Council Members

One third of the 21-member council will turn over each year. Members are welcome to re-apply at the end of their term, and other interested people will also be able to apply each year. All members serve on a volunteer basis. Please visit our Apply for OFPC Membership page for more information, and to learn about this year's application due dates.

To learn more about how the OFPC will operate, please visit our FAQ page.

Oakland Food Policy Council Members

	Trina Barton Bio coming soon
	Suzan Bateson Under the leadership of Suzan Bateson, the Alameda County Community Food Bank has secured - and paid off - a permanent home near the Oakland Airport. The Food Bank, which operates one of the state's busiest emergency food helplines, has established food stamp outreach and nutrition education programs that serve as models for food banks nationally. During Bateson's eight-year tenure, the Food Bank has doubled its operating budget, expanded its roster of employees by 50 percent and increased its distribution of food by 49 percent - to 16.6 million pounds annually - to counter the explosive growth of hunger in Alameda County.
	Brad Burger Brad is currently employed at Marin Farmers Markets/Marin Agricultural Institute (MFM/MAI) as a farmer’s market manager and Farm to Fork distribution coordinator. The organization aims to unite its 450+ members with communities throughout the Bay area. Prior to working for MFM/MAI Brad studied, lived and worked in South Africa from 2003-2008. He worked for Feedback Food Redistribution (currently Food Bank South Africa) in KwaZulu-NatalProvincefrom 2005-2008. The organization provided support to over 120 community-based organizations in both rural and urban communities. Brad also worked for Khanya – African Institute for Community Driven Development from 2006-2007 where he co-wrote Community-based Worker reports.
	Shereen D'Souza Shereen is the Director of the California Food and Justice Coalition (CFJC), a state-wide coalition that employs policy advocacy and community organizing strategies to support the efforts of its grassroots member organizations. Prior to her work with CFJC, Shereen was the Youth Program Coordinator at Oakland Based Urban Gardens, where she developed a food justice and job skills training program for West Oakland youth. Shereen was a founding board member of Oakland Food Connection, a non-profit organization that uses nutrition education and local food access to support the quality of life of Oakland’s low-income residents. She is also the Co-Director of Sustaining Oursleves Locally, a community organization focused on sustainable urban living and food justice issues. Shereen began her career as a food and farming activist while working as an agroforestry and protected areas management volunteer with the Peace Corps in Honduras.
	Koina Freeman Bio coming soon
	Mike Henneberry Bio coming soon
	Hank Herrera Hank serves as project manager for the Health for Oakland, Its People and Environment (HOPE) Collaborative, funded by the Kellogg Foundation. Hank founded The Center for Popular Research, Education and Policy, devoted to participatory action research, capacity-building and policy development with communities seeking to achieve self-reliance. C-PREP also provides management services for the Rooted in Community National Network of groups of youth and adults working together to achieve food justice. Previously he did neighborhood revitalization work in the predominantly African American and Puerto Rican neighborhoods in the northeast quadrant of Rochester, New York. He co-founded the NorthEast Neighborhood Alliance and Greater Rochester Urban Bounty, an urban agriculture and regional food system infrastructure project funded by the Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Initiative. Hank serves on the Board of the Institute for Food and Development Policy - Food First, devoted to the elimination of the injustices that cause hunger and the New York Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NYSAWG). Hank is a psychiatrist, a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and a Kellogg National Fellow.
	Jenny Huston Chef Jenny Huston, a native of San Francisco has 30 years of wide ranging experience in the restaurant and food services industry. She operated J. Huston Catering and consulting for 17 years, while earning academic degrees from San Jose State University in Dietetics and Food Sciences, and Management; and her Masters from New York University in Food Economics, Policy, and Food Systems, to support her work on issues of food equity, nutrition and social justice. In addition to teaching culinary arts at local community colleges and consulting, Jenny has worked with Project Open Hand in San Francisco, The Doe Fund, in New York City and Bay Area Community Services in Oakland, where she established the organization’s farm to table program. Jenny is the founder of Farm to Table Food Services in Oakland.
	Daniel Kramer Daniel is the Director of CSA and Farmers Market Sales at Frog Hollow Farm in Brentwood. Previously, he worked in San Francisco as the Director of Development for Roots of Change, a statewide non-profit that builds support for the shift to a sustainable food system in California by 2030, and at Swanton Berry Farm in northern Santa Cruz County. Daniel has also worked as Congressional staff on agricultural, environmental and energy policy. Daniel lives in Oakland, with his son Jack and wife Rebecca, who is a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley. Daniel holds a BA in history from Stanford.
	Jennifer LeBarre Bio coming soon
	Aaron Lehmer Aaron co-founded Bay Localize, a nonprofit that works to strengthen all Bay Area communities through regional self-reliance. He develops the organization’s Local Resilience Network and coordinates its outreach efforts. Aaron holds an M.A. in Globalization and the Environment from Humboldt State and a B.A. in Anthropology, Philosophy, and Environmental Studies from Iowa State. He’s worked for the Ella Baker Center, Circle of Life, Earth Island Institute, and the Student Environmental Action Coalition. His commentaries have been on NPR, in the Earth Island Journal, Sacramento News & Review, and the S.F. Bay Guardian. Aaron is a gardener, hiker, and amateur astronomer.
	Nathan McClintock Nathan McClintock is a PhD candidate in Geography at UC Berkeley. He has been working with local food justice organizations to inventory vacant and underutilized public land and to evaluate its possible contribution to urban agriculture in Oakland (see the “Cultivating the Commons” report). He is currently assessing the soil quality of several potential urban farm sites. He holds a MS degree in Sustainable Agriculture from North Carolina State University and has devoted the last decade to developing sustainable food systems in the US and abroad, working as a researcher, trainer, journalist, consultant, and farmer. He lives in North Oakland.
	Robin Plutchok Robin Plutchok is a program manager at StopWaste.Org with eight years experience in the recycling and waste management field implementing and promoting residential food scrap collection and backyard composting programs. She is the instructor of the Alameda County Master Composter Program. As a volunteer with the US Peace Corps in Paraguay, Robin worked in schools gardens as an environmental educator. Robin grew up in the Bay Area and now lives and works in Oakland. She looks forward to the opportunity to help the greater Oakland community have access to healthful, affordable and sustainably produced food.
	Margot Lederer Prado AICP, Industrial and Brownfields Specialist, City of Oakland, is a certified land use and economic development planner working with local government (County of Alameda and City of Oakland) for the past twelve years and is currently the Industrial & Brownfields Specialist in the City's Economic Development Division. Margot has worked with local Oakland food distributors and manufacturers for the past five years in this capacity. In 2008 Margot created the Oakland Waterfront Food Trail, an illustrative guide to the economy and ecology of local food production in Oakland. Margot spent the prior ten years working for non-profits in local economic development, child care, arts and housing.
	Abeni Ramsey Abeni Ramsey serves as the community market farm coordinator for City Slicker Farm. City Slicker Farms is a local nonprofit organization that grows affordable fresh produce for West Oakland residents. Previously she served as project manager at an Oakland public policy research / public relations firm. There she had extensive experience managing public outreach and social marketing campaigns for governmental and corporate clients. Abeni received a bachelors degree in International Agricultural Development from the University of California Davis. While at U.C. Davis she worked on the Universities market farm gaining hands on experience in organic farming methods and full scale agricultural production. As a West Oakland resident and mother of two young girls she has a vested interest in working to improve access to healthy food options for all Oakland residents. Her passion for food, passion for our planet and desire to assist the people of our community is the driving force behind her work towards a more equitable food system.
	Annie Appel Ratto Bio coming soon
	Susan Shelton Susan Shelton is Manager of Community Housing Services, Department of Human Services, City of Oakland. Susan received her Bachelor of Science Degrees in Planning and Public Administration at the Winston-Salem State University, and her Masters in Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. Susan joined the City of Oakland in 1985, and has worked in the area of homelessness and hunger since 1988. Susan manages large community events for the City, such as the City’s Annual Thanksgiving Dinner; Brown Bag Distributions; and children-focused events, often serving 3,000 to 5,000 people. Susan assists with implementation of the City’s Hunger Program; the county-wide EveryOne Home Plan to end homelessness; and the Oakland Permanent Access to Housing Strategy. She staffs the mayor’s Emergency Food Providers Advisory Committee. Susan is also a facilitator, leading international groups in enhancing their listening and speaking skills. She has worked with groups in the Americas and Africa. In her spare time Susan enjoys interior and fashion design, and being out in nature.
	Christopher Waters Chris founded Nomad Café in Oakland in 2003. The Nomad has earned international recognition and numerous sustainability awards for its practice and promotion of the principles of Fair Trade, zero waste, local and organic sourcing, and socially just community and economic development. Chris helped establish the Green Chamber of Commerce and serves as an Advisory Board member to the Green Café Network. As an Oakland public school parent, he has worked closely with the Oakland Unified School District and its Wellness Council to support broader access and improved nutrition for school-aged children and their families, and to combat the childhood obesity epidemic. With support from community partners, Chris established a weekly at-cost produce stand at Peralta Elementary School serving school families and members of the broader community. He implemented a student-powered lunchroom (and school-wide) waste sorting and composting operation, and negotiated a school district waste contract renewal that for the first time gave every Oakland public school access to commercial composting pickup service. Chris supports sustainability, affordable housing, and low-income food access programs in his role on the North Oakland District One CDBG Board, the Broadway/Macarthur/San Pablo Redevelopment PAC, and other local boards and committees.
	Sara Weihmann Sara Weihmann is the founder and co-owner of All Edibles, an east bay landscaping company specializing in the design, installation and educational maintenance of urban farms and edible gardens. She serves on the board of City Slicker Farms, a West Oakland non-profit organization that grows fresh, affordable produce for local residents. Sara has been a member of Oakland's HOPE Collaborative since 2007. She has designed and implemented gardening curriculum for after-school programs in the Oakland Unified School District. Sara holds a GreenMBA in Sustainable Enterprise from Dominican University. Sara's ongoing efforts revolve around her genuine belief that an abundant and equitable food system is the most effective leverage point for local ecological and social change.
	Diane Woloshin Bio coming soon
	Heather Wooten Heather Wooten is a Senior Planning and Policy Associate with Planning for Healthy Places at Public Health Law & Policy. She is co-author of How to Create and Implement Healthy General Plans, and has produced model planning policies to support healthy community infrastructure like community gardens and farmers' markets. Prior to joining the Planning for Healthy Places team, she co-authored the Oakland Food System Assessment: Towards a Sustainable Food Plan through the Oakland Mayor's Office of Sustainability. Ms. Wooten attended the University of Minnesota and earned a Masters of City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.