Kellie Adesina
Board Chair
Kraft Heinz Company
Pat Baker
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute
Jess Bartholow
SEIU California
Sherry Brennan
Media Consultant
Ambassador Eric M. Bost
Texas A&M University
Ellen Buchman
National Council of Jewish Women
Nancy Dalton
Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer Business
Kofi D. Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP
Elevance Health
Janie Simms Hipp, J.D., LL.M.
Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, U.S. Department of the Treasury
LaQuita Honeysucker
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
Elizabeth (Beth) Johnson, MS, RD
Food Directions LLC
Eric Rodriguez
UnidosUS
Jessica Schulken
The Russell Group
Kellie Adesina
Kellie Adesina is Director of Government Affairs at Kraft Heinz Company. She previously served in a similar role at Bayer, where she was responsible for engaging Federal government officials on crop science issues. Prior to Bayer, she was Chief Counsel on the House Agriculture Committee for Chairman Collin C. Peterson where she successfully drafted several provisions included in the 2018 Farm Bill.
Before joining the House Agriculture Committee, Adesina was Senior Counselor in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Legislative Director to then Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge; and Legislative Counsel to Congresswoman Judy Chu. However, she started her career on Capitol Hill working for Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, her home state.
Adesina holds a Juris Doctor from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Bethune-Cookman College. She is a founder and President of Black Professionals in Food and Agriculture (BPFA) and is the Chair of the Advisory Board for the 1890 Center of Excellence for Student Success and Workforce Development.
Pat Baker
Pat Baker is a senior policy advocate at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI), where she has worked since 1983. She advocates on legislative, administrative, and policy issues at both the state and federal levels that affect families with low incomes, older adults, and individuals with disabilities.
Baker has authored and edited numerous publications, including the MLRI SNAP Advocacy Guide, and has contributed to national reports for the Food Research & Action Center. Her policy advocacy has led to significant improvements in SNAP participation and child nutrition programs in Massachusetts, including the passage of “anti-meal shaming” legislation in 2021 and “Common Application” legislation in 2022. She also has worked with the state to secure federal waivers and policy options, as well as with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve SNAP access nationwide.
Pat has received several honors and awards, including the 2024 National Association of Social Workers Massachusetts Chapter Public Citizen of the Year Award, the 2020 Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren John Lepper Award, the Dr. Raymond Wheeler/Senator Paul Wellstone Anti-Hunger Advocacy Leadership Award, and the 2014 Eos Foundation Changing the Equation Award.
Jess Bartholow
Jess Bartholow is the director of government relations for SEIU California. Previously, she served as chief of staff for East Bay Senator Nancy Skinner in 2020.
Bartholow has a long history of advocating for anti-poverty and economic equity, including her work at the Western Center on Law and Poverty. She is recognized as an expert on end-poverty policies in the U.S. and has earned two graduate degrees. Bartholow’s personal experience with poverty has deeply influenced her advocacy. Her story of how growing up poor led her to a lifetime of anti-poverty activism has been featured in The Nation and Le Monde magazines.
Ambassador Eric M. Bost
US Ambassador Eric M. Bost (ret.) currently serves as the Deputy Director at the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Development at Texas A&M University.
Bost in July 2006 was appointed by the President of the United States as Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa, leading one of the largest United States embassies in the world and the largest United States embassy on the continent of Africa.
Prior to serving as Ambassador, he was appointed in 2001 as the USDA Under Secretary of Food, Nutrition and Consumer Service responsible for the leadership and administration of 15 domestic nutrition assistance programs. From August 1997 to June 2001, Ambassador Bost served as Commissioner and CEO of the Texas Department of Human Services (TDHS).
Bost graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned a graduate degree from the University of South Florida.
Sherry Brennan
Sherry Brennan currently serves as Media Consultant. In her previous role, she served as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Whip Media’s soon-to-launch content marketplace, expected to transform the way the content industry licenses movies and TV shows globally. She is a strategic advisor to several industry startups and has co-founded a social platform for women over 40 (The Woolfer). Prior to joining Whip, she spent nearly 15 years with Fox Networks where she focused on the distribution of Fox’s content in new and emerging platforms, content protection, strategic research, and optimizing Fox’s content strategy for the digital age, including working with Hulu from its launch until her departure in 2019. Earlier in her career, Brennan spent seven years at Cablevision focused on then-emerging VOD and digital TV, including content licensing, marketing, user experience design, and user interface design. She began her career at Falcon Cable TV, working for the chief operating officer in a variety of roles from analytics to public affairs. She has a Master’s Degree in Economics and has received many industry awards for her leadership and expertise.
Ellen Buchman
Ellen Buchman is an enthusiastic organizer and communicator regarding the imperative and value of enabling opportunity for all. She serves as President of The Opportunity Agenda (TOA), a social justice communication lab, where her practice and training enables her to lead a staff focused every day on narrative change that will lead hearts and minds toward justice. Immediately prior to Buchman’s work at TOA, she served as Executive Vice President for Field and Communications at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, where she was employed for 15 years and during that time piloted the organization’s field and organizing program, and developed and oversaw the vision for the integrated field, communications, and policy work at the center of the organization.
Buchman is an internationally-known trainer, leader, and practitioner of organization and coalition building, campaign initiating and implementing, and training in the intersection of organizing, advocating, and communicating for social justice. Her career has focused on building effective and inclusive teams and partnerships for progress toward racial and gender equity. Her expertise and vision is in building campaign and organizational structures to build power, and she is trained in outreach, leadership development, organizing, and social work for change.
Buchman divides her time between New York City and Washington, DC, where her home, wife and enthusiastic and exuberant puppy reside.
Nancy Dalton
Nancy Dalton is the Head of Community Partnerships for Underserved Populations in Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer business. She and her team design and implement retail products and services to meet the needs of underserved customer segments. Her team drove the launch of Amazon’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) acceptance program, which enables SNAP recipients the opportunity to purchase groceries online using their EBT card. Most recently, she launched Amazon’s food access program with the goal of giving residents living in healthy food priority areas more options to find affordable, quality, and diverse groceries. The program engages community-based organizations to amplify their anti-hunger efforts and raise awareness about the vast array of services that Amazon offers in these communities.
Preceding the start of her Amazon career in 2016, Dalton spent over 20 years in financial services holding executive roles at Fleet Credit Card Services, Bank of America and Barclays Bank. She is recognized as a strategic thought leader with a proven track record of leading enterprise-level transformation initiatives in the areas of operations, regulatory relations, corporate training, quality assurance, customer experience and diversity. She has functioned as an executive coach at the National Diversity Women’s Business Leadership conference and has built a legacy of coaching leaders across the globe in the areas of career development, global business management, and leading change. Dalton holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Dynamics and is a Senior Certified Professional through the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). She is also certified as a Prince 2 Project Management practitioner.
Kofi D. Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP
Kofi D. Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a board-certified Community Pediatrician at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Director of The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences’ Community/Urban Health Scholarly Concentration, and Clinical Public Health Lecturer. Dr. Essel has dedicated his career to advocacy and research around healthcare training, health disparities, and community engagement, with a special interest and national recognition in the areas of addressing obesity and food insecurity in families. Dr. Essel earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree from Emory University with a focus on Human Biology and Anthropology and earned his Medical Degree and Master’s in Public Health in Epidemiology from George Washington University. He completed his pediatric residency and General Academic Pediatric fellowship training at Children’s National Hospital.
Janie Simms Hipp, J.D., LL.M.
Janie Simms Hipp, J.D, LL.M.currently serves as the founding CEO of the Native Agriculture Financial Service (NAFS), a nonprofit Other Financing Institution within the Farm Credit system of lending institutions. NAFS focuses on meeting the capital access needs of Native farmers, ranchers, fishers, and forest land operators and their rural communities.
Prior to leading NAFS, she served as the General Counsel of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). She was only the fourth woman in the United States and was the first Native woman to serve as General Counsel at USDA since 1905. She previously served Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack during the Obama-Biden administration as a Senior Advisor and was the founding director of the Office of Tribal Relations at USDA. She also previously served as a National Program Leader at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and a senior official within the Risk Management Agency.
Hipp was the founding CEO of the Native American Agriculture Fund, the nation’s largest philanthropic organization focusing solely on improving Native food and agriculture and was the founder of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas School of Law.
She is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and was raised in a small rural town in southeast Oklahoma; her permanent home is in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
LaQuita Honeysucker
LaQuita Honeysucker is the Director of Civil Rights and Community Action at United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the largest private sector union in the United States and America’s food and retail union. In this role, she harnesses the power of the union’s diverse membership to bring hardworking families a better life in their workplaces and in their respective communities and strives to position UFCW as a powerful voice for all workers.
Prior to this, Honeysucker moved the union’s legislative and regulatory priorities forward as UFCW’s Legislative Director working on issues including food safety, nutrition and access, federal minimum wage, overtime pay, civil rights, and immigration.
Before UFCW, Honeysucker served as a Legislative Counsel in the office of Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott.
Honeysucker received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Tennessee College of Law and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Hampton University. She is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia.
Elizabeth (Beth) Johnson
Elizabeth (Beth) Johnson, MS, RD founded Food Directions, LLC in 2010 to help clients maneuver through the complexities of food policy and regulation. Prior to starting Food Directions LLC, Johnson served as Executive Vice President for Public Affairs for the National Restaurant Association. In 2002, she joined the Department of Agriculture. During her tenure, Johnson was senior advisor to the Secretary, Deputy Chief of Staff and Acting Under Secretary for Food Safety. Her previous experiences include Fleishman-Hillard Public Relations, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Johnson sits on various boards and participates in numerous activities to promote sound, scientifically based food and agriculture policy. She lives in Maryland with her husband Bill and daughters Hanah and Sara. Johnson is active in her church and community.
Eric Rodriguez
Eric Rodriguez is Vice President at UnidosUS and oversees the Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation (ORAL) which is charged with directing the organization’s legislative affairs, public policy research, policy analysis, and field advocacy work. He is responsible for UnidosUS’s federal and state legislative priorities and agenda. Headquartered in Washington, DC, UnidosUS is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. Through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations, the organization reaches millions of Hispanics each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.
Rodriguez is experienced in overseeing UnidosUS’s public policy and advocacy activities. From 2007–2008, he served as deputy vice president of the public policy department and previously directed the organization’s Policy Analysis Center, a position he held for five years. His background also includes work on such issues as tax policy, Social Security reform, welfare reform, workforce development, retirement security, health, housing, and financial market regulations. He has authored, coauthored, and supervised the preparation of several dozen policy and research reports, journal articles, and editorials. He has also frequently testified at congressional hearings and has represented UnidosUS at research conferences, policy conferences, and symposia. His work has been widely cited in the press, in policy, and in academic literature.
Jessica Schulken
Jessica Schulken is a principal government relations and advocacy professional at The Russell Group, where she provides services for food and agriculture clients. Prior to joining The Russell Group in 2018, she served as staff director of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Agriculture Subcommittee from 2012 to 2018. In that role, she managed policy and funding priorities for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, working with Democratic Senate offices and negotiating with the House of Representatives during annual conference negotiations.
Shulken began her career in 1999 as a Presidential Management Intern at the National Institutes of Health.
Throughout her tenure on Capitol Hill, Shulken worked for Sens. Kohl, Pryor, Merkley, Byrd, Inouye, Mikulski, and Leahy. In addition to appropriations bills, she also drafted and negotiated numerous supplemental funding bills.
