Eartha is the Co-Executive Director of the Midwest Environmental Justice Network, a grassroots-led intermediary and capacity building organization. Eartha leads the organizations grantmaking work through the Midwest Frontline Fund where she facilitates a participatory grantmaking model that distributes $3 million in grants annually. Eartha is also the Founding Director of Frogtown Farm, a 5.5-acre regenerative urban farm where she led a community process to design, build, and program a thriving space for community healing and connectedness. She has also built a strategy consultancy for non-profits, foundations, and social enterprises focused on the intersection of social justice, food, agriculture, health, and environment. Eartha graduated with a B.A. from Macalester College and an M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota.

Emily Parker is the Executive Director of the Butterfly Equity Foundation, a foundation that is committed to supporting food equity in Los Angeles County. Prior to joining the Foundation, Emily worked in grants management and operations at Fundamental, a Los Angeles-based philanthropic advising firm. Most recently Emily was the Director of Development for Food Forward, where she worked in partnership with nonprofits, philanthropists, and businesses to raise awareness and funds to fight hunger and food waste in Southern California.

Emily serves as the Treasurer of the Board for Safe Place for Youth, is a member of the LA County Food Equity Roundtable and Food as Medicine Taskforce, serves on the Membership Committee for the Sustainable Ag Food & Systems Funders, and is a Co-Founder of and leads the LA Food Funders. She previously served as an advisor for Farm2People and was on the Board of The Road Theatre. Emily graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre

Emily is committed to driving innovations that ensure everyone can be healthy and thrive. A social entrepreneur, speaker, and published author with more than 20 years of experience in the social sector, Emily is changing how change is made to tackle society’s most pressing challenges.

Emily helps Newman’s Own Foundation realize its mission of nourishing and transforming the lives of children who face adversity as its Chief Partnerships and Program Officer. In this role, Emily forges innovative strategies, collaborations, and programs focused on advancing school nutrition, nutrition education, Indigenous food justice, and joyful experiences for children with chronic medical conditions. She oversees an annual grantmaking budget of $12M with more than 100 grantee partners.

Emily is also an outspoken advocate for developing responsible AI applications for the social sector. In 2022, Emily founded AI PRIORI—a B2B and B2C SaaS platform that helps changemakers identify the most relevant information across all their documents, and generate insights for greater impact. She is helping changemakers center community voice in the development of dynamic AI solutions.

Prior to this role, Emily served as editor of the book, Community Engagement: Strategic Skills for Public Health Practice published by APHA Press and led The BUILD Health Challenge®, a funding collaborative that supported more than 55 communities across the US working to advance health equity resulting in more than 100 systems level changes (i.e., local policy, new funding streams, and organizational policy).

Honors include being chosen as a Halcyon Fellow, Center for Community Investment Field Catalyst Fellow, and a Terrance Keenan Institute Fellow. Emily currently serves as an Advisory Board member for both the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University and APHA Press. She has also served on the Grantmakers in Health board and Asian American and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, Washington, DC, steering committee. She earned her MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and her BS from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.

For more than 20 years, Heidi Dusek has worked where community, philanthropy, and big-picture change meet—turning bold ideas into real solutions that put people first. Her career spans philanthropy, research and evaluation, public health, and education, giving her a broad perspective shaped by many sectors and experiences. 

Heidi currently serves as Executive Director of the Lumpkin Family Foundation, where she is guiding a strategy to align impact across the Foundation’s full range of assets—from grantmaking to investments. In this role, she is advancing integrated capital approaches that strengthen food systems, foster community resilience, and accelerate human-centered change. She is deeply committed to building trusted relationships with family, trustees, staff, and community partners.  She stewards the Foundation’s resources in ways that honor its rural roots while bridging connections across both local and national contexts. Previously, Heidi led the J.J. Keller Foundation in Northeast Wisconsin, where she spearheaded social innovation strategy, capacity building initiatives, and collaborative funding models. 

Widely recognized as an “uncertainty expert,” Heidi brings a systems lens and creative problem-solving approach to philanthropy and social innovation. She helps leaders navigate complexity and build practical pathways to transformational change. In addition to her leadership roles, she hosts the podcast Ordinary Sherpa and is the author of the forthcoming book Audacious Pause.

Ian Simoy is the proud grandson of Filipino immigrants whose legacy as farmers and educators continues to shape his commitment to the care of land and people. As Program Officer at The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Ian stewards the Foundation’s health portfolio of grants in Hawai‘i focused on improving health care, strengthening local food systems, and supporting community leadership. Ian began his career as a high school history teacher and coach in Hawaiʻi before moving into nonprofit leadership, where he led teacher recruitment and development at a large charter school network. At KIPP Foundation, he worked to expand college and career pathways for youth across the country, including developing programs and pilots that supported young people to serve as teachers and leaders in their home communities. Ian earned a bachelor’s degree in History from Vanderbilt and a master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard, and lives in Mānoa Valley on the island of O ‘ahu with his Australian cattle dog, Largo.

Jamie Bussel, MPH, is a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is deeply committed to discovering, learning, and exploring cutting edge ideas with the potential to help build a culture of health and ensure that all children and families have what they need to thrive. She currently serves as the lead on the Foundation’s efforts to prevent childhood obesity. Through her programming, Bussel helps foster multidisciplinary partnerships and systems-level change strategies to transform the health of people and places. A strong believer in the impact of our physical, social, and educational environments on health, she hopes that her work will contribute to a healthier future for all our children. She received an MPH in behavioral sciences/health education from Rutgers University, School of Public Health, and a BA in English literature from the University of Michigan. A New Jersey native, she lives in Bedminster with her husband, two daughters, and Great Dane.

Kahfii King (she/her) is Program Manager for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. She works with the USDA Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) providing grants, technical assistance, and loans to food retail and supply chain projects in underserved areas across the country. Prior to the Reinvestment Fund, Kahfii worked for eight years across the food access sector, including previous positions as a farmers market manager, a project manager at The Food Trust, advocating for and implementing the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative (PA FFFI), Massachusetts Food Trust Program, and the GusNIP “Food Bucks” program. Most recently, Kahfii worked as a manager at Compass Working Capital, managing the organization’s comprehensive online technical assistance tool for practitioners of the HUD Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program. Kahfii holds a B.A. in Political Science from Butler University and a Master of Public Affairs (MPA) with a concentration in Urban Sustainability degree from Indiana University-Indianapolis.

Kavita (Kuh-vee-thuh) joined RAFI in 2023, bringing over a dozen years of experience in agriculture across nonprofit, for-profit, and cooperative sectors. She has led capital deployment to farmers and food movement stakeholders through grants, loans, and technical support with a consistent eye to strategy and staying grounded in stakeholder needs. Kavita is passionate about improving practical and equitable access to financing and loves a good spreadsheet. In addition to her work at RAFI, Kavita is a former financial planner who specialized in serving clients often excluded from the conventional financial industry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in geography and biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a dual MBA/MA in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. Kavita enjoys gardening and chasing around her slightly reckless puppy.

Kimber Lanning is Founder and CEO of Local First Arizona, a statewide organization implementing innovative strategies for new models of economic development that create vibrant and thriving local economies. Lanning is an entrepreneur, business leader and community development specialist who works to cultivate strong self-reliant communities and inspire a higher quality of life for people across Arizona. Lanning’s passions, which are seen throughout her work, include fostering economic resilience, increasing access to capital, and rebuilding food, energy and financial systems so they create opportunity for all. 

Lanning has grown Local First Arizona into a widely respected organization that is leading the nation in implementing systems and policies to ensure a level playing field for entrepreneurial endeavors of all sizes.  With over 3,000 business members and four statewide offices, Lanning leads a team of 68 staff who work on a diverse array of programs ranging from healthy local food access, entrepreneurial development in under resourced communities, and rural community development, each of which plays a part in building sustainable and resilient local economies.

Lanning is consistently recognized and has received numerous awards for her diverse work and extensive leadership. In 2014, Lanning was recognized as the Citizen Leader of the Year by the International Economic Development Council, a pivotal moment in recognizing the use of Localist policies as a force for economic development. Her work in promoting adaptive reuse in Phoenix’s urban core was recognized by the American Planning Association, which presented Lanning with the Distinguished Citizen Planner Award in 2013. Lanning has also been named one of the “50 Most Influential Women in Arizona” (Arizona Business Magazine), was the recipient of the Athena Award by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce in 2013, and was the 2014 Leader of the Year in Public Policy (Arizona Capitol Times).

Les Szabo serves as Chief Strategy & Impact Officer at Dr. Bronner’s, North America’s leading natural soap brand. He oversees strategic planning and supports key business initiatives that enhance organizational capabilities and drive growth. Les leads four departments: Strategic Planning, Philanthropy, International Markets,  and E-Commerce. He is a member of the Dr. Bronner’s Board and Executive Council. He also facilitates the company’s annual Objectives and Key Results (OKR) goal planning process.

Prior to his current position, Les served as Director and later Vice President of Constructive Capital. The Constructive Capital department, manages the company’s charitable commitments, oversees various impact investing initiatives, and provides strategic support to key nonprofit partners and mission-aligned businesses.

Marni Rosen is a philanthropy advisor who brings over 25 years of experience in non-profits, philanthropy and the inter-governmental arena, and strives for a heart-centered approach in her work.  For over 16 years, she served as the Executive Director of the Jenifer Altman Foundation (JAF), where she helped build a thriving consultancy that played a leading role in environmental health and justice philanthropy. First at JAF and now in her work as an independent advisor to donors and foundations, Marni has co-created funding projects at the intersection of racial and social justice, health, and environment, with a focus on movement-led grantmaking. Marni’s passion for shifting power and decision-making in philanthropy led her to partner with community leaders and global organizers to build multiple innovative funding models that take their lead from frontline communities and the coalitions and alliances of these communities.

Marni continues to work with multiple individual donor and foundation clients to create funding vehicles and grant strategies that speak to their interests, building power and resilience across communities.  In recent projects she has developed and continues to manage multi-million dollar grant dockets focusing on a range of issues, including: healthy soils, climate resilience and justice, Indigenous-led and focused work, equity in food systems and regenerative agriculture, and climate justice in California.

She brings decades of expertise in crafting grantmaking strategies and programs, incubating and growing philanthropic entities, developing and strengthening networks and coalitions, facilitating board development and leadership transition, and improving organizational effectiveness for impact.  Marni also has a long history of work in public health and environmental health, with a racial and social justice lens. Currently, she serves as the Board Chair for Kitchen Table Advisors. Marni is a co-founder and past-co-chair of the Health and Environmental Funders Network, has served on the board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, was an elected leader in the Environment Council of the American Public Health Association, and has served on the boards of numerous NGOs.  Marni cut her teeth organizing for community access and power in the United Nations system in the early 1990s, as part of the UN’s Global NGO Liaison team for each of two United Nations global summits – The Earth Summit (Brazil) and The City Summit (Turkey).

Sarah is the Land and Agriculture Policy Officer at the Thornburg Foundation. She has worked in food and agriculture planning, education, and advocacy for over a decade, focusing on regenerative agriculture and supporting young and beginning farmers and ranchers. Most recently, she served as Executive Director of the Quivira Coalition, leading a multi-state team to advance resilience on working lands. Previously, she was editor of Edible New Mexico and an organizer for the National Young Farmers Coalition. She currently serves on the boards of the Greenhorns, Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance, and the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. A dedicated advocate for local food systems and regenerative agriculture, Sarah brings deep experience in policy, network building, program development, and advocacy. In her free time, she can be found visiting farms and ranches across New Mexico and beyond.