DAY 2 MORNING DETAIL

DAY 2 MORNING

8:00 - 9:00am REGISTRATION

Information on how to navigate the day Booths and Networking open

Visit and speak with representatives from regional organizations and initiatives, and experience the work of our artist-presenters. Booths are open and available all day.

8:30 - 8:45am AWAKEN

Spine stretches, Tai Chi, breath, and eye preparation (TaraMarie Perri)

9:00 - 9:15am WELCOME REMARKS

Michele Drozd, Craigardan Brittany Christianson, AdkAction

9:15 - 9:30am FOOD + CLIMATE CHANGE

W!LD Center presentation: “Food & Climate Change: Help Shape The Wild Center’s Upcoming Exhibit on Climate Change Solutions” (Erin Griffin, Charlie Reinersten)

Learn about The Wild Center’s upcoming climate change solutions exhibit, and find out how you can help shape the exhibit design process. The Wild Center is designing a solutions-focused climate change education experience, including an interactive Solutions exhibit that will open in June 2022. Based on the uniquely positive approach to climate change in Project Drawdown — a solutions-based roadmap for addressing and reversing climate change with existing technology — Solutions will immerse visitors in practical, regionally-relevant climate solutions. Join us as we explore the intersection between food and climate solutions, and share your knowledge and experience to help shape our upcoming climate solutions exhibit. We want to know what climate solutions interest you the most, and what you would like to see, learn, and experience when we open the Solutions exhibit in June 2022.

9:30 - 10:30am OPENING KEYNOTE

Karen Washington, “Moving Beyond COVID”

Since 1985, Karen Washington has worked to make New York City a better place to live and grow. As a farmer and food justice activist, she feeds people body, mind, and spirit. As a longtime member and former board president of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, she has fought for justice and fostered resilience in her borough and beyond through the power of

organized community. And she brings her fierce, compassionate leadership — as well as her commitment to develop others—everywhere she goes. As a community gardener and board member of the New York Botanical Gardens, she works with Bronx neighborhoods to turn empty lots into community gardens. As an advocate and former president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, she stands up and speaks out for garden protection and preservation. And as a co-founder of the La Familia Verde Garden Coalition, she helped launch a City Farms Market, bringing fresh vegetables to the Bronx community. In 2010, she co-founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS), an organization supporting Black growers in both urban and rural settings. She is a board member of Why Hunger, a grassroots support organization, and Farm School NYC, which leads workshops on growing food and food justice across the country. She is also board president of Greenworker Cooperatives, which builds and sustains worker-owned green businesses to create a strong, local, and democratic economy rooted in racial and gender equity. Additionally, she is on the Board of Directors of Soul Fire Farm. In 2012, Ebony magazine voted her one of their 100 most influential African-Americans in the country. And in 2014, she was the recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award. Since retiring from physical therapy in 2014, she has been a co-owner and organic grower at Rise & Root Farm in Chester, New York. She stands on the shoulders of her ancestors and sows seeds of love, healing, and liberation for future generations.

10:30- 10:45am BREAK // GATHER

Shoulder/Hip Relief, Tai Chi, Breath and Eye Focus (TaraMarie Perri) Booths and Networking opportunities remain open

10:45 - 11:15am SPECIAL SESSION

Erin Watson, PhD: “Using Systems Thinking to Pursue Food Justice and Equity in Wellbeing"

Promoting food justice and equity in wellbeing in the Adirondack region requires new ways of thinking and doing that enables us to tackle the systemic root causes of local problems. This opening session provides a practical guide participants can use throughout the conference to embed systems thinking into their conversations and problem-solving processes.

Erin Watson is the founder of Weaving Change, an evaluation and consulting firm helping communities to promote systemic equity through engagement. She received her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from Michigan State University. Her work centers on how organizations and communities can use systems thinking and participatory action-learning to design, implement, and evaluate transformative change efforts aimed at promoting equitable outcomes for children and families. She has consulted with and provided professional development to hundreds of organizations, public sector agencies, community coalitions, and foundations around their efforts to

promote place-based change, service delivery system reform, strategic alignment, and collaborative capacity. Her systems change frameworks have been adopted by communities, coalitions, funders, and government agencies around the world.

11:15 - 12:15pm MORNING BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Breakout Session A: The Art of Being Socially Engaged

(Lehuanani DeFranco, Michele Drozd, Lina Puerta, Elizabeth Sobol)

Individual artists and art institutions have long been at the forefront of environmental, civil, and food justice movements through social engagement, social practice and activism. This panel shares the perspectives and experiences of two artists — one visual and one performing artist; and two organizations — one large and one small, who are using their work, voices, connections, and spaces to support their communities, raise awareness, and catalyze change.

Lehuanani DeFranco is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) protector for Indigenous rights and a Brooklyn-based dancer. She works with Uprooted & Rising to end higher education’s support for Big Food and white supremacy in the food system. She is currently campaigning for the University of California to divest from the Thirty-Meter Telescope in order to protect Mauna Kea from desecration. Lehuanani is also the Production & Research Associate with Roadwork Center, an organization formed in 1978 to build multi-racial coalitions through women’s culture by focusing on the intersection of arts and BIPOC- and LGBTQIA-led social justice movements.

Michele Drozd received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and worked under various artists including Petras Vaskys and Laszlo Fekete studying design, mold making, and sculpture. She spent six years producing sculptural and architectural tile with tile-maker Marie Baron in Philadelphia, PA and Albuquerque, NM before traveling the world and finding her home in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. With her husband and fellow artist, Michael Intrabartola, she became intensely interested in entrepreneurialism, the revitalization of small rural towns, food and agriculture, art, education and historic preservation — and the connections between them. Three businesses and three nonprofits later, she is thrilled to now serve as executive director of such an important and timely organization. Michele is the co-founder of Craigardan.

Lina Puerta was born in New Jersey, raised in Colombia and lives and works in New York City. Puerta holds an MSEd in Art Education from Queens College/CUNY and has exhibited internationally. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at KODA, in NYC and has also been honored with the 2019/2020 Artist-in-Residency at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art and Storytelling, 2017; NYFA Fellowship in Crafts/Sculpture, 2017 Artist-in-Residency at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, the 2016 Dieu Donné Workspace Residency, Artprize-8 Sustainability Award, 2015

Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, 2015 Kohler Arts Industry Residency (WI), 2014-15 Keyholder Residency at the Lower East Side Printshop, 2013-14 Smack Mellon Art Studio Program, 2014 Materials for the Arts Artist Residency, 2013 Wave Hill Winter Workspace, and the 2010 Emerging Artist Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park in New York. Exhibition venues include the Ford Foundation Gallery, El Museo del Barrio, The 8th Floor, Smack Mellon, Wave Hill, and Geary in New York City; 21C Museum Hotels in Louisville, KY and Bentonville, AR; and Pi Artworks in London. Puerta's work has been written about in Hyperallergic, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, and Artnet News among others.

Elizabeth Sobol joined the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) as President and CEO in October 2016 after decades of artist management and recording industry experience in both the classic arts and mainstream entertainment. Over the course of her four years at the helm of SPAC, Elizabeth has utilized her compelling programming instincts and unique ability to break down barriers between classical and mainstream music genres to attract younger and more diverse audiences to SPAC. Under her leadership, SPAC's education program has gone from serving 5,000 to 50,000 students throughout the Capital Region and beyond. Admired for her collaborative spirit, she has spearheaded partnerships with organizations such as Caffè Lena, MiSci, Opera Saratoga, Saratoga Shakespeare Company, Skidmore College, Pitney Meadows Community Farm and many others. She has also fostered cultural tourism partnerships with business and community and state organizations including the New York State Parks Recreation & Historic Preservation, Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, Discover Saratoga, The City of Saratoga and I LOVE NY. Prior to joining SPAC, Sobol served as the President and CEO of Universal Music Classics and Managing Director of IMG Artists in North/South America. During Sobol’s nearly three-decade tenure at IMG Artists, she nurtured the careers of the music world’s most renowned artists including Joshua Bell, Itzhak Perlman, Renee Fleming, Emerson String Quartet, James Galway, Evgeny Kissin, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Steve Reich. As President & CEO of Universal Music Classics (UMC), Sobol successfully ran the American home for the Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Mercury Classics and ECM imprints, along with the UMC label, which Sobol oversaw from Universal’s New York headquarters. Sobol’s vision for the label included a commitment to the best that "classics" stands for: music rooted in the classical tradition, while also encompassing a variety of genres including contemporary, jazz, and world and a focus on US-based artists and repertoire. UMC’s releases included artists as diverse and compelling as Andrea Bocelli, Rufus Wainwright, Hilary Hahn, Sting, Tori Amos, Keith Jarrett, Anoushka Shankar, Black Violin and Time for Three.

Breakout Session B: “Landscapes of Inequity: Mapping Systemic Racism in the Adirondacks”

(Loren Michael Mortimer, PhD)

Racialized landscapes of the Adirondack region undergird historic structures of inequality. From the legacies of slavery to the seizure of Native American land, to a modern political economy dominated by tourism and mass incarceration, systemic racism has deep roots in the Adirondack Park. The region’s overwhelmingly white demographics — an average of 95% in Adirondack counties compared to a 57% share of the population state wide — reflect historical processes and policies that restricted Black and Indigenous peoples from full participation in the region’s civic

and economic life for more than two centuries. Confronting racial inequity in the Adirondacks requires community-wide interrogation of the history of intentional policies and ingrained prejudices that created a regional identity predicated on white privilege.

Loren Michael Mortimer holds the 2020-2021 American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program on Race, Migration, and Indigeneity at the Indiana University Bloomington. He received his PhD in History with a designated emphasis in Native American Studies from UC Davis in 2019. He specializes in the Indigenous environmental history of the lands and waters that comprise the present-day Adirondack Park and St. Lawrence River watershed.

Breakout Session C: "A Holistic Approach to Food Security Education”

(Tatiana Abatemarco, Callie Fishburn, MB Mitcham, Josh Stephani)

This panel will present three educational approaches to addressing food insecurity in rural areas. By illustrating each of these case studies, the presenters hope to inspire others to take on similar efforts in their home communities and organizations. The three presentations will be followed by time for discussion with the audience. In the first presentation, “Returning to Rural Roots: Fostering Community Through Food, Learning, and Fun,” MB Mitcham of Cornell Cooperative Extension will discuss recent research and programming efforts geared toward addressing food insecurity and nutrient-poor dietary practices of residents from a lower socioeconomic bracket. In the second presentation, Josh Stephani will discuss, “Expanding Food Education and Access For Rural Residents” and the food education programming delivered by Comfort Food Community in Washington County, NY. Lastly, Tatiana Abatemarco and Callie Fishburn will present, “Asset Mapping a Community Food System: A Case Study from Bennington, VT,” which is a demonstration of the digital asset map they created to help address food insecurity in Bennington County.

Tatiana Abatemarco is an interdisciplinary scholar and educator who works in environmental humanities and sustainable food systems. She uses an ecofeminist frame to explore grassroots, holistic approaches to food justice.

Callie Fishburn currently serves as the AmeriCorps VISTA member at the Bennington County Regional Commission (BCRC) in Southern Vermont. Originally from Frederick, Maryland, she graduated from Hood College in 2018 with a degree in environmental science and policy. Prior to joining AmeriCorps and moving to Vermont, she served in a regional service year program focused on Chesapeake Bay conservation. During that year of service, she worked to advance racial equity in the environmental field, and developed a series of diversity, equity and inclusion policies for her host organization. As an AmeriCorps VISTA member, she splits her time between community and economic development projects with the BCRC and working with Bennington College on food security projects.

MB (Marybeth) Mitcham holds undergraduate degrees in the biological and human development sciences, a MPH with a primary concentration in human nutrition, and is completing her dissertation for her PhD, focusing her research on interpreting the experiences of rural residents in public

health education. When not working, she can be found scrambling all over the anorthosite (or the ice coating the anorthosite) of the Adirondack High Peaks or making and rabidly consuming eggplant bacon.

Josh Stephani has a background in environmental and agricultural education and is currently the Community Health Coordinator for Comfort Food of Washington County, where he operates a variety of programs including medically-tailored produce prescription pilots. He holds undergraduate degrees from Loyola University Chicago and a master’s from George Mason University. Additionally, he is a PhD student at Antioch University New England in Environmental Studies, where he concentrates on farmers markets, food systems, and food banks.

Breakout Session D: “Adirondack Food System Network - Build Back Better Together”

(Nancy Gildersleeve, Racey Henderson, Brittany Christenson)

Covid-19 threw our food system into the lime-light as grocery store shelves went empty, food insecurity rates increased, and demand for local food skyrocketed. This session will provide an overview of why our food system matters and will propose a new initiative — The Adirondack Food System Network — to build our food system back stronger in the wake of Covid-19. We will discuss the vision, mission and goals of the Network and share ways that you can get involved to create a regional food system that is resilient, just, environmentally responsible, and supports improved human health.

Nancy Gildersleeve is the Executive Director of Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program Operations and the Fulton Population Health Network (PHN) at AHI. In conjunction with executives from partner organizations, she is responsible for the quality and financial outcomes for the Fulton County region’s PHN. In addition to her DSRIP Operations and PHN role, Gildersleeve oversees the Adirondack Rural Health Network (ARHN), Population Health Improvement Program (PHIP), HRSA Rural Communities Opioid Response Planning Program (RCORP) grant, DSRIP Workforce, Telehealth, Performance Reporting, Performance Improvement, Community Engagement, and DSRIP Project Managers. Gildersleeve earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Community and Human Services from The State University of New York. She previously served in numerous leadership roles for the corporate offices of the Capital District YMCA, most recently blending association advancement and operational roles to create health equity and address chronic health issues in the community.

Racey Henderson is an entrepreneur and consultant who has her hands in the dirt and dirt on the brain. She, her husband and two children own and run Reber Rock Farm in Essex, NY, a diversified grass-based livestock and maple farm. She is active in local food system advocacy in the Adirondacks, and is co-founder of a small craft business, Ndara, based in the Central African Republic. She learned to farm in Peace Corps in Mauritania and at Essex Farm in Essex, NY. She has worked for the UN, the US government and many international non-governmental organizations. Locally she has worked for the Essex Farm Institute, Adk Action and Lakeside School. She is an

Essex County Farm Bureau board member. She has a B.A. from American University and has a MALD/MS from The Fletcher School and The Friedman School at Tufts University.

Brittany Christenson spent her early childhood in the redwood forest of Northern California and transversed I-90 as she got older; spending her high school and college years in the Rocky Mountains. She moved to the east coast for love and grad school — one of which worked out. After devoting herself to sustainable agriculture in her 20's, Brittany joined AdkAction as Executive Director in 2016. Since then, Brittany has led the organization to new heights, pioneering many new projects including the Farmacy, Emergency Food Packages, and Plein Air Festivals and significantly advancing others, including the Pollinator Project and Reducing Road Salt. She received her Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Carroll College in Helena, Montana. She serves as the Treasurer of Keeseville Community Development Corporation, Coordinator of the Adirondack Road Salt Working Group, Steering Committee Member of the Essex Farmland Protection Plan, and CoFounder of the Well Fed Essex Collaborative. Brittany lives with the love of her life, Lucas, son Njorth, and daughter Lucia on 30 wooded acres on a dead-end road in Keeseville, NY.