2008 Board Elections - Results
October 6, 2008
Organizational Members of the Coalition were given the opportunity to vote for six board candidates in September 2008. Below you will find the statements of the winners. To view a complete list of the 2008-09 Board of Directors, see our Board contact page.
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Molly Anderson
 Principal, Food Systems Integrity, Arlington, MA
Dr. Molly D. Anderson (Board President and Liaison to the International Links Committee) has been on the CFSC Board since 2004. She consults on social justice, ecological integrity, and sustainable food systems through Food Systems Integrity, and manages a sustainable food systems indicators project at the Wallace Center of Winrock International. She is involved in several international projects, including the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, and a food security meta-assessment. Before moving into full-time consulting, Molly worked at Oxfam America and at Tufts University, where she helped found and directed the Agriculture, Food & Environment Graduate Degree Program. She loves to garden, read science fiction, and spend time with her husband and two kids.
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Edward Cooney
Executive Director, Congressional Hunger Center, Washington, DC
 Edward M. Cooney became the Congressional Hunger Center's Executive Director on February 5, 2001. From September 1997 to January 2001, Ed held two senior positions at the United States Department of Agriculture as Deputy Administrator for Special Nutrition Programs and Special Assistant for Nutrition to USDA Secretary Dan Glickman. Ed was a member of USDA's Senior Executive Service, the government's top management team.
As an advocate or nutrition program administrator, Ed has work on every major children nutrition bill since 1978. His viewpoint on nutrition program and policy issues is sought by major U.S. newspapers including the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times as well as the executive branch of government (Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture) and leading scientific and educational institutions, including the National Academies Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board. Ed is an adviser and member of the America's Second Harvest Board of Directors' Stakeholders Subcommittee, and the National CACFP Forum Board of Directors. He has recently been elected to the Board of Overseers to the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
Ed received the Gene White Lifetime Achievement Award for Child Nutrition from the Global Child Nutrition Foundation and School Nutrition Association in March of 2008.
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Debra Eschmeyer
Media & Marketing Manager, Center for Food & Justice, UEPI, Occidental College, New Knoxville, Ohio
 Debra Eschmeyer is the Marketing & Media Manager of the National Farm to School Network and the Center for Food & Justice. She works from a fifth-generation family farm in Ohio, where she continues her passion for organic farming raising chickens as well as heirloom fruits and vegetables.
Prior to joining CFJ, Debra was the Project Director at the National Family Farm Coalition in Washington, DC where she focused on U.S. agricultural policy and food sovereignty initiatives among grassroots domestic and international rural advocacy and other social justice networks. She was also the Asia Program Coordinator for the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund at Conservation International and the Humanitarian Grants Asia Coordinator for Rotary International.
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Laura Irizarry
Researcher/Project Coordinator, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica (National Public Health Institute), Mexico City, Mexico
 Laura Irizarry is currently a researcher at the Research Center in Health and Nutrition (CyNS) at the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) in Mexico City, where she is in charge of coordinating various school-based childhood obesity prevention initiatives. As part of her work at the INSP she has also helped establish joint initiatives, including joint research initiatives and training courses, linking the work of the Institute and that of various organizations inside and outside of Mexico. While the focus of her research is related to school-based childhood obesity prevention, it also encompasses the topics of marketing to children, social marketing, and urban food security issues. Prior to joining the INSP in 2007, she briefly worked in Puerto Rico as a Research Assistant and Development Officer for an economic think tank and devoted much of her free time to learning about sprouting and the beauty and value of raw foods. Over the last three years she has served as a consultant to various non-profit organizations in the areas of food policy, intervention planning, and program monitoring and evaluation.
During her down time, Laura enjoys running, roaming local "tianguis" (street markets), concocting with whatever fresh goods she manages to get her hands on, eating arepas de chocolo, and finding new shortcuts that will allow her to navigate Mexico City within reasonable time frames. As a new CFSC board member she is looking forward to contribute to the work of the International Links Committee and to learn from the realm of experiences dealing with food security issues represented in the CFSC membership.
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Cathleen Kneen
Chair of the Steering Committee, Food Secure Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Cathleen is the Chair of the Steering Committee of Food Secure Canada/Sécurité Alimentaire Canada. In partnership with her husband, Brewster Kneen, she also co-publishes The Ram's Horn, a monthly newsletter of analysis of the food system (since 1980). This grew from 15 years of running a commercial sheep and cattle farm in Nova Scotia.
While in Nova Scotia, Cathleen also chaired the Wool Marketing Board, founded and co-ordinated the annual Sheep Fair, served on the founding Board of the Northumberland Lamb Marketing Co-Op (Northumberlamb), co-founded the Pictou County Women's Centre and the Tearmann House for Battered Women, participated in organizing the People's Food Commission, and contributed a weekly 'Farm Diary' segment on the CBC Radio Noon show.
During a sojourn in Toronto, she was part of Food Chain (the precursor of the Toronto Food Policy Council), while working in book publishing and social justice, including 5 years as the Executive Coordinator of the Assaulted Women's Helpline.
In 1995, Cathleen began working with communities across BC to develop local food security and food policy groups. These groups link farmers and food producers with food businesses, emergency feeding programs, food banks, self-help food projects such as community kitchens and community gardens, and marginalised segments of the population. Their goal is to establish a self-reliant local food system which can provide food for everyone in the community, jobs, and security for both producers and consumers. In 1999 they came together as the BC Food Systems Network, with Cathleen as coordinator. A hallmark of the Network is insistence on respectful listening and honouring diverse perspectives.
During her ten years in BC, Cathleen edited the quarterly journal of the Certified Organic Associations of BC, served on the Board of Directors of Healthy Eating and Active Living in Northern BC and the Steering Committee for the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Conference in BC's Interior region. Locally, she coordinated Shuswap Food Action and the Salmon Arm Good Food Box project. She was among the co-founders of Food Secure Canada/Sécurité Alimentaire Canada, and was elected Chair in 2006.
The Kneens now live in Ottawa, where in addition to her work for FSC-SAC, Cathleen is on the Steering Committee of Just Food and has recently joined the Raging Grannies.
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Demalda Newsome
Executive Director, Newsome Community Farms, Tulsa, OK
 Demalda brings a true grassroots and minority perspective to everything that she does. She always strives to speak the truth and to "keep it real", as she puts it, as she works to improve access to fresh, quality foods for low-income people. She and her husband are directly involved with the local food system by operating the farm and on-site farmers market in a minority neighborhood in an urban food desert in North Tulsa, OK. They understand what it takes to grow the foods as well as the community organizing skills involved with distribution and marketing to insure that all people have the opportunity to be food secure. They work with other organizations and schools to manage school and community gardens and are always available to share their time and expertise. Demalda is a natural leader with a very high integrity level. She has a realistic perception of the needs, challenges and assets available in low-income and minority communities. She is diplomatic, articulate and able to communicate well with a broad spectrum of people and personalities. Her wisdom, experience and strength would be a great asset to the CFSC Board of Directors.
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