Riverside Food Systems Alliance

The Riverside Food System Alliance (RFSA) supports, promotes and builds healthy cities and sustainable communities. Improving access to more fruits and vegetables produced by a resilient and productive local agriculture system is the foundation for improved health and sustainable use of our land and water. RFSA is an outgrowth organization from the city’s GrowRIVERSIDE initiative. Through a facilitated, 10-month multi-stakeholder planning process, the Riverside Food and Agriculture Policy and Action Plan was crafted. The Plan was approved by the city council in April, 2015, and the RFSA was formed through fiscal sponsorship by Community Partners in June, 2015 to help execute the Plan.

Seth Wilson

Seth Wilson, Co-founder and Executive Director, Riverside Food Systems Alliance: Seth has experience in developing markets around social-ecological systems. An experienced commodity trader and energy risk manager, Seth is adapting market-based strategies to build greater community health, wealth and local resiliency. He is a patent inventor of a credit derivative, designs securities crowdfunding for infrastructure and business development, and is a cofounder of a water clean-tech company. Seth holds a Master’s of Science in Information Systems and Decisions Sciences from the University of Memphis, and is a certified Energy Risk Professional by the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Healing Living Systems (HLS)

Theodosia Ferguson, Community Foodshed Resilience Advocate, is the founder and CEO of the California social benefit corporation, Healing Living Systems (HLS). HLS’s focus is creating climate stability through agroecology. For 14 years, Theo has been an active investor in community-based food, farming and finance and is a founding member of Slow Money National,Slow Money NoCal, and SOIL—Slow Opportunities to Invest Locally, Slow Money NoCal’s investment group. For over a dozen years, Theo is active in the public dialogue around systemic issues of food, health, and the envelope of fully functional natural systems including true cost accounting metrics and community benefits ROI. As a member of the Social Investment Forum (SIF), Theo is a frequently published author in Green Money Journal, SIF’s affiliated publication. Social Profit Experience: Founder, ED, International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology (ISAST); Export Profiles, a renewable energy export venture to South and SE Asia and People’s Republic of China; Koordinatorin der Kommunikationszentrum der Stadt</b> <b>Nüremberg, Deutschland; Founder, CEO, Bay Area Energy Action, Renewable Energy Activist Organization; Assistant Project Manager, National Science Foundation. Enterprise and Market Based experience: CEO, Healing Living Systems, Inc. (noted above); ounding and a California shareholder-owned flexible purpose corporation, Vital Systems, Inc. that supported food, farming, and finance enterprises, entrepreneurs, and investors; Administrative support and Project Manager, the National and Northern California TPMG offices of<b> Kaiser Permanente; Founder and CEO, Export Profiles, a renewable energy, resource management export venture to South and SE Asia and People’s Republic of China. Theo has a BA in Art History with a minor in Physics, from UC Riverside, and a lifetime California Community College Teaching Credential in Resource Management from the Peralta Community College System.

Gerardo Omar Marin serves as the Curriculum Designer and Director for Self-Actualization of Overburdened Community Members and Food Democracy for Healing Living Systems’ Community Cultural and Foodshed Resilience Program. Gerardo has been serving as the co-Director of the national youth group, Rooted-in-Community, for many years, and currently serves as the Director of the Pollination Project—a youth empowerment program. He has served as an the international project manager of Caminos Hacia la Salud, support for the heading of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, and Systems to Heal the Climate, a program that builds a global healing network to create climate stability.

Loren Valliant, CFO of the California social profit corporation, Healing Living Systems, Inc. Loren has lead and supported Business-Savvy Bookkeeping (B-SB.com) for ten years. His clients have covered the food spectrum, from community supported agriculture through co-packing and processing to retail baking and cafes. He served as the CFO of Vital Systems, Inc. a California shareholder-owned flexible purpose corporation.

Multinational Exchange in Sustainable Agriculture (MESA)

Leah Atwood, Co-Director, Director of Programs and Partnerships of MESA, Multinational Exchange in Sustainable Agriculture.
Leah joined <b>MESA</b>, Multi-Education in Sustainable Agriculture in 2004 and now serves as Co-Executive Director and Director of Programs and Partnerships. Her Humboldt farmland roots instilled a love for food and farming practices that nourish people and the planet. Leah moved to the Bay Area in 1999 to pursue degrees in Environmental Policy and Spanish at UC Berkeley. She has lived in South and Central America as well as Southeast Asia working on behalf of social, environmental and food justice initiatives. As a result of her travel and work experiences, she gained insight into myriad traditional agricultural practices, implications of a globalized corporate food regime and the value of farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange, agroecology and unconventional multi-interest holder collaboration. Her past work experience includes program development for the <b>international Institute for Bengal Basin</b>, which focused on pollution mitigation for farmers and rural communities in Bangladesh, fund development for the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant and supply chain review for Scientific Certifications Systems. Leah is a co-founder of Wild and Radish, LLC., evolving as a 10-acre urban farm and eco-village in El Sobante, CA. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Planting Justice, an Oakland non-profit creating green jobs and democratizing access to affordable, nutritious food. Climbing rocks, yoga, milking goats and befriending bees are frequent sources of fascination.

Ana Galvis Martinez, </b>Co-Lead Educator, MESA’s the Bay Area Farmer Training Program. Ana holds a bachelor degree in Biology, a Masters in Sustainable Development and a Masters in Latin American Studies with an emphasis on food justice. Ana is deeply interested in agroecology as an agricultural production alternative to produce good food, conserve natural resources and strengthen social movements. For over 15 year, Ana has worked with the <b>food justice movement and food sovereignty movements in Mexico, Columbia, and the USA</b>. Ana is originally from Columbia, single mother of a teenager, recent immigrant to the USA with a deep love and admiration for ancient cultures and indigenous cosmovisions. She has extensive experience teaching agroecology to people of different socio-cultural backgrounds, ages and genders.

Paul Rogé, Co-Lead Farm Educator for MESA’s Bay Area Farmer Training Program. Paul joined <b>MESA</b> in 2016. In addition, Paul is a <b>lecturer at UC Berkeley</b> where he teaches a course called Community Engagement in Food Systems. Paul has been involved <b>with organic farming and marketing, agroecology, and social movements for the past 15 years in CA and abroad (Brazil, Mexico, Mali, and Malawi in particular</b>). As a Research Associate at Michigan State University, Paul studied the potential for perennial staple seed and pulse crops in smallholder farming systems in Mali and Malawi. His doctorate at UC Berkeley involved participatory research on climatic ariability and rainfed agriculture with CEDICAM, a civil society organization in the Mexteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico that uses the farmer-to-farmer training methodology. Paul’s experience in organic farming and marketing comes from his membership in a Bay Area in a Bay Area worker’s collective, as well as working for <b>ALBA and several other organic farms

ReContext Data Solutions

David Adler, co-founder and director of innovation for ReContext Data Solutions. David has served as a quantitative analyst for policy think tanks, worked as a cryptographer, developed custom metrics and conducted performance reviews for New England school districts. He spent over 20 years as a public school administrator and teacher, where he taught mathematics, science, engineering, computer science and social studies, as well as undergraduate courses in statistics and graduate courses in pedagogy.
David holds a BS from Carnegie Mellon in theoretical mathematics and an MS in mathematics and secondary education from Long Island University – CW Post. He is currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on developing targeted, useful metrics for institutional success in school settings.

Mary Westervelt, co-founder and managing director of ReContext Data Solutions. Mary is responsible for both operations and relationship management, marrying her outcomes-focused orientation with a knack for aligning efforts around common goals. Before co-founding ReContext, Mary served as the director of marketing and industry relations for the CAIA Association, an international finance education nonprofit. A member of the launch team, Mary played a key role in the successful international growth of the CAIA program, with enrollment increasing by over 400% during her tenure.
In addition to her work with ReContext, Mary has a long history of community engagement. She has served as a member of the Energy Action Network and held seats on the boards of the Hardwick Electric Commission and E2M. She holds a BA summa cum laude in Anthropology from the College of William and Mary, where she co-founded an environmental action group, and an MBA in Sustainable Business Management from Marlboro College

Smooth Transition Inc.

Robin Goins PhD – Board President, Executive Director

Robin oversees the educational development elements of the program and works with students and universities on ground and online to provide the best educational and vocational training and options available for those within the program and to ensure that the curriculum is of quality and is meeting the needs of the participants. As a college professor specializing in psychology, sociology, career development, life planning and motivational theory, Robin provides the youth within the program with the education and tools needed to move to the next level. Being a pioneer in the field of online and hybrid learning, she is an active member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) as well as other online professional groups such as The Sloan Consortium, E-Learning 2.0, Instructional Design Professional Group, Online College Executives and Professionals, Innovative Learning Group, Moodlers, InfoPro Learning, Learning as a Service (Laas), Online Training and e-Learning, Webheads in Action, LearnHub, Professionals with Online Degrees, EON Foundation – Dedicated to Advanced Global Learning, EduDecisions Online Education &amp; Distance Learning Community. In addition, as a practicing Industrial and Organizational Psychologist, Robin works to bridge any gaps between program participants and our team of organizations to ensure a fluid transition and employer / employee satisfaction. Robin is also the Vice-Chair of the Riverside County Workforce Investment Board Council for Youth Development and a Grant Peer Reviewer for the US Department of Education.

Elsa Rodriguez-Fitzgerald – Co-Director

Elsa Rodriguez-Fitzgerald is a native to Southern California always had a passion for helping others. She has been able to do work that has not only been rewarding but her work drives her to do more for at risk communities. Mrs. Fitzgerald has over 20 years of experience in the non-profit and for profit sector. Elsa’s bi-lingual and bi-cultural upbringing has allowed her make profound connections with a variety of communities. She understands the barriers that many individuals face in their day to day lives and she aims to take down these real and perceived barriers to success. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Irvine in Social Ecology with an emphasis in Psychology and Social Behavior. She has also earned a Master of Arts degree in Psychology from Pepperdine University. Elsa connected her bi-lingual skills and co-founded; HOLA (Hands on Language Academy). HOLA aims to expose individuals to a hands-on learning environment. HOLA’s language immersion programs are geared for learners with varying Spanish speaking abilities. HOLA’s primary goal is to boost conversational Spanish speaking skills and broaden a student’s appreciation of Spanish speaking cultures. She has been an active member in her community and has served as a mentor to countless professionals that she has had the pleasure to come into contact with. Her innovation and energy have allowed her to evolve as a professional. She is fueled by a deep commitment to improve this world one individual at a time. “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of one small candle.”

Raincross Farms

Scott Tenney, Owner, Bluebird Canyon Farms

Scott Tenney advises and coordinates land planning and provides technical support for farm operations at Raincross Farms. Scott also brings considerable experience managing natural resource agri-business matters. For nearly two decades Mr. Tenney held assignments ranging from managing external affairs to directing strategic and operational planning for a Fortune 10 international energy company. He is an innovative problem solver with extensive experience directing multi-disciplinary teams, negotiating agreements, and dealing with regulatory officials. In addition to his advisory role as farm manager for Bluebird Canyon Farms and Raincross Farms, Mr. Tenney is a managing director for Simon-Tenney Holdings which owns or holds equity in agricultural projects in the western United States. Mr. Tenney endorses “System of Operational Excellence” (“SOE”); a management method encouraging safe, reliable and efficient work practices and is committed to promoting fair business practices underpinned by social justice and ecological principles.

Don Webber is currently growing new non-profit and for profit businesses, through the public-private partnership model to develop and operate teaching farms. Don’s company, Harvest2U has been instrumental in improving the direct to consumer business model for delivering locally grown organic produce to homes and offices in Southern California. Don brings more than 30 years’ experience in both corporate and non-profit management, leadership and governance. Don’s experience includes being part of the Management Team of an Inc. 500 corporation, a Sales and Marketing Director, Director of Business Development, Strategic Planning Director, CFO and Board Chair for national corporations and non-profit organizations.