Marcia DeLonge is an agroecologist in the Food & Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Dr. DeLonge conducts scientific research and analyses identifying practices that lead to healthy, sustainable food and farming systems. Her work seeks viable opportunities within agriculture to both adapt to and mitigate climate change. Dr. DeLonge has a Ph.D. and M.S. in environmental science from the University of Virginia, where she developed expertise in atmospheric science, hydrology, ecosystem science, and numerical modeling. She also earned a B.A. in environmental science from Northwestern University. Before joining UCS, Dr. DeLonge was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. She worked on a multi-stakeholder project (the Marin Carbon Project) that combined agriculture and climate science by seeking climate change solutions on grazing lands.
Brenda Platt is the co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and leads ILSR’s Composting for Community program, which is advancing composting in order to create jobs, enhance soils, sequester carbon, reduce waste, and build more resilient communities. She has authored numerous reports including Stop Trashing the Climate; Pay Dirt; The State of Composting in the US; and Growing Local Fertility: A Guide to Community Composting. She is a trained composter and has been licensed in Maryland to operate commercial composting facilities. She recently launched a Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders community composter training program to teach community leaders how to compost on a small-scale for local food production.
Chris Hunt serves as senior advisor for ReFED (Rethink Food Waste), where he supports the multi-stakeholder collaborative’s efforts to reduce U.S. food waste by providing strategic input on communications, stakeholder engagement, and content development. Before joining ReFED, Chris spent 12 years at the GRACE Communications Foundation, shaping the organization’s promotion of sustainable agriculture by developing campaign strategy, building collaborative partnerships, overseeing content development, and serving as the foundation’s primary spokesperson on food and agriculture issues. Previously, Chris conducted environmental economics research as an Alumni Memorial Scholar at Colgate University, served two terms on the board of directors of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and sat on the steering committee of the Street Memorial Project. Though he now lives in Northern California, Chris is proud to be certified as a Master Composter by the New York City Department of Sanitation.
Cassie Bartholomew is a Program Manager at StopWaste, a public agency located in Oakland, CA that helps Alameda County businesses, residents and schools waste less, recycle more and use water, energy, and other resources efficiently. She leads the agency’s Food Waste Prevention and Food Rescue initiatives working with food service businesses, K-12 schools and other institutions to reduce food waste through source reduction, food donation and composting. Cassie has over 19 years of professional experience developing, implementing and evaluating programs in the nonprofit and public sectors. Cassie received her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the UC, Santa Cruz and holds a Masters in Teaching from University of San Francisco.
In addition to being a legal associate for the Wallin Firm, Jordan is the executive director for Solutions for Urban Agriculture (SFUA), a non-profit farming organization that seeks to offer innovative solutions to some of the pressing food security, public health, ecological, workforce, and educational needs facing urban environments today. Prior to working with SFUA, Jordan managed a variety of projects and programs for both the public and private sectors. As the urban agriculture projects and program officer for the Orange County Great Park Corporation, he was instrumental in visioning, planning and implementing an impressive complement of cutting edge, community-based agricultural programs that continue to give back to the community to this day. While attending law school Jordan learned how to strategically position land leases to mutually benefit short-term agricultural tenants and land owners – a skill that was first put to use during the course of re-purposing former military runways and adjacent fields in the city of Irvine.
Hana Dansky is a cofounder and the current Executive Director of Boulder Food Rescue, a 5 year old, non-profit organization that works to create a more just and less wasteful food system. They do this through the sustainable redistribution of healthy fruits and vegetables to low-income people in Boulder. Boulder Food Rescue has redistributed 1.4 million pounds of healthy food, has conducted a food waste audit for the City, and works with food-insecure people to participate in designing their own food systems and be a part of their own food solutions.
Hana is also a part of the Boulder County Healthy Eating Active Living Team, a cofounder of Boulder Food Not Bombs, a Chinook Fund Giving Project member working to fundraise and move money into grassroots organizing organizations. Hana also started a LGBTQ activist and safe space in Boulder.
Darby Hoover is a Senior Resource Specialist with NRDC's food and agriculture program. She specializes in issues related to food waste reduction, composting, anaerobic digestion, solid waste management, recycling, paper industry reform, and sustainable packaging. Darby’s previous work includes helping to manage NRDC’s sustainability initiatives with sports and entertainment organizations, including Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the Academy Awards, and the GRAMMY Awards. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications including NRDC’s “Guide to Composting at Sports Venues” and NRDC’s report “Game Changer: How the Sports Industry is Saving the Environment”. Darby received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University, and her master's in Energy and Resources from U.C. Berkeley.
Jordan Figueiredo is an Anti-Food Waste Activist from Northern California. Through social media, writing, talks and activism he connects and ignites the movement to end food waste and hunger. Most notably through The Ugly Fruit And Veg Campaign which uses funny, bizarre, and beautiful images of produce in order to highlight the 20-40% of all fruits and vegetables that go to waste, before stores, due to optional grocer cosmetic standards. The Campaign, through Change.org, has been successful in petitioning Whole Foods Market and Walmart to sell ugly produce. The Campaign has also been featured on the TODAY Show, in Huffington Post, NPR, Upworthy, Mic, Think Progress, CBS News, Los Angeles Times, and many others. Along with more than 145,000 people in 190 countries, you can follow The Ugly Fruit And Veg Campaign on Twitter, Instagram, We Heart It and Facebook. For more, visit www.UglyFruitAndVeg.org.