Speaker Biographies

Alexandra Mello

Alexandra has experienced that too often: people facing food and economic insecurity are talked about instead of given the chance to speak for themselves and their communities. She believes the people closest to the problem are a vital part of the solution and belong in positions of leadership and decision-making power.

For 25 years, she has been an advocate in diverse roles in the human service and nonprofit sectors. She integrates her experiences as a single parent navigating many of the systems she works to transform. As Policy Advocacy Coordinator for the Hampshire County Food Policy Council, a Public Narrative coach certified in Marshall Ganz's Harvard Kennedy School methods, Alexandra guides people to turn their experience into leadership and advocacy that move decision-makers. She brings a global perspective from working and studying in Southeast Asia, the UK, and Central America while earning her degree in Human Rights and Social Change through Long Island University’s Global College.

She leads Public Narrative trainings for Union Capital Boston-Springfield, serves as both a leadership team member and trainer with Project Bread’s Council of Experts and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, and coordinates Hampshire County Food Policy Council’s Community Story Archive and Policy Advocacy.

Alison Cohen

Alison has worked as an organizer and advocate alongside grassroots-led organizations and social movements in rural and urban communities for nearly 30 years in the struggle to build people- and ecologically-centered food and farming systems in the United States and throughout the world. Alison believes that grassroots-led social movements are the most effective means for dismantling inequitable systems and erecting new socially just ones. She is a co-founder of the National Right to Food CoP. 

Anna Maria Siega-Riz

Dr. Siega-Riz’s research focuses on the first 1,000 days of life: understanding the influences of diet, nutrition and lifestyle on the short- and long-term health of the mother and the child. She has been involved in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Hispanic Community Health Study/Salude of Latinos Cohort in the U.S. since 2007 examining dietary trends and the role diet plays in the etiology of chronic diseases. Other research interests include examining the determinants and consequences of food insecurity and the implications of food policy on health outcomes. She leads the campus’ efforts on Food as Medicine working closely with faculty in nutrition, food science and nursing as well as UMass dinning to alleviate food insecurity within communities and improve health providers knowledge and application of culinary skills and nutrition in their clinical practice to improve patient’s health.

Ashley Randle

A fifth-generation dairy farmer, Ashley E. Randle was sworn in as the twenty-first Commissioner by Governor Maura T.Healey on March 6, 2023. She is the first woman to lead the Department and assumed the role after having served as Deputy Commissioner/Legislative and Policy Director since October 2018.

Bridget Hynes

Bridget Hynesis Director of Basic Needs Initiatives at UMass Amherst, where she leads efforts to address the non-academic barriers that can affect student success. Her work focuses on ensuring students have access to essential resources, including food, housing, and emergency financial assistance. She oversees programs such as the Student Care Emergency Fund, Short-Term Emergency Loan Program, Meal Swipe Program, and Student Care Supply Closet, working collaboratively with campus and community partners to strengthen support systems for students facing basic needs insecurity.

Throughout her career, Bridget has been committed to expanding educational opportunity and advancing equity for students and families from diverse backgrounds. Prior to her current role, she spent more than a decade with the UMass Amherst Upward Bound Program, supporting first-generation and low-income students as they prepared for and succeeded in higher education. Her professional experience has included work in youth development, human rights, nonprofit leadership, and community-based education initiatives in the United States, Latin America, and Southern Africa.

In addition to her work, Bridget has taught courses focused on human rights, community development, and childhood hunger. She holds a PhD from the University of Denver and an MA from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Her work is grounded in the belief that educational access and student success depend on ensuring that all students have the resources and support they need to thrive.

Caitlin Hodgkins 

Caitlin Hodgkins serves as the Policy Director and Subcommittee Staff Director for Representative James P. McGovern (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Rules. 

The Rules Committee sets the terms of debate for major legislation that is debated on the House Floor. In her role at the Rules Committee, Caitlin advises the Ranking Member on legislation that moves through the Committee and provides advice regarding procedure, policy, and message. Caitlin also provides Members and their staff with strategic and technical advice throughout the amendment process to promote their policy goals. 

In addition to her work at the Rules Committee, Caitlin supports Rep. McGovern’s efforts to strengthen anti-hunger programs and local food systems. She served as Rep. McGovern’s lead staffer on the Nutrition Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee during consideration of the 2018 Farm Bill, and continues to lead policy development and provide strategic communications advice in those areas.

Caitlin grew up in Auburn, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of American University’s School of Public Affairs in Washington, DC.

Candace Burton

Candace Burton has always wanted to make a positive impact with her work which led her to The Boston Foundation. Currently, as the Program Officer for Safety Net Grants, she supports organizations that respond to essential needs for marginalized communities and vulnerable residents in Greater Boston. Since 2021, Candace has helped grant over $6 million to nonprofits. Other responsive grantmaking responsibilities of hers include leading recommendations for The Boston Foundation’s Food, Fuel & Shelter Fund. She is the co-chair for the Boston Chapter of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, whose mission is to empower emerging leaders and elevate philanthropic practice in order to build a more just, equitable and sustainable world. Prior to this, Candace worked at various sport nonprofit organizations including Good Sports, Up2Us Sports and Asphalt Green where she did everything from fundraising to event planning to program management. She is an alum of Ithaca College and UMass Amherst. Candace currently lives in Massachusetts with her fiancé and dog, loves outdoor activities and has been plant based since she was 18.

Chelsea Marshall

Chelsea joined the Community of Practice in 2023, and she became the Director of Special Projects in 2024. She has a masters in Human Rights Law and a PhD in Law from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. For six years, Chelsea worked in Scotland to advance the right to food and promote dignity in responses to food insecurity with Nourish Scotland and the Independent Food Aid Network. In Northern Ireland, Chelsea supported people most affected by social and economic injustices to use human rights in their campaigns with the Participation and Practice of Rights project to improve public services, and as a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Children’s Rights, her work focused on expanding for meaningful participation of children and young people in public decision-making in Ireland and at the international level. Chelsea grew up in Maine and is pleased to be back in New England, applying her learning from the UK to our current challenges in the United States.

Clarke Bankert

Clarke Bankert is a song leader, public health practitioner, nature lover, and parent. She was drawn into public health and food systems work by growing up in her family's restaurants in rural upstate New York, where she learned what community should feel like: friendly, generous, and full of delicious food. After years working in restaurants and bakeries, she pursued a Master's in Public Health at UMass Amherst and has since built her career in Western Massachusetts, helping communities share power to build more just and vibrant communities. She brings the same spirit to her work that she learned in her family's kitchens — believing that real change happens when people are fed, welcomed, and moved to act together.

Clarke currently serves as Co-Director of the Department of Healthy Families and Communities at the Collaborative for Educational Services. She founded Healthy Hampshire, which for the past 14 years has led work across the county on community food systems, active living, climate resilience, and advocacy and leadership development. She is also a co-founder of the Hampshire County Food Policy Council, which launched in 2022.

Clarke loves making art and music together in community, and she tries to get people singing wherever she goes. She believes our cultural work right now is about re-learning connection through shared human practices that are accessible to everyone.

Cora Reese

Cora is an honors undergraduate student majoring in political science in the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She works as the Hunger and Homelessness Campaign Coordinator at UMass Amherst MassPIRG as well as being a MassPIRG state board member. She is originally from Alexandria, Virginia and plans to have a career in public policy focusing on food insecurity.

Elizabeth Reisine

Elizabeth is a graduate student studying community nutrition in a Masters of Public Health and Masters of Public Policy Administration program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research interest is in how political, social, and economic systems affect the choices that people can make about food. She has lived in the Pioneer Valley for the past fifteen years, and has worked in food service, agritech, environmental conservation, and social work. 

Jake Krain

Jake Krain is the Manager of the Campus Pantry, a program of the Amherst Survival Center serving the UMass community. Jake is a graduate of Smith College where he majored in American Studies with a focus in food systems. He has spent over a decade working in nonprofits, focusing on food access and youth mentorship. Jake has extensive experience in community engagement, program management, fundraising, and teaching. Originally from the Philadelphia area, he started his career in food justice working for Philabundance, the leading hunger relief organization for Southeast Pennsylvania.His love for western Massachusetts and farming brought him back to the area in 2015 when he took on the role as the Assistant Director at Red Gate Farm Education Center (Ashfield, MA). Jake also previously worked at Food Connects (Brattleboro, VT), a non-profit food distributor, focusing on increasing access to local food and strengthening the local food economy. He also worked as a cheesemonger and competed in the Cheesemonger Invitational in 2023. Jake believes strongly in the ability for food to bring people together.

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.

Jo Comerford

Jo worked regionally and nationally to serve the people of western Massachusetts long before entering public office in January 2019.

After earning a Masters of Social Work from New York City’s Hunter College School of Social Work, Jo moved to western Massachusetts to continue organizing around prison reform and housing and shelter policy. Focused on increasing equity and opportunity for people in western Massachusetts, Jo contributed to the work of the Center for Human Development, American Friends Service Committee, Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, National Priorities Project (NPP), and MoveOn. During her seventh year as NPP’s executive director, the organization received a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

Jo was elected to the State Senate to represent the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester district in 2018 as a write-in candidate. She is the first woman to hold the seat. 

Juli Stelmaszyk

Juli Stelmaszyk serves as the Director of Food Security at the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources where she oversees cross-agency implementation of food security initiatives and promotes a safe and resilient food system for the Commonwealth. Previously, she was Director of Food Strategy for the state of Rhode Island where she worked to strengthen Rhode Island’s food economy through a systems approach which promotes health equity, economic development and environmental sustainability. Prior to this role, Juli worked in small scale agriculture in Massachusetts, founded a farm-to-table cooking school in Rome and launched inaugural local food procurement programs at a high school in Italy and at Boston College Dining Services. She holds an MBA from Boston College Carroll School of Management with a concentration in sustainability and social impact.

Karen Spiller

Karen A. Spiller is the Thomas W. Haas Professor in Sustainable Food Systems and Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Social Work Department at University of New Hampshire, Durham. Karen is engaged in scholarship on the intersection of disciplines, networks and racial equity across the campus and its surrounding community, extending to higher education partners nationally and internationally. As Principal of KAS Consulting, with a focus on racial equity and intersectionality, Karen works with local, state, regional and national organizations committed to creating equitable public health and sustainable food systems. Involved in state-wide and regional food system work, Karen is a backbone and steering committee member of and the Massachusetts Ambassador serving as lead coordinator of the Ambassador Team for Food Solutions New England (FSNE), a six-state network focused on food system transformation with racial equity at its core. Celebrating its 9th year of national and international participation, Karen co-leads the FSNE’s 21 -Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge designed to “build skill and will” and action to address racial inequities, through a food system lens. She serves organizations and their missions in various roles that include board membership of the Boston Food Forest Coalition, Sustainable Business Network of Massachusetts, Northeast Organic Farmers Association: Massachusetts Chapter (NOFA/Mass) and American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA) and is an Advisory Council member of the Global Council of Science and Environment (GCSE) Leaders’ Alliance. Karen is also a founding member of Southern New England Farmers of Color Collaborative (SNEFCC).

Kia Aoki

Kia Aoki is a community organizer, grassroots leader, and food justice advocate whose work centers on the connections between food, economic inequality, community power, and systems change. She is a founding partner of the Hampshire County Food Policy Council, where she works to bring community knowledge and lived experience into conversations about policy and the future of the local food system.

Drawing on her own experience of navigating economic hardship and systems that often exclude low-income people from decision-making, Kia brings a lived-experience perspective to questions of food access, power, and public policy. Her work is grounded in the belief that lived experience is a form of expertise, and that realizing the right to food requires not only access to healthy, culturally appropriate food, but a meaningful voice in the decisions that determine how food systems work.

Kia is the founder of Progressive Pathways Collective, a grassroots organization created with and for low-income women living in public housing. Through PPC, she works to create spaces where women whose voices are often missing from policy and institutional decision-making can identify the issues that affect their lives, build collective power, and develop their own ideas for change.

She serves on the Board of Grow Food Northampton and chairs its Development Committee. Across these roles, Kia is particularly interested in moving beyond models that position low-income people primarily as recipients of services toward approaches that recognize them as experts, decision-makers, and participants in shaping the systems that affect their lives.

Kianna Clarke

Kianna Clarke is a student at UMass Amherst studying through University Without Walls to obtain her bachelor’s degree. Kianna resides in Western Massachusetts and works in public benefits, where she sees firsthand how gaps in housing, income, healthcare, and other basic needs can contribute to food insecurity. She is an appointed representative for individuals seeking assistance with Social Security benefits and helps community members navigate Social Security denials, appeals, and reconsideration requests. Kianna is also familiar with the housing crisis through several years of experience working in case management and supervisory roles with homeless shelters and at-risk populations. She is a member of the Community Engagement Team at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, bringing both her professional and lived experience to the work of creating meaningful change. Kianna hopes to pursue a career focused on creating more accessible and equitable systems.

Kristen Whitmore

Kristen Whitmore, MRP is the Healthy Hampshire Program Manager. Prior to this role, she served as the Special Projects Coordinator on the Healthy Hampshire team for four years. She is a founding member of the Hampshire County Food Policy Council (HCFPC), a platform created by and for residents typically excluded from public conversations to participate directly in building a food system where all people live more joyful and gratifying lives through access to affordable, healthy, locally grown food of their choice. Kristen led the development of HCFPC’s storytelling and narrative change initiative, including the creation of the Community Story Archive. She also developed and leads the Hilltown Produce Prescription Program. Kristen has 15 years of experience working to build equitable community food systems rooted in principles of food sovereignty, community self-determination, and collective change. She specializes in community engagement and leadership development, collaborative governance and organizational structures, systemic and cultural change models, narrative strategy, and participatory research/evaluation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Gender Studies from Mount Holyoke College and a master’s degree in Regional Planning from University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Lindiwe Sibeko

My research interests are strongly influenced by my professional background in dietetics, lactation care/management and community health programming for at-risk women and children, coupled with community-engaged research in the area of breastfeeding and human milk. I use a life-course framework that integrates research, education, and extension outreach to improve health outcomes among women and children vulnerable to health disparities. Consequently, my research seeks to identify early risk factors at the individual, community, and institutional levels in the population groups I work with; and to develop multilevel interventions that contribute to improved health outcomes throughout the life course of vulnerable women, infants, and children.

Liz O'Gilvie

Liz O’Gilvie, Gardening The Community’s Executive Director since 2022, has been with the organization for 13 years, previously serving as Board Chair; she also serves as Convener of the Springfield Food Policy Council. She practices a community-centered leadership approach grounded in shared decision-making— collaborating with partners and actively listening to constituent feedback to ensure initiatives reflect community needs. 

Marcelina Burrowes

Marcelina is an undergraduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Commonwealth Honors College. They are studying Political Science as well as Social Thought and Political Economy. Marcelina works as an intern with MassPIRG and began her food access advocacy work through their Hunger and Homelessness campaign. Coming from Haverhill, Massachusetts, Marcelina hopes to continue to work in advocacy and activism in the future!

Mariana Chilton

Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH, is a school-wide Professor of Practice with a faculty home in the Department of Nutrition. Dr. Chilton authored The Painful Truth About Hunger in America Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think We Know—and Start Again (MIT Press, October 2024). She is currently working on bringing forth the human rights framework to addressing hunger and nutrition in Massachusetts and bringing more compassion into public health practice. Dr. Chilton served as the Co-chair of the National Commission on Hunger meant to advise Congress and the United States Department of Agriculture on how to improve anti-poverty programs. She has testified before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives and served as advisor to Sesame Street and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Chilton’s work has been covered in the feature-length documentary A Place at the Table, and in the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, public radio, and national television news outlets.

Megan Patton-Lopez

Mēgan Patton-López, PhD, RDN, is a public health nutritionist, educator, and community-engaged researcher dedicated to advancing equitable access to healthy, culturally meaningful food. Her work brings together community members, healthcare organizations, nonprofits, government agencies, and academic partners to develop solutions that honor community voice, cultural food traditions, and local strengths. Through projects focused on food security, produce prescription programs, campus hunger, and local food systems, she seeks to create conditions where individuals and families can thrive.
Mēgan believes that nourishing communities requires more than access to food. It requires listening, relationship-building, and shared leadership. Her research and teaching explore the connections between food, health, culture, and belonging, with a focus on college students, rural communities, and others who experience barriers to healthy food access. She is committed to collaborative approaches that strengthen food systems, advance health equity, and uphold the human right to food for all.

Michael Fox

After beginning his undergraduate studies at the United States Military Academy (West Point), Fox earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in anatomy from Virginia Commonwealth University. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. Throughout his career, Fox has received numerous awards and honors, including both the Jordi Folch Pi Award and the Marian Kies Award from the American Society for Neurochemistry, and has served as a counselor for the American Society for Neurochemistry, on several leadership committees for the Society for Neuroscience, and as a reviewer and chair for National Institutes of Health review panels. The focus of his research is the study of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie neural circuit formation in the developing brain.

Mindy Domb

Mindy Domb (D-Amherst) has served as the State Representative from the 3rd Hampshire District, representing the communities of Amherst and Granby since 2018. Immediately prior to taking office, Mindy served as the Executive Director of the Amherst Survival Center, a one stop basic needs organization which offers a food pantry, a community meals program, food recovery and distribution, and a free health clinic for residents of Hampshire and Franklin Counties. She is currently the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery, and a co-chair of the legislature’s Food Systems Caucus. Previously, she worked extensively in the HIV/AIDS epidemic as an educator, trainer, program planner, advocate, and community organizer and as a congressional aide in New York City.

She’s lived in Amherst for 27 years, where she served as an elected member of Town Meeting.

Molly Powers

Molly is the Field Manager at The Farm Lab in Chesterfield, MA, a MomentumAg initiative advancing regenerative agriculture through farmer-led research. Over ten years, she has moved from livestock care on Cape Cod to production farming, and now works where sustainable agriculture meets community food security. Funded by food access and climate-smart grants, The Farm Lab donates its entire harvest, delivering free, fresh produce weekly to local schools and community partners. Molly also serves on the Hampshire County Food Policy Council and is a recent alum of the National Young Farmer Coalition's fellowship program.

Monte Belmonte

Monte Belmonte is host and executive producer of NEPM's The Fabulous 413. He was born and raised in Massachusetts and has been a radio host in western Massachusetts for the last 20 years — the last 17 of them as host of Mornings with Monte on The River 93.9/WRSI.

During his time as host of Mornings with Monte, he developed several local fundraising campaigns, including the annual pre-Thanksgiving “Monte’s March” for The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.

Rebecca Davidson

Rebecca Davidson serves as MDAR’s Director of Food and Climate Equity. In this role, Rebecca leads MDAR’s environmental justice and food system resilience initiatives.  Rebecca’s work includes implementing MDAR’s Environmental Justice Strategy, engaging Historically Underserved farmers and communities, enhancing MDAR’s language services, upholding MDAR’s food security and access programs, and fostering an agency-wide holistic approach to environmental justice, climate change, and their impacts on food and agriculture in Massachusetts. 

Rebecca Miller

Rebecca Miller is the Policy Director at the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative. At the Collaborative, she advocates for the organization’s policy priorities to the legislature and state agencies, and leads advocacy campaigns to support a resilient, equitable, and sustainable local food system. She is an experienced organizer and facilitator and is well regarded in the agricultural community for her skills as a policy advocate and advocacy trainer. She has a Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Clark University.

Rossana Salazar

Rossana Salazar is a bilingual public health and community engagement professional committed to advancing health equity, food access, language access, and community leadership. She works at the Collaborative for Educational Services (CES) in Massachusetts, supporting initiatives within the Healthy Families and Communities and Early Childhood departments. She is one of the coordinators of the Hampshire County Food Policy Council (HCFPC) Hub and serves as its Language Access Coordinator.

With more than two decades of experience across healthcare, education, and community-based settings, Rossana works closely with Latino families and other communities whose voices are often underrepresented in institutional spaces. She developed the Latino Leadership & Empowerment Group, a Spanish-language community space focused on health, food, family well-being, civic engagement, and leadership development. Her work centers on building relationships and creating the conditions for community members to develop their own voice, leadership, and capacity to participate in conversations that affect their lives and communities.

Rossana is a Registered Nurse and holds an MPH in Community Health Education and a Graduate Certificate in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies from UMass Amherst. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Environmental Conservation at UMass Amherst, where her research focuses on environmental and public health challenges affecting Indigenous communities in Latin America.

Spencer Masterson

Spencer is the Director of the Make Hunger History Coalition at Project Bread. Masterson brings more than 14 years of experience in food justice, advocacy, and coalition-building to the role. Prior to joining Project Bread, Masterson served as Associate Director of Partnerships & Programs at the Oregon Food Bank, where he facilitated a statewide coalition of 21 food banks and over 1,400 independent distribution sites. His extensive background in advocacy, coalition-building, and policy transformation has resulted in significant policy wins, such as funding for Double Up Food Bucks, and helped catalyze support for universal school meals, as well as broader systems change in areas such as minimum wage increases and driver’s licenses for all residents. Throughout his career, Masterson has been a staunch advocate for racial justice and community-driven solutions to food insecurity.

Wendy Bongjoh

Wendy is a grants management professional who has worked internationally and locally across the fields of community development, health, and food security. Her perspectives on the right to food and hunger are shaped by: 1) a humanitarian crisis she experienced back in her homeland (Cameroon, Central Africa), 2) her seven-year long journey as a caregiver to two disabled family members, 3) and her experience of homelessness in the United States of America. Fueled by her love for nutrition, she leverages her lived experience and communication skills as a member of Project Bread’s Council of Experts and a volunteer leader at the North American Food System Network.