013. She is also the proud mother of 3 children and 2 stepchildren and is happily married to fellow activist and non-profit leader, Donald Cohen.
 

Brent Kim

Brent earned his Master’s in Global Disease Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he now serves on faculty at the Center for a Livable Future in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. Since joining the Center in 2008, his work has spanned farm to fork, with published works on sustainable diets, climate change, industrial food animal production, food and agricultural policy, soil safety, and urban food systems. His research has been featured in Popular Science, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, NPR, and Newsweek. A former computer scientist, digital artist, and high school educator, Brent has never lost his love of teaching and visual communication.

 

Cindy Long

Cindy Long was appointed Administrator for the Food and Nutrition Service on September 13, 2021.

Administrator Long most recently served as Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Acting Administrator, and has had extensive experience with FNS, including serving as Deputy Administrator for Child Nutrition Programs. In this role, she led FNS’ implementation of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act, the most significant restructuring of these programs in decades and a legislative centerpiece of the Obama-Biden Administration’s nutrition initiatives.

 

Jose Oliva

With a long history in labor organizing, Jose has served in several leadership positions at Casa Guatemala, Chicago Interfaith Workers’ Center, Interfaith Worker Justice’s National Workers' Centers Network, Center for Community Change, and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United - the national organization of restaurant workers. Jose was the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance a national coalition of food-worker organizations that collectively represents over 350,000 workers. Jose is also a 2017 James Beard Award recipient and a 2018 American Food Hero Awardee.

 

Arturo S. Rodríguez

Arturo S. Rodríguez retired as president of the United Farm Workers (UFM) in 2018, after 45 years, the last 25 years spent leading the union. As president emeritus, Rodríguez helps the UFW maintain key employer, retailer, and political relationships and focuses on immigration issues.

His accomplishments include helping the UFW pull farm worker pay above the minimum wage in many of California’s largest agricultural regions and achieving overtime pay for California farm workers after eight hours a day under a historic UFW-sponsored state law.

Rodríguez's activism began in his native Texas in 1966. He started full-time UFW service in 1973, meeting civil rights and farm worker advocate Cesar Chavez, who became his mentor for 20 years. He lives with his wife, Sonia, in San Antonio.

 

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Shafika Abrahams-Gessel

Shafika Abrahams-Gessel, SM, DrPH is a Research Scientist at the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. Her work focuses on the implementation of scientific research in cardiovascular disease (CVD) screening, prevention, treatment, and cost-effectiveness of implementing evidence-based interventions in low-resource settings. In addition, she has also performed work as part of a collaborative team of researchers at Massachusetts General Brigham and the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition to assess the cost-effectiveness of implementing a variety of U.S. nutrition policies and dietary interventions to reduce the risk of CVD. She currently serves as a co-investigator on an implementation science research grant funded by the NHLBI, focused on preventing ischemic heart disease using a combination of mHealth, electronic decision support and community health workers (CHWs) in Argentina. In addition, she also actively works on pre-implementation and post-implementation evaluations of a clinical trial intervention to improve hypertension in community settings in rural South Africa. She also evaluates the longitudinal control of hypertension and other cardiometabolic diseases in a rural cohort of older South Africans, focused on understanding aging.  Her research interests include the use of mixed methods to inform scaling of evidence-based interventions to the population level, and the use of task sharing with lay health workers as part of policy responses to providing primary care to the most vulnerable population segments in low- and middle-income countries like Argentina and South Africa. Her work has been published in Health Affairs, the American Journal of Public Health, The Lancet Global Health, Circulation, as well as many other clinical journals.  Dr. Abrahams-Gessel holds an SM from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and a DrPH from the Boston University School of Public Health.

 

Suzanne Adely

Suzanne is the Co-Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance, a bi-national movement of over 30 worker-based organizations in the US and Canadian food economy. FCWA is focused on building the infrastructure of worker-led organizing with the aim of building organized worker density in the food economy while advancing the broader movement for economic, racial, and global justice. Suzanne is a former middle school teacher with a background in community organizing, and a human rights lawyer who is the current president of the National Lawyers Guild, the oldest and largest progressive member-led legal organization in the U.S.

 

Laura Lee Cascada

Laura Lee Cascada is the Senior Campaigns Director at the Better Food Foundation. She has led environmental and animal protection campaigns for over a decade, from helping protect Virginia's decades-long ban on uranium mining with the Sierra Club to putting plant-based options on the menus of major chains like Starbucks and Subway. At the Better Food Foundation, she works to create a more sustainable food system through DefaultVeg, the simple strategy of offering plants by default in universities, cities, and anywhere else food is served. As a writer, Laura has been published by the Independent Media Institute, One Green Planet, The Ecologist, and more. She has a master’s degree in Environmental Policy from Johns Hopkins University.

 

Clara Cho

Clara Cho is a Data Analyst for the Coolfood Program at the World Resources Institute. She works to support the Coolfood Pledge and Meals initiatives and leads the data analysis for both initiatives, including tracking and measuring annual member progress against the Pledge. Clara holds a M.S. in Agriculture, Food and the Environment from the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She completed her B.A. in history at Hamilton College, where her thesis focused on the environmental history of the Adirondack Park. Clara discovered her passion for food and the environment while studying and working in the Adirondack Park.

 

Rodger Cooley

Rodger Cooley, Executive Director of the Chicago Food Policy Action Council, has worked for 20+ years in urban agriculture and sustainable urban food systems developing policy and projects. Rodger previously spent nine years with Heifer International, supporting the development of urban farming projects in Chicago and the mid-western United States. He recently joined the Cook County Commission on Social Innovation.

Rodger has a Master's degree in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College and has served as adjunct faculty at DePaul University and the Illinois Institute of Technology.

 

Paula Daniels

Paula Daniels is Co-founder, Chief of What’s Next, and Founding Chair of the Center for Good Food Purchasing, a social enterprise non-profit founded in July 2015 as a national spin-off from the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, which Paula founded in 2011. 

After decades as a successful private-sector attorney, Paula transitioned to a full-time role in the public and social sectors. Her areas of leadership are in environmental food and water policy.  

Paula served as Senior Advisor on Food Policy to Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles; as a Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner (a full-time executive position overseeing a large city department); a commissioner with the California Coastal Commission; board member of the California Bay-Delta Authority (overseeing the California State Water  Project); and as a commissioner with the California Water Commission.  

She has notable academic appointments and fellowship awards for her social sector work, including: the Ashoka Fellowship (2018); the Resident Fellowship at the Bellagio  Center of the Rockefeller Foundation (2016); the Stanton Fellowship of the Durfee  Foundation (2012-2013); the Pritzker Environment and Sustainability Education Fellow at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (2015); the Lee Chair in  Real Estate Law and Urban Planning at UC Berkeley (2013); Top Ten People Making LA  a Better Place (LA Weekly, 2012); Environmental Leadership Award (California League of Conservation Voters, 2005); Super Healer Award (Heal the Bay, 1991). Paula is a registered Native Hawaiʻian and an avid outrigger canoe paddler.

 

Jocelyn Dubin, MS, RD

Jocelyn Dubin has a Master’s Degree in Nutrition Science and has been a registered dietitian for 18 years. She is a public health nutritionist in the County of Santa Clara’s Public Health Department Healthy Communities Branch. Jocelyn aspires to teach people to use food as medicine to promote health and well-being.

 

Katie Ettman

Katie supports SPUR’s work to create a Bay Area where everyone has enough food to lead a healthy life and where we produce food in a way that supports both the environment and an equitable economy. In addition, she serves on both the CUESA Education Committee and the SF Market Strategy Committee. Before joining SPUR, she worked with the Food Bank of the Rockies in Denver, Colorado managing the procurement of fruits and vegetables for 30 counties in Colorado and the state of Wyoming.

Katie earned her Master’s of Public Administration from The University of Colorado Denver and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Communication and Community and International Development from The University of Vermont.

 

Kate Fitzgerald

Kate has worked on the development of local and regional food systems since the late 1980s when she was hired by the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to reduce hunger while creating new market opportunities for Texas family farmers. The work included organizing farmers markets in low-income rural and urban communities to be authorized to accept SNAP (then known as food stamps) and implementing produce coupon programs for WIC participants and the elderly that helped create the national Farmers Market Nutrition Programs (FMNPs) run by the USDA. She founded the Sustainable Food Center (SFC) to continue developing community-based solutions to the dual challenges of low access to healthy food in low-income communities and small and mid-sized farmers’ need for better markets.
 
Kate moved to Washington, D.C. in 2009 and has focused on federal food system policy since then, including leading the successful campaign to create a SNAP fruit and vegetable incentive pilot that became the permanent Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) in the 2018 farm bill among other efforts. She joined USDA in 2022 to stand up the USDA Regional Food Business Center program and now concentrates on USDA’s efforts to build more resilient and fairer local and regional food systems that offer more, new and better markets for producers.

 

Axel Fuentes

Axel Fuentes is Executive Director of Rural Community Workers Alliance, a grassroots, worker-led organization dedicated to empowering, educating, and organizing refugee and immigrant workers from meat processing plants to address their needs and concerns in the workplace and in the communities where they reside. Axel leads all organizing and educational initiatives for workers and community members. He has extensive knowledge of and experience with the issues that workers are facing in the food industry.

 

Diane Harris

Diane Harris, PhD, MPH, (she/her) is a Senior Health Scientist in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Leading the Healthy Food Environments (HFE) Team, she coordinates efforts to improve public health by increasing access to healthy, culturally diverse foods through policy, systems, and environmental change strategies, including nutrition and sustainability standards for institutional food service. Dr. Harris is dedicated to promoting food and nutrition security across various settings, including worksites, healthcare facilities, schools, and community centers. With the HFE Team, she provides programmatic and technical support to federal, state, and local health organizations focused on increasing access to nutritious foods, particularly in communities at higher risk for chronic diseases. Prior to CDC, Dr. Harris was faculty at the UCLA School of Medicine, researching plant-derived anticancer compounds. She holds degrees in agriculture from UC Davis and Cornell University, and in public health from Emory University; she was awarded the 2018 Distinguished Achievement Award from Emory's Rollins School of Public Health and the 2016 CDC William H. Dietz Nutrition Award.

 

Savi Horne

Savi Horne is the Executive Director of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers Land Loss Prevention Project. As a state, regional, and national non-governmental organization leader, she has been instrumental in addressing the needs and interests of Black, Indigenous, People of Color and limited resource farmers, ranchers and landowners. She has served as a member of the Agriculture Subcommittee of the United State Department of Agriculture Equity Commission, charged with making recommendations for systemic equity changes in delivery of programs and services. In addition to completing six years of service on the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, Savi serves on the boards of the National Family Farm Coalition and the Rural Coalition. She is also a member of the Leadership Team of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. Savi has been widely honored for her work. This includes the 2020 American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) Award for Excellence in Environmental, Energy and Resources Stewardship. In September 2022, she was awarded the Spirit of Farm Aid Award: Lifetime All Access Pass, signed by Willie Nelson, in recognition of her “tireless contribution to Farm Aid’s mission to cultivate a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America.” In the October/November 2022 issue of Garden and Gun Magazine, she received a Champions of Conservation Award. Several quotes noting her local food system work were attributed to her in Edible North Carolina: A Journey across a State of Flavor, edited by Marcie Cohen Ferris (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, Published 2022). Savi has also been engaged at the international level, including presenting, in May 2022, before the UN Working Group for People of African Descent in the section on Intergenerational Deprivation and Anti-Black Racism: Asset Building for Economic and Financial Freedom of Children of African Descent. Savi is a recipient of the James Beard Foundation, 2023 Leadership Award, for a just, equitable, sustainable, and economically viable food system. She is a graduate of the Rutgers University School of Law-Newark (J.D.) and the City College of New York (B.A.).

 

Sara Pollock Hoverter

Sara Pollock Hoverter is a staff attorney and adjunct professor at the Harrison Institute for Public Law at Georgetown Law. Her areas of concentration are public health and food systems policy, including supporting the transformation of food systems, increasing access to health care, assisting local governments in protecting their most vulnerable residents from the public health and environmental impacts of heat in urban areas, and community health worker network development. Within the field of food policy, she has worked with large institutions around the country to enable them to buy food that is locally sourced; healthy, safe, and just for workers; and sustainably produced. Her education includes a B.A. from Yale University, a J.D. from Georgetown University, and an LL.M. from Georgetown University. She lives in Takoma Park, MD, with her husband, two children, two dogs, and a vegetable garden.

 

Yvonne Lee

Yvonne Yim-Hung Lee was appointed to the 15-member USDA Equity Commission, which was established in January 2021 when President Biden signed Executive Order 13985 -On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities  Through the Federal Government.  The Commission is charged with reviewing the USDA’s past and current programs, policy, and services, soliciting public comments, and submitting to the Secretary of Agriculture a report that contains 66 recommendations to advance equity at USDA.

Ms. Lee’s public service career included a political appointment in the Obama administration as Regional Advocate to lead Region  9 (Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada)  of the Office of Advocacy for the US Small Business Administration. In that capacity, she represented the voice of small businesses in federal government and engaged with small business stakeholders to address their regulatory concerns, particularly with innovative entrepreneurialism.

Ms. Lee was a presidential appointee to the US Commission on Civil Rights from 1995-2001.  Investigative reports conducted during her six-year term included economic and health disparities among women, Native and minority communities, use of force and administration of justice, church burnings and hate crimes, and Native Hawaiian self-determination.

Ms. Lee was appointed by the San Francisco mayor to serve a single term on the independent Ethics Commission from 2017-2023.  She was elected chair for the last three years of her term. She was previously a member of the San Francisco Police Commission.

Ms. Lee’s work in community empowerment included serving as National Director for the Chinese American Citizens Alliance where she developed membership civic involvement and chapter operations for the national civil rights organization, testified before Congress, and developed legislative platforms for membership adoption. She also has experience in the nonprofit sector in San Francisco, working on a senior housing development project as project director for the Pineview Housing Corporation.

She has advised non-governmental organizations, the government, and the private sector on policy and strategic development and community engagement with data and opinion research analysis, media, and community outreach.

Lee holds a BS degree in Health Education from the University of California at Davis and received the university’s Citation of Excellence for outstanding alumni.  She was an Inaugural Fellow of the Asian Pacific American Women Leadership Institute and a Fellow at the Gallup Executive Leadership Institute.  She co-founded and was co-chair of the Coalition of Asian-Pacific Americans for Fair Reapportionment.

 

Peter Lurie

Peter Lurie, M.D., M.P.H. is President of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. CSPI publishes a newsletter, Nutrition Action, and conducts advocacy on Capitol Hill, in the regulatory agencies, in the courts, at the state and local level, and through corporate campaigns. It accepts no donations from government or industry. Previously, Lurie was the Associate Commissioner for Public Health Strategy and Analysis at the Food and Drug Administration, where he worked on antimicrobial resistance, drug shortages, agency transparency, caffeinated beverages, arsenic in rice, expanded access to investigational drugs, and prescription drug abuse. Prior to that, he was Deputy Director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, where he addressed drug and device issues, coauthored the organization’s Worst Pills, Best Pills consumer guide to medications, and led efforts to reduce worker exposure to hexavalent chromium and beryllium. Earlier, as a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Michigan, he studied needle exchange programs, ethical aspects of mother-to-infant HIV transmission studies, and other HIV policy issues domestically and abroad.  

 

Colleen McKinney
Colleen McKinney is the Director of Engagement for the Center for Good Food Purchasing, where her focus is on the successful expansion and implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Program. She enhances program processes and infrastructure, facilitates individual and group technical assistance, oversees supply chain monitoring and verification, and contributes to strategic direction of the Center, including expansion, coordination with Governing Board and national campaign committee, resource development, branding and website development, and administration. Previously, she contributed to the Good Food Purchasing Program as a Policy & Program Associate at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Southern California.

 

Amar Nair

Mr Nair is House Counsel under the US House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture on issues of nutrition, he is on detail from the US Department of Agriculture where he has served in the General Counsel in the department’s civil rights litigation since 2015.  Prior to that, he worked for the US Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency and in the non-profit sector within the DC metropolitan area. He received his BA from The California State University of Long Beach, his JD from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and his LLM from the George Washington University Law School.

 

R. Dennis Olson

Dennis is a Senior Research Associate & Policy Analyst for the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union where he advises the national director of the meatpacking division on food, agriculture and trade policies, providing strategic analysis for organizing programs, collective bargaining activities, legislative initiatives and strategic alliances. Dennis represents UFCW on the Labor Committee for the Center for Good Food Purchasing and supports local UFCW unions engaging with coalitions to implement GFPP. He represents UFCW in dialogues with progressive farm organizations to forge a new farmer-labor alliance around supporting fair prices for farmers and workers’ rights to organize a union through the development of farmer-worker owned union cooperatives in the food and cannabis sectors. Before working for UFCW, Dennis worked as a senior policy analyst for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. And before that he worked for affiliates of the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) in North Dakota and Montana organizing farmers, ranchers and other citizens on farm bill, agricultural antitrust and trade issues, and to protect farms, ranches and rural communities from the negative impacts of extractive industries.

 

Erich Pica

Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica is a nationally recognized environmental and progressive leader, and an economics expert on energy subsidies. Erich has worked to reform U.S. tax and budget policy to reduce pollution and increase clean energy. His core belief that the solution to the climate crisis rests at the intersection of justice and the environment has shaped Friends of the Earth’s strategy and mission. Under Erich’s tenure, Friends of the Earth’s supporter base has grown to more than two million people.

Erich serves as the chair of the board of the Partnership Project and Partnership Project Action Fund. He is a former Democracy Initiative board member, a former board member of the Safe Energy Communication Council and former chair of the Green Group.

 

Lorette Picciano

Lorette Picciano has served since 1992 as Executive Director of the Rural Coalition, a Washington, DC-based alliance of more than 70 culturally diverse community-based organizations representing small producers and farmworkers in the U.S. She works with RC’s diverse Board and members to promote just and sustainable development in rural areas, with a focus on civil rights in agriculture. RC has for more 45 years been a leading network working to secure civil rights in the agriculture and trade sectors, and equity for all farmers and farmworkers from the US Department of Agriculture. With RC members and allies she helped coordinate collaborative efforts to assure equal access to USDA programs for farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers, helping to secure more than 45 sections of new Farm Bill Policies, including the new heirs property sections of the 2018 Farm Bill.  Current efforts include organizing comments on the implementation of the equity, Discrimination Financial Assistance Program and climate sections of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and working with RC members to organize around the Farm Bill Debate.

She has coordinated many collaborative projects with Rural Coalition leaders, including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences “Community Partners for Environmental Health” that focused on mitigating environmental injustices in rural and farmworker communities. RC also co-led a National Vaccine Outreach initiative with Alianza Naciónal de Campesinas and 15 RC member groups funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The groups reached some of the country’s most vulnerable rural communities in over 280 counties across the country.  RC is currently collaborating on: an Agriculture Marketing Service project to provide Farm and Food Worker Relief payments to over 60,000 workers; a key USDA Technical Assistance cooperative agreement to promote equitable access to USDA programs by farmers and ranchers; a cooperative USDA Risk Management Agency pilot project led by Intertribal Agriculture Council to train a cohort of diverse crop insurance and adjustors; and the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Her education includes a BS in Agriculture and Life Sciences from Cornell University, and an M. Ed. from the University of Hawaii, where she was a participant in the Food Institute of the East-West Center and did fieldwork in the rural Philippines. Prior to joining the Rural Coalition, she worked since 1980 in Washington DC with several interfaith organizations on the farm crisis of the late 1980’s, on equity in food and farm policy, and on food security and fair trade and environmental justice.  With future colleagues in the Rural Coalition she helped secure farm credit borrowers’ rights and programs for historically underserved farmers in the 1987 Agriculture Credit Act and Section 2501 of the 1990 Farm Bill. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of World Farmers Inc. She is also a policy advisor to Alianza Naciónal de Campesinas and a member of the Steering Committee of the National Environment Network.

 

Kurt Rausch

Kurt Rausch is Chief of the National Park Service Commercial Services Program which oversees the program to administer recreation and hospitality service concession contracts, commercial use authorizations and leases for the NPS nationally. In this role, Mr. Rausch was responsible for developing and implementing healthy food service standards for the more than 150 NPS food service concessioners nationwide. Before joining the NPS fourteen years ago, Mr. Rausch worked for more than twenty years with management, environmental, health, and safety consulting firms providing program development and support for various federal agencies including the Department of Interior, Federal Emergency Management Agency and US EPA, states, local communities and various industries. Mr. Rausch has a BS in Environmental Policy from Cook College, Rutgers University and certificates in Executive Management and Strategic Leadership in Hospitality Management from Cornell Kurt is an avid sailor and climber and loves all things outdoors.

 

Raychel Santo

Raychel Santo is a Food and Climate Research Associate at the World Resources Institute, where she works on research projects related to sustainable diets, alternative proteins, beef production, and other food and agriculture topics. Prior to joining WRI, Raychel supported the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition as an independent consultant researching and writing case studies into values-aligned and climate-friendly food service at federal agencies. She also held various roles at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future for 12 years focused on a variety of topics including food systems and climate change, local and regional food policy, urban agriculture, and institutional food procurement.

 

Tara Scully

Dr. Scully has a Master of Forensic Science and a PhD in Developmental Biology. Her current research is on the impact of climate change on independent restaurants in coordination with the James Beard Foundation. This report was released on February 20, 2024. She previously was working on water quality issues such as microplastics contamination, CSOs, and runoff. This connects to her research on the effects of agricultural runoff on the developmental changes, succession of the microbiome, and regulation of the transcriptome in the easter oyster, Crassostrea virginica. She has authored many research articles along with the books: Discovering Biology in the Lab: An Introductory Laboratory Manual (2009, 2012); and Why We Eat Food (2016, 2020). At GW, Dr. Scully regularly teaches introductory biology laboratory courses, service courses, undergraduate research courses, and sustainability courses along with the course, World on a Plate with Chef José Andrés. She is working with Chef Andrés on his latest venture, the Global Food Institute at GW, where she is the Director of Curriculum Development. Her service and instructional work has resulted in being awarded the university-wide Faculty Engagement Award in 2016 from the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service and she also received the 2019 Morton Bender Teaching Award which recognizes undergraduate, graduate, and professional teaching at GW. She has engaged in the arts contributing to The Shape of Water (2023) and The Forestation (2024). Lastly, Dr. Scully has been coordinating a team of faculty, staff, and students from all DC area universities to collaborate on sustainability efforts. This resulted in the formation of DC CHEERS (DC Coalition of Higher Education for the Environment, Resilience, and Sustainability).

 

John Stoddard

John Stoddard is the Associate Director of Climate & Food Strategy for Health Care Without Harm. He works with hospitals and health systems across the US to reduce their climate impact from food procurement by adopting plant-forward menus.

 

Allison Thompson

Allison Thompson works in EPA's Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) program. The EPP program helps the Federal Government buy greener products and services. Allison leads the EPP program’s efforts in the food and cafeteria services sector and supports an EPA Pollution Prevention community of practice for reusable food service ware. Before joining EPA, Allison served as a Community Agribusiness Volunteer in Uganda, where she was the Chairperson of a Conservation Think Tank and performed independent research on Uganda’s plastic bag ban. Allison has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina's International Business Program.

 

Anne Utech

On January 22, 2019, Dr. Utech was appointed for the Title 38 Senior Executive Service (SES) Equivalent position of National Director, Nutrition and Food Services (NFS), Veterans Health Administration – Central Office (VHA-CO), Washington, DC (virtual Houston, TX). In her appointment, Dr. Utech serves as the Nutrition Field Advisory Committee executive manager and oversee all NFS policies and programs, strategic planning, national external & internal partnerships, and serve as the VA’s primary subject matter expert for nutrition & food services. From April 1, 2019 to March 25, 2020, Dr. Utech served as Acting Chief Officer for Specialty Care Services, Veterans Health Administration – Central Office (VHA-CO), Washington, DC. In this capacity, she led 26 medical specialties, national program directors, and programs in an interim capacity. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Her professional interests are environmental sustainability in procurement/waste streams, promoting and conducting nutrition research, expanding strategic partnerships for greater impacts, and data analytics to improve Veteran outcomes. Recent awards include being the 2015 Commencement Speaker and Hallmark Alumni Awardee at Texas Woman’s University. Recent peer-reviewed publications have been on the topics of nutrition support, nutrition education and diabetes.

 

Chloë Waterman

Chloë Waterman currently serves as the senior program manager for Friends of the Earth’s Climate-Friendly Food Program where she leads Friends of the Earth’s policy and markets campaigns to advance a healthy and climate-friendly food system. She works to achieve a just transition away from factory farmed animal production toward regenerative plant-based food production and a sustainable amount of higher-welfare, pasture-based animal agriculture. On Capitol Hill, in statehouses, and across city governments, she has pioneered climate-friendly food procurement policies, initiatives to expand plant-based school meal offerings, and other policies to build a just and sustainable food system. Chloë previously served as the senior manager of state legislative strategy for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) where she successfully lobbied for a wide range of animal protection legislation and was instrumental in defeating pro-factory farming measures. Chloë holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Philosophy from Lewis & Clark College and a Master’s degree in Applied Economics from the University of Maryland. Her work has been featured in Bloomberg, Reuters, the Washington Post, Vox, Politico, HuffPost, Civil Eats, Food Tank, the Baltimore Sun, The News & Observer, The Times Union, Next City, Maryland Matters, and on C-SPAN. She currently resides in Prince George’s County, MD where she serves as a co-chair for the Prince George’s County Food Equity Council. She lives with her dog, Jackal, and a rotating cast of foster animals, and she can often be found gardening on her roof.

 

Darnella Winston

Darnella B. Winston is the Project Director/Cooperative Field Director for the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, which is a state association of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund. She has worked with the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives over 15 years developing and implementing the MAC Farm-to-School; conducting educational training and technical assistance to small-scale farmers and limited resource cooperatives; marketing produces to schools, institutions, grocery store chains, produce buyers, etc.; conducting cooperative development activities; coordinating farm field activities for fruit and vegetable production; and acquiring external funds to implement programs and projects.

Darnella is a fifth generation African American Farmer and cooperative leader. She has worked with the United States Department of Agriculture as a liaison between the rural and urban participants to bridge the communication gaps. She currently serves on several boards: MS Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, MS Farmers Market, Rural Coalition, Cooperative Development, NACCP, Blacks in Government (BIGG), Southern Rural Development Center,  Rural Development Leadership Network, and Lorman Fire Department.

"Darnella was instrumental in starting our all-student-run farmers market. It is the only one in Louisiana! When we began in 2011, we didn't know any produce farmers, and Darnella not only brought Indian Springs Coop, but she also convinced Pointe Coupee Coop to come to our little market in Hammond, LA. Darnella was plugged in and also put us in contact with valued added vendors whom she encouraged to come. Her knowledge of the regional food system is what I’m at 80 Highway 51 helped us succeed. And her vibrancy and encouragement helped us believe we could create a farmer's market that would last. It is certain that without Darnella, our market would have fizzled out years ago instead of having grown into the successful college campus farmers market it is today."

 

Alyssa Wooden

Alyssa Wooden is the Green Food Program Analyst at the DC Department of Energy and Environment. She is responsible for implementing the District’s Green Food Purchasing Program, which aims to reduce food-related GHG emissions at local government agencies. Alyssa has a BA in public health studies from Johns Hopkins University and an MHS in environmental health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Frequently Asked Questions

 

What is The Future of Federal Food Purchasing: Transforming Policy & Practice?

Hosted by The George Washington University Global Food Institute and the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition, this invitation-only summit will convene select federal policymakers, agency officials, food and food service vendors, and food system experts and advocates. We invite you to join us in exploring how values-aligned food procurement can be leveraged to advance the federal government’s goals for nutrition and health, climate mitigation, racial equity, economic competition, and worker well-being.

Are there any event hosts or sponsors other than the Global Food Institute and the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition?

GFI and the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition and the Global Food Institute are the primary event sponsors. This event is made possible by the generous support of The Rockefeller Foundation.

Who is speaking during the summit?

Please view the summit schedule above for the most up-to-date information about speakers.

What is on the summit agenda?

Please view the summit schedule above for the most up-to-date information about specific session topics.

Where can I register to attend?

Please register here by March 4.

Where is the summit taking place?

The summit will be hosted on GW’s Foggy Bottom campus at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, 950 New Hampshire Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 20052.

How can I get to the Milken Institute School of Public Health?

The George Washington University is conveniently located in the heart of Washington, D.C. GW is accessible via three nearby airports:

• Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) is located approximately five miles from the GW Foggy Bottom campus, roughly a 10 minute drive. The Metro Blue Line also directly connects the Foggy Bottom-GWU station to the DCA station, about a 15 minute ride.
• Dulles International Airport (IAD) is located approximately 24 miles from the GW Foggy Bottom campus, roughly a 30 minute drive. The Metro Silver Line now directly connects Dulles to GW, about a one hour ride.
• Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) is located approximately 35 miles from the GW Foggy Bottom campus, roughly a 50 minute drive.

The Foggy Bottom campus is served by a myriad of public transit options, including the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metrorail Station (Blue, Silver and Orange Lines), numerous Metrobus routes, commuter buses from Maryland & Virginia, taxi, and Capital Bikeshare.

I plan to drive. Where can I park?

Attendees can park at the Science and Engineering Hall garage, accessible via H Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets. Attendees will receive a parking validation for each day of the event.

The garage is approximately a 6 minute walk to the Milken Institute School of Public Health.

How do I check in when I arrive?

Attendees are asked to check in at the summit registration table upon arrival to the Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Is there a cost of attendance?

Attendance is free for all attendees. 

I was invited to attend but am unable to. Can I nominate a colleague to attend in my place?

Please contact [email protected] to nominate a colleague from your organization, and we will provide them with an invitation. You may also nominate a colleague to attend in addition to yourself, and we will consider those requests as space allows.

I will be attending the summit from out of town. What hotel options are available?

GW has arranged special rates with area hotels, while supply of rooms at each location lasts.

The following Marriott Hotels are offering a discount when using the promo code GWU:

• The Ritz-Carlton is a 6-minute walk to the Milken Institute School of Public Health.
• Washington Marriott Georgetown is a 10-minute walk to the Milken Institute School of Public Health.
• AC Hotel Washington DC Downtown is a 12-minute walk to the Milken Institute School of Public Health.
• Courtyard by Marriott is a 15-minute walk to the Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Other nearby hotels that are offering discounts:

• The River Inn is a 5-minute walk to the Milken Institute School of Public Health.
• Hotel Hive is a 10-minute walk to the Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Are either the Global Food Institute or the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition a registered lobbyist or a registered lobbying organization? 

The Global Food Institute, which extended the invitation, is not a registered lobbying organization. The Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition is not a registered lobbying organization. Several member organizations of the coalition may have employees that are registered lobbyists or employ contract lobbyists.

Is this event a fundraiser or does this event include a fundraiser? 

This event is not a fundraiser.

Are there any compensation or gifts/free items (e.g., honoraria, food, beverages, entertainment, tokens/mementos, awards, honors, free parking, transportation)? If so, what is the market value for the compensation and gifts/free items?

Some speakers and attendees will receive funding for travel and accommodations.  Small giveaways may be given at the conclusion of the summit. 

Food and beverages will be provided during the summit. To the greatest extent possible, food served will be sourced in accordance with the Federal Good Food Purchasing Coalition’s values: local & community-based economies, valued workforce, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, community health & nutrition, transparency & accountability, and racial equity. Meals and refreshments will include options for those with dietary restrictions. Registrants should indicate any specific dietary restrictions when they register.