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Emigdio Ballon
President, Four Bridges Traveling Permaculture Institute.
Emigdio Ballon, of Quechua decent, was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He earned his Bachelors degree in agriculture at Major Bolivian University of Saint Simon in Cochabamba, Bolivia and his Masters degree in plant genetics in Colombia. He studied for his Doctorate at Colorado State University. As a plant geneticist he has specialized in research on quinoa and amaranth grains and has published many articles about them in both South and North America. Emigdio has served as an organic certification inspector in the United States and has made many presentations at major conferences on agriculture. He has studied principles of bio-dynamic farming at the Josephine Porter Institute of Applied Bio-Dynamics and continues to study and make presentations at various seminars. His other interests include seed saving and sharing, bio-dynamic and organic farming and sustainable agricultural practices. He is also involved with Native American organizations that stress the importance of seed saving and promote the revival and continuation of traditional crops, both nutritional and medicinal. He employs traditional Quechua techniques and rituals that he learned at his grandfather’s side as a boy in Bolivia.
Patricia Boies
Director, Health Services Division of Santa Fe County’s Community Services Department
Patricia Boies is the Director of the Health Services Division of Santa Fe County’s Community Services Department. She staffs the County’s Health Policy and Planning Commission, which together with the Community Services Department produced the Santa Fe County Health Action Plan: FY 2015-17 and the data-rich document that preceded it, Santa Fe County in 2013: A Community Health Profile. The Health Action Plan includes “Increase consumption of healthy food” as a high-priority goal. Patricia oversees the County’s health care assistance program, as well as the County’s mobile health van, which offers free health screenings to County residents.
Tracey Enright
Vice President, Feeding Santa Fe
Tracey Enright is the Vice President of Feeding Santa Fe. She is also an active member of The Food Depot’s Food and Nutrition Advocacy Committee. Previously, she had a professional career in the museum field. She was the Director of Education and Interpretation at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. Prior to moving to New Mexico, she spent more than a decade working at the Smithsonian Institution where she led major initiatives that shared the Institution’s resources with communities across the country. Tracey received bachelor’s degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles and a master of arts from New York University. She was a member of Organizing for Action’s Spring 2017 class of Fellows.
Tony McCarty
Executive Director, Kitchen Angels
Tony McCarty has been the Executive Director of Kitchen Angels since 1993. During his tenure, he moved the organization from its original location at the Westminster Presbyterian Church kitchen to the National Guard Armory kitchen, and then led a successful capital campaign to build the Coll-Green Angel Depot, an entire facility devoted to ending hunger in New Mexico. Mr. McCarty has guided Kitchen Angels to become one of Santa Fe’s best known and best loved non-profit social service agencies. He has supervised all aspects of the agency and has developed innovative fund raising projects to support the organization. He has established many positive long-term relationships with numerous local organizations and co-chaired the committee that successfully established, by resolution of both governing bodies, the City & County of Santa Fe Advisory Council on Food Policy. Currently, Mr. McCarty is a driving force behind the Northern New Mexico Service Providers Alliance, a multi-agency coalition of non-profits whose mission is to “collaborate in providing comprehensive services to individuals in need, and to work together to effect systemic change.” He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Augusta University and is a certified educator. Prior to joining Kitchen Angels, Mr. McCarty honed his business expertise as the sole proprietor of a successful design business.
Kierstan Pickens
Executive Director, Santa Fe Farmer’s Market Institute
Kierstan Pickens grew up in the northern plains of a small Colorado town which she watched slowly transition to agribusiness over the course of 20 years. Later in life this would have a big impact on her values around local economies, especially agriculture. In 1998 she moved to Santa Fe to pursue a degree in technical theater at the College of Santa Fe. After graduating in 2002, and long since falling in love with her adopted state, she worked at the Center for Contemporary Arts and found her calling in nonprofit work. For a decade she held various roles, including Director of Development, at the historic Lensic Performing Arts Center. Then, in 2014 she was afforded the opportunity to combine the two things she is most passionate about, local food and mission driven work, into one job with the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute (the nonprofit sister organization to Santa Fe’s beloved farmers market.) As Executive Director, she oversees all operational and programmatic aspects of the organization, but the part she loves most is connecting with farmers—learning about the history, culture, and challenges of growing food in the high desert—and doing what she can to help grow and sustain a vital agricultural community that benefits growers, eaters, the economy, and the environment.
David Sundberg
Executive Chef, Harry’s Roadhouse
David Sundberg has over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry in a wide variety of sectors. He relocated to Santa Fe from Rhode Island where he wrote for local publications, taught cooking classes, and worked for numerous restaurants and caterers. Here in Santa Fe, David has worked at Red Sage at Buffalo Thunder, Tierra at Encantado, Blue Corn Brewery and Sirphey, before taking the reins at Harry’s Roadhouse. David is passionate about locally sourced ingredients and endeavors to develop strong relationships with growers and producers in order to procure fresh, quality ingredients. He works to incorporate many New Mexico foods into the menus including ground beef, breads and tortillas, produce, and organically produced cheeses.
SFFPC Coordinator
Pam Roy
Executive Director, Farm to Table
Pam Roy is Executive Director of Farm to Table, a New Mexico non-profit organization working on regional food and farming issues including community capacity building focused on affordable and nutritious food access, Farm to Cafeteria – linking schools to local farmers for fresh produce, and food and agriculture policy. She has over 25 years of organizational development experience for farmers’ markets, direct market opportunities, and rural food retail initiatives both domestically and internationally. She works on related policy issues at the local, state and federal levels. She is director of the New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council, serves on the Santa Fe Food Policy Council, was a governor’s appointee to the NM Food Gap Task Force and is a past Board member of Community Food Security.