Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, PolicyLink.

A renowned community building activist and advocate, Blackwell founded PolicyLink in Oakland, California in 1999. She also served as senior vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation where she oversaw the Foundation's Domestic and Cultural divisions. Blackwell also developed Rockefeller's Building Democracy division, which focused on race and policy, and created the Next Generation Leadership program. A lawyer by training, she gained national recognition as founder of the Oakland, CA Urban Strategies Council, where she pioneered new approaches to neighborhood revitalization. From 1977 to 1987, Blackwell was a partner at Public Advocates, a nationally known public interest law firm. She is the co-author of Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground: New Dimensions on Race in America (W.W. Norton & Co., 2002), and contributed to Ending Poverty in America:  How to Restore the American Dream (The New Press, 2007), an anthology edited by John Edwards. Blackwell earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University, and a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.  She serves on numerous boards and co-chairs a task force on poverty for the Center for American Progress.

Lawrence Wallack, PhD, Dean, College of Urban and Public Affairs, Portland State University.

Dr. Wallack's primary interest is in the role of mass communication, particularly the news media, in shaping public health issues. His current research is on how public health issues are framed in print and broadcast news. He is principal author of Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention (Sage Publications, 1993) and News for a Change: An Advocate's Guide to Working with the Media (Sage Publications, 1999). He is also co-editor of Mass Communications andPublic Health: Complexities and Conflicts (Sage, 1990). He has also published extensively on topics relatedto prevention, health promotion, and community interventions. Specific content areas of his research and intervention work have included alcohol, tobacco, violence, handguns,sexually transmitted diseases, cervical and breast cancer, affirmative action, suicide, and childhood lead poisoning.

Dr. Mel Kohn, State Public Health Officer, Oregon Department of Human Services.

Mel was named acting DHS assistant director for the State Public Health Division and State Health Officer in September 2008. He previously served as state epidemiologist and administrator of the DHS Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology. He has worked in the public health sector since 1993, including two years as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before joining DHS in 1999 Kohn was medical director for a section of the Louisiana Office of Public Health in New Orleans, and also served as an assistant professor of Pediatrics at Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Kohn received a B.A. in Russian and East European Studies from Yale in 1981, took pre-med courses at Columbia University, received his M.D. from Harvard in 1990, and received his Masters in Public Health from Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 1997. He is board-certified in pediatrics and preventive medicine.

Latricia Tillman, Administrator, Oregon Office of Multicultural Health and Services, Oregon Dept. of Human Services.

Latricia formerly served as a program manager at the Multnomah County Health Department in Portland.  She initiated and managed the county's Health Equity Initiative and the African American Sexual Health Equity Program.  She was also a co-chair for the department's Diversity and Quality Team. Ms. Tillman's goals throughout her career have been to promote a highly qualified, diverse workforce, to engage communities experiencing disparities in public health, and to identify and reduce health disparities.  She has worked in various capacities in maternal, child and community health over the last 15 years, coordinating efforts to improve the health of disadvantaged populations in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Oregon.  Focusing on women, children and communities of color, she uses strategies that include community organizing, participatory research, popular education and political advocacy. Ms. Tillman earned a prestigious Martin Luther King Fellowship from Boston University as well as a public health fellowship through the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. She received her master's degree in public health from Boston University and her bachelor's degree in political science from Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

Nancy Becker MS RD LD, Chair, Oregon Nutrition Policy Alliance.

Nancy Becker is a Registered Dietitian who has specialized in the politics of food, low fat cooking, and health education for over 30 years. She chaired the group that put forth successful legislation that set nutrition standards for snack foods in schools in Oregon, and currently chairs the Oregon Nutrition Policy Alliance, which successfully promoted legislation for statewide calorie labeling in chain restaurants. Originally a researcher, she has collaborated in numerous clinical and intervention studies about diet and lifestyle, and has conducted cooking, weight loss and natural foods classes in the community. She is a former member of the Food Policy Council in Multnomah County and chaired the policy team of the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition practice group of the ADA. Nancy recently won the Award for Grassroots Excellence from the American Dietetic Association. She received her undergraduate degree in Nutrition for the University of Wisconsin and her Master's from Oregon State University. Nancy is currently an Adjunct Professor at PSU where she teaches Nutrition in the Chemistry Department, and is a dietitian with Community Health Partnership: Oregon's Public Health Institute.

Sharon Thornberry, Community Resource Developer, Oregon Food Bank.

Sharon has been a grassroots organizer, trainer and advocate for community food systems, rural communities, and anti-hunger work in Oregon since 1986.  She grew up on farms in Iowa and North Carolina and was very active in 4-H and Girl Scouts.  Her work experience includes food service, retail grocery, and union activities.  In 1979, she was a homeless mom with two small children. She volunteered for and chaired a local food pantry and has been active with United Methodist Church anti - hunger efforts. Sharon is a long time member of the Oregon Hunger Task Force. She served on the board of the Community Food Security Coalition for six years and served three years as President.  She recently began serving on the board of Bread for the World and Bread for the World Institute.  The sum of her experiences have come together to make her a passionate and knowledgeable community food security and anti-hunger advocate.  She was the recipient of the Oregon Food Bank Board of Directors Award for Staff Excellence in 2005.  Much of her work in the past four years has been focused on Tillamook County and Eastern Oregon. Sharon participated in a "Thought Leaders" group for the design of the Kellogg Foundation's Food & Fitness funding initiative.  She is also a participant in the Kellogg Foundation Food & Society Leadership meetings and Fundraising School at the Indiana School of Fundraising.  She has served as a reviewer of USDA Community Food Project grants.  She was a delegate to the 2006 Terra Madre, Slow Food's World Food Summit, in Torino, Italy and is currently serving on the board of Slow Food Corvallis. Sharon has lived in Philomath, Oregon for over 23 years.  She is an avid gardener and working to permaculture her small lot, making it a sustainable model for her seven grandchildren.  She loves to share the cooking traditions learned in the farm kitchens of her youth with friends and family.

Patti Whitney-Wise

Bio to be added soon.

Jaime Arredondo, Fund Development Director, Farmworker Housing Development Corporation.

Jaime was born in 1982 in a small village in Michoacan, Mexico. He immigrated to Salem, Oregon in 1992 with his family and where he currently resides. Jaime grew up working as a farmworker until the age of 22 (7 years of fighting wildfires and 12 years of picking crops in the fields). At the age of 16 he started working at Willamette University's food cafeteria (Bon Appetite) as the "beverage boy" and was admitted as a student in 2001. Jaime graduated from Willamette in 2005 with a Liberal Art Degrees in Rhetoric/Media Studies and Spanish. In 2005, he began working with FHDC as a Community Organizer for one its housing projects in Salem, Oregon, Colonia Libertad.

Maria Jesus Torres.

Andy Fisher, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Community Food Security Coalition.

CFSC is a national association of 300 organizations working to create a just and sustainable food system. It has spearheaded the development of a national food and farming movement centered on connecting farmers and consumers and improving access to healthy foods in low-income communities. CFSC gained passage of the Community Food Projects Program in the 1996 Farm Bill, and doubled its funding in the 2002 Farm Bill. Andy is a leading expert in the field of food security and has co-authored numerous articles and studies on the topic. Some of his publications include Hot Peppers and Parking Lot Peaches: Evaluating Farmers' Markets in Low Income Communities, and Healthy Farms, Healthy Kids, a study of schools buying directly from local farmers. He is currently involved in research projects on the use of SNAP and WIC benefits at farmers' markets. He is a currently a Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Fellow. He holds graduate degrees from UCLA in Environmental Policy and Latin American Studies.

Douglas Southgate, PhD, Professor, Oregon Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and  Development Economics, The Ohio State University.

A graduate of Wilson High School in Portland and the University of Oregon, Douglas Southgate earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and has been a professor at Ohio State University since 1980.  His research focuses on tropical deforestation and other environmental problems in the developing world and his most recent book is The World Food Economy (Blackwell, 2007).  Dr. Southgate has served on the Tropical Ecosystems Directorate of the U.S. Man and the Biosphere Program and also has directed Ohio State's Latin American Studies Program.

Christopher Taylor, Producer-Director, Food Fight.

Chris received a B.A. Cum Laude from Harvard University in Folklore and Mythology. From 1975 through 1986, Chris worked as a touring lighting designer and production manager for musical groups such as the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Earth, Wind & Fire, John Fogarty, ELO, and Simon and Garfunkel. After attending the American Film Institute in 1988, Chris began his career as a Director of Photography by working as a DP with such talented filmmakers as Gary Oldman, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Michael Lehmann, and others. During this time he photographed six features, six MOW's, short films, TV pilots, and episodic television. Beginning in 1998, Chris began working full time as a Director, first for the Fox Network, where he directed 26 episodes of the series Beyond Belief, and most recently for CBS where he has directed 8 episodes of The District over the past 3 seasons, ending in 2004. In 2005, Chris co-founded Positively 25th Street, a production company dedicated to creating original documentary programming with social and cultural significance. The first project, Food Fight premiered at AFI FEST LA in October of 2008. In December the film won the prestigious Audience Award from the International Documentary Association. In 2009 Food Fight has gone on to win 7 other awards in film festivals all over the world.

Beth Emshoff, Metro Specialist, Oregon State University Extension.

In 2006, Beth joined the faculty at OSU after 25 years at the University of Minnesota. Emshoff is charged with re-inventing Extension's role in the Portland metropolitan area to meet the needs of urban residents. To that end she has integrated metropolitan issues and perspectives into OSU Extension programs and planning, facilitated partnerships with Portland State University where she has her office, developed a model for urban Extension, and provided the leadership for the  "Toward One Oregon: Rural Urban Interdependence"  symposium, November 2008. Her current "Big Idea" project is the development of a "Center for Sustainable Urban Food Systems: A Research and Education Facility" in Portland. The potential partners are OSU, PSU, Portland Public Schools, Portland Parks, private sector businesses, government agencies, and community foundations. Peter Platt, owner of Andina restaurant, is a co-conspirator  and colleague engaged in this work. During her years at Minnesota, Emshoff was a research fellow, senior administrator for outreach and engagement programs in Human Ecology and an Assoc. Dean and Program Leader in Extension. Over the years Emshoff has received numerous community and University awards and has served on the executive boards of local, regional, national and international organizations. The purchase of a floating home on the Willamette in Portland brought Beth and her partner to Oregon.

David Eskeldson, Owner and Founder, Egor's Acres

I grew up on a small farm near Lebanon, Oregon, in the mid-Willamette Valley. I attended Lewis & Clark College and Oregon State University, and received a B.A. from OSU in 1966. In 1991, after 25 years of teaching in Nome, Alaska and after getting an M.A. in mathematics from San Jose State College, I retired from teaching. I returned to Oregon with enough money for a down payment on a small 47-acre farm near Scio. I qualified my farm for organic certification in 1993. I have slowly increased my production and my marketing over time. My neighbor also has a small organic farm and we have coordinated our crops and our marketing for the last 16 years. We have sold to farmers markets, stores, restaurants, a hospital, and to Willamette University. I also sell to Organically Grown Company, a distributer of organic produce throughout the northwest. I currently keep about 15 acres under cultivation each year. About 10 acres is sweet corn, the rest is a mix of cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes, onions, kale, fennel, parsley, mustard, and a few other weird things—  and weeds! When I started farming, I did all of my own labor. It is the nature of farming that the labor is not steady, but comes in large chunks—interspersed with inactivity because of weather or winter or other reasons. I began to hire some labor for certain jobs. Though my farm is still a very small operation, it has grown over the last 18 years. About 10 years ago I made a contract with PCUN farmworkers and treecutters union. When I needed labor I notified PCUN and they sent out the workers as needed. At this point, my farm employs four people during the summer season, and I hire one more person for the corn harvest season. All of my current workers have worked for my farm for many years now, and I consider them employees of the highest quality. I have no labor problems. Each year, when I think I have solved some of the problems of the previous years, I find a few more things to puzzle over. Deer and rabbits eating the lettuce, skunks getting caught in the nutria live-traps, flea beetles, pigweed, corn earworms—it keeps things interesting! How do you think like a raccoon? Or a slug?

Terry L. Brandt, Executive Director and Board Member, Albina Opportunities Corporation.

Mr. Brandt has over 30 years of experience specializing in commercial retail and housing real estate development in the Portland metropolitan area, project management consulting, and mentoring entrepreneurial small business growth.  He has been active as a board member and advisor for a number of municipal task force committees and non-profit organizations throughout his career that support community sustainability and small business development.  Of special interest to Mr. Brandt was the time spent as a founding Board Member for The Institute for Sustainable Communities founded by the late Russell Zachmeyer.

Ira Zarov, Chief Executive Officer, Oregon State Bar Professional Liability Fund.

Andrew has done more than 350 organic inspections since 2005. He and his family grow and sell certified organic herb, flower, vegetable starts, and lavender at the Lane County Farmer's Market. Andrew is a dedicated home gardener but dreams of growing more food for more people. He received a degree in Biology from The Colorado College in 1999 and studied Journalism at the University of Oregon.

Charles Hudson, Public Affairs Manager, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

Charles Hudson is a member the Mandan/Hidatsa tribe of Fort Berthold, North Dakota and since 1999 has served as Public Affairs Manager for the Portland-based Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, the policy and technical coordinating agency for the Columbia River Treaty Tribes. Charles has spoken throughout North America on treaty rights, salmon and environmental justice.  His passion for tribal issues is derived from his family's multi-generational fight for treaty rights and justice on the Missouri River chronicled in the 2004 novel Coyote Warrior by Paul Vandevelder. Charles also serves on the boards of the Oregon Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Open Meadow alternative school and is a founding board member of the Rivers Foundation of the Americas. He recently served as guest editor of "Modern Tribal People" a special edition of Oregon's Future magazine. Prior to his CRITFC service he spent several years working in media and American Indian education in the Pacific Northwest. He is a 1984 graduate of Washington State University. Charles has three sons: Charles III, Cray and Stone.

Linda Clingan, Founding Executive Director, Sid Lezak Project. 

From 1991-2005 she was the founding Executive Director of the Campaign for Equal Justice, raising over 9 million dollars for Oregon's Legal Services Programs and establishing access to justice as the top priority of the Oregon State Bar and Oregon Lawyers. From 1987-1990 she was the national fundraising coordinator for the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation's 1800 national chapters.  Headquartered in Washington D.C., AAUW's foundation is the oldest and largest women's foundation in the world. Clingan has served as a fundraising consultant for numerous organizations including California Rural Legal Assistance and on boards of the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, Portland Public Schools Foundation, DO Jump! Very Physical Theatre, The Fundraising Project and the Museum at Warm Springs. She has a degree in psychology and a teaching certificate from Seattle Pacific University. Her paternal grandmother, Eula Childers, moved from Kansas to Indian Territory in Eastern Oklahoma in 1871. Clingan is a registered Delaware Tribal Member.

Spanish Translator

Marcela Arredondo, Corvallis Coordinator, Congregational Wellness Project, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. 

This conference is dedicated to creating a more just and equitable society. It is made possible by the vision and dedication of the Lezak Project Board and its Executive Director, Linda Clingan, and generous grants from the Spirit Mountain Community Fund and the Policy Initiative Group, Inc.

Thank you to our co-sponsors: Portland State University College of Urban and Public Affairs, Oregon Department of Human Services Office of Multicultural Health and Services, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Urban League of Portland, Farmworker Housing Development Corporation, Archimedes Movement, Community Food Security Coalition, Community Health Partnership:Oregon's Public Health Institute, Coalition for a Livable Future, Northwest Health Foundation, Oregon League of Minority Voters, Oregon Bus Project, Catlin Gabel School, UO Wayne Morse Center For Law and Politics, and the Westwind Stewardship Group.

Thank you to the conference planners, and most especially Dean Larry Wallack.