Speaker Bios

Mike Hamm (Keynote: An Integrated Approach to Food Policy - Lessons and Successes)

Mike Hamm is the C. S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University and head of the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at MSU. The work of the C.S. Mott Group is focused on small- and medium-scale family farm viability, equal access by all members of a community to a healthy diet, and pasture-based animal systems. Previously, while at Rutgers University he was co-founder and director of the New Jersey Urban Ecology Program, an effort that addressed sustainable food systems issues, as well as the founding director of the Cook Student Organic Farm. He does research in the areas of community food security, community and sustainable food systems.

Michael Van Ness (Urban Ag Strategies: Growing a Urban Agriculture Food System Economy)

Michael G. Van Ness, Executive Director Lynchburg Grows Michael Van Ness, Esq. is one of the founders of Lynchburg Grows and has served in a pro bono capacity as both the corporate counsel and special advisor concerning non-profit issues for Lynchburg Grows. Mr. Van Ness received his Juris Doctor from the Northwestern School ofLaw of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Forestry and Wildlife Sciences with an option in environmental conservation from Virginia Tech. Mr. Van Ness has served in a variety of capacities in many regional and state non-profit organizations and has received numerous awards for his leadership efforts.

Katherine Smith (State regulatory issues, representing smaller sustainable farms)

Katherine Smith joined the local food scene when she moved to Rockbridge County, Va., in 1987 and began a small market garden. Since then she has sold locally through a food coop, serving on its board, and at a farmers market, of which she was co-manager. She's also and Extension Master Gardener. A member of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming since 1986, she is currently its president.

Renee Boyer (Innovations in Microbial Food Safety)

Dr. Renee R. Boyer is an assistant professor and extension specialist in Food Science & Technology Department at Virginia Tech. Dr. Boyer's research focuses on the development of pre and post harvest interventions to improve the safety of fresh and fresh cut produce products. She is also interested in interactions between foodborne pathogens and plant surfaces including attachment and biofilm formation. Dr. Boyer's extension program focuses on educating consumers on safe food handling and preparation to prevent foodborne illness. She provided leadership for the state's Food Safety Team, a team of extension agents through Virginia Cooperative Extension focuses on consumer food safety education.

Ken Meter (Macro trends for Virginia food security: food imports, food exports, hunger, economic “leakages”)

Ken Meter, president of Crossroads Resource Center in Minneapolis, holds 36 years experience in community capacity building as a journalist, researcher, educator, and administrator. His pioneering "Finding Food in Farm Country," and "Neighborhood Income Statement and Balance Sheet" studies have helped spark local development in locales across the U.S. Meter taught economics and journalism at the University of Minnesota and economics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard ? where he also was awarded a mid-career Public Service Fellowship. He serves as an economic and strategic advisor to the Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.

Andy Hankins (Strategies to make small farms viable)

Mr. Hankins has served as Extension Specialist-Alternative Agriculture in Virginia since 1987. He is stationed at Virginia State University in Petersburg. He provides educational programs in production and marketing of non-traditional farm products such as medicinal herbs, garlic, cut flowers, mushrooms, specialty fruit and vegetables, exotic livestock, value-added farm products and certified organic vegetables, grains and livestock. He also provides educational programs concerning development of agricultural tourism in Virginia. Andy Hankins grew up on a 27 acre farm in Bedford County, Virginia. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture from Berea College in Kentucky. From 1977 to 1987, Andy served as an Agriculture Extension Agent first in King and Queen County and later in Madison County. He went back to college at Virginia Tech to receive a Masters Degree in Animal Science, before becoming a state specialist. Mr. Hankins currently lives with his wife and son in New Kent County, Virginia.

David Tatman (Strategies and Weak Links For Viable Small-Scale Meat Production)

David Tatman is a career officer with the US Army and a part time farmer in central Fluvanna County, Virginia. His talk will reflect lessons learned from working with his spouse, Catherine, (who farms full time), and their two teenage daughters, on Hilldale Farm. They raise chickens for meat and eggs, sheep and beef, as well as some market vegetables. They also make hay on other farms around historic Wilmington, VA. (Catherine also is a market manager for the Fluvanna Farmers Market.)

Spencer Neale (Virginia Agriculture, What Are We Growing and Where Are We Going?)

Spencer Neale has been a commodity specialist with the VA Farm BureauFederation in Richmond for fifteen years. He follows state, national andworld agriculture production, marketing and economic issues. His primaryareas of emphasis are the livestock, aquaculture, equine, apple andcotton sectors as well as animal health, value-added agriculture andnational policy issues related to agriculture. Prior to joining FarmBureau, Mr. Neale was a managing partner of a family beef cattle andsheep operation in Orange County. He attended Washington and LeeUniversity in Lexington, VA.

Marty White (Innovations in Reducing Food Insecurity (Hunger and Poverty) in Virginia)

Marty has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Network since February 2001. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Marty served as Associate Director of the Food Bank from 1999 - 2001. Marty currently serves on the board of directors of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, serving as the Vice Chairman and will assume the Chairmanship of the Federation board in July 2007. Prior to joining the staff of the Food Bank, Marty served for eight years on the Board of Director's of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Network. Marty has had a varied career, spending over 21 years in the Newspaper and Television Industry and prior to joining the Food Bank served as Chief Executive Officer of the Staunton /Augusta Chamber of Commerce.Marty is originally from Lynchburg Virginia and is married with four children and three grandchildren.

Kathy Hosig (Innovations in Access to Healthful Food in Virginia [Obesity, Diabetes, Poverty])

Kathy Hosig received her BS degree and completed the Coordinated Undergraduate Program in dietetics in Human Nutrition and Foods from Virginia Tech in 1985. She has been a registered since dietitian since 1985 and worked part-time as a clinical dietitian in West Lafayette Indiana while completing her doctoral degree in nutrition at Purdue University (1992). Her dissertation research was related to dietary fiber and bile acid metabolism. Kathy completed a Master’s of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 2001. She was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas for 4 years and Assistant/Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Western Carolina University (NC) for 8 years before joining the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods & Exercise at Virginia Tech in 2004. Her current research interests are in community nutrition, specifically working with children and with older adolescents as they transition to young adulthood.

Barbara Schwenk (Creating a regional food policy council)

Barbara Schwenk is an Economic Development Coordinator with the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission. Barbara’s work experience is checkered: corporate research services, printing industry, management recruiting, and construction and grants management. Her educational experiences were similar by starting as a history major and finishing with business communications. Most recently, she completed the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute training. Her interest in sustainable agriculture evolved over many years of avid organic gardening and flower farming. Her food policy work at the A-NPDC started with the award of a SARE Community Innovation Grant aimed at reducing food dollar leakage out of the region.

Anthony Flaccavento (Strategies To Increase The Viability of Small Farms Through a Regional Approach)

forthcoming

Stephanie Larsen (Farm Bill issues relating to community food security)

Steph Larsen originally hails from the icy regions of northwest Wisconsin,
where in her very first job as a teenager she pollinated corn. She has a
bachelor's degree in geology from the University of WI at Eau Claire, and
her master's degree in geography from the University of Wisconsin, where her
research focused on sustainable agriculture. She has been the policy
organizer for the Community Food Security Coalition since 2005, and
currently lives in Washington, DC.

 

Donna Seward (The Federal WIC (Womens, Infants, Children) food program package: proposed changes and impacts on farmer's markets)

forthcoming

Charles Green (VDACS Specialty Agriculture Initiative)

Charles is a Project Manager-Specialty Agriculture in the Agribusiness
Development Services Unit of the Virginia Department of Agriculture &
Consumer Services (VDACS). In 2005, the Governor and the General Assembly
created the Virginia Works Initiative to revitalize Virginia's rural
economy. A major part of this initiative involves the development and
enhancement of specialty agriculture businesses that provide opportunities
for high value and value added enterprises in rural Virginia. As a Project
Manager, Charles works to foster a sound agricultural economy and to help
create jobs and economic investment in Virginia by recruiting value-added
agricultural businesses and by facilitating the expansion and
diversification of existing agricultural enterprises.

Prior to joining VDACS, Charles served as head of the International
Marketing Offcie at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer
Services (NCDA). The NCDA International Trade Office helps bridge the gap
between international buyers and North Carolina suppliers of agricultural
commodities, value-added foods, seafood and aquacultural products, and
forest products. He was also the Corporate Transportation Manager for
Coastal Lumber Company, the largest privately owned hardwood lumber company
in the United States.

Charles holds an undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech and a Masters in
Business Administration from Campbell University. Charles lives in Henrico
County with his wife, Marcy and children James and Katherine.