Introducing The New 2026 Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council

What is the GCRFPC?

The Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council is a cross-sector collaborative of food system experts and advocates working together to advance an environmentally, socially, and economically resilient regional food system through policy and systems-level work. The Council operates by building collaborative networks, increasing capacity through technical assistance and funding, amplifying stories of food system transformation, and advocating for policy changes.

There are several roles throughout the Council. Our Steering Committee provides direction around governance, Council membership, equity, and storytelling. Any Council Members who are also involved with our Policy, Education, and Advocacy Committee will contribute and lead the Committee’s work. Consulting members have historical experience on the Council and deep expertise. While they have limited engagement capacity, they want to continue providing to the Council. They are working directly with the Council Manager, Rosa, to find ways make their expertise accessible and to contribute in a way that matches their capacity. We are waiting until our first meeting to solidify new member roles.

In addition to our Council and Committees, we have a designated backbone support team staffed through Green Umbrella. This team includes a Food Policy Council Manager, Rosa E. Baker, and a Contract Farm-to-School Coordinator, Kristine Cahall-Dosch.

Meet Our New Council Members

Adrienne Wiley

Adrienne Wiley is a non-profit executive and community leader based in Cincinnati, Ohio. She serves as Executive Director of the Healing Center, where she leads strategic partnerships that walk alongside individuals and families toward stability, health, and long-term transformation. Adrienne brings experience in systems-level collaboration, financial stewardship, and equity-centered leadership, along with a strong commitment to translating lived community experience into sustainable policy and practice.

Dominic Bley

Dominic Bley joins the Council as an education and pedagogy specialist, bringing a perspective rooted in both professional kitchens and community classrooms. With over a decade of culinary experience and a Master’s in Art Education, Dominic currently serves as Head Chef and Director of Education at Garden of Joy, where he focuses on trauma-informed, culturally responsive teaching. He advocates for shifting food from the margins of school curriculum to the center of student learning, believing that effective policy must be built on the lived experiences of communities. Dominic works to bridge the gap between on-the-ground practice and systemic change, ensuring that the voices of young people and families actively shape the future of our region’s food system.

Jared Beckman

With over 20 years of experience as an Executive Chef in the Greater Cincinnati food and beverage industry, Jared has led high-volume, quality-driven culinary operations, most notably at Procter & Gamble’s Global Headquarters. Beyond the kitchen, he served as a Director at La Soupe, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit in Walnut Hills, overseeing logistics and in-kind food donation receiving to transform surplus food into nutritious meals for food-insecure communities across Cincinnati and into Athens County, Ohio. His leadership is rooted in a lifelong commitment to service, shaped by his involvement in the Boy Scouts and church-based community outreach.

Nate Hale

Nate is an agricultural professional working at the intersection of local food systems, soil health, sustainability, and community. He is committed to advancing food policy, food equity, and agricultural literacy in ways that support farmers, engage communities, and create shared experiences that connect and educate people to grow food sustainably.

Nick Bliven

Nick Bliven serves as Program Coordinator for FUEL NKU, the campus food pantry at Northern Kentucky University. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, his early volunteer work with the Boy Scouts and Dare to Care Food Bank shaped his commitment for supporting his community. After moving to the area to attend NKU, he has remained deeply engaged in the region. Nick is passionate about advancing food access and education initiatives.

Nicole Gunderman

Nicole works to connect farmers and gardeners to resources, opportunities, and each other in order to cultivate a resilient, equitable, and conservation-focused agricultural community in Hamilton County. Previous to joining the Conservation District, Nicole was at Gorman Heritage Farm for 10 years, most recently serving as Executive Director. Her experience there contributed to her deep love of farms and a commitment to food production methods that are good for people and the environment. Nicole earned her BA from The Ohio State University and an MA Biology from Miami University with an emphasis on regenerative agriculture and farm-based education.

Possum Strous

Possum works to promote food sovereignty within Walnut Hills. Stewarding several community gardens and food forests, spaces for anyone wishing to grow and learn. They collaborate with local gardens and neighbors, sharing resources and creating food-centered community events. Possum envisions a future where hunger is solved by a community built on food grown in our front yard.

Rachel Powers

Rachel Powers is the producer of the CORV Local Food Guide. Her background spans healthcare, nutrition, and culinary work, shaping her understanding of how access to nourishing food impacts both health outcomes and communities. She is passionate about supporting local farmers and cultivating a more sustainable, resilient, community-centered food system through education and resource sharing. In her free time, Rachel enjoys gardening, cooking, and rock climbing.

Rosa Christophel

Rosa Christophel is the Executive Director of HomeBase Cincinnati, where she is leading efforts to strengthen neighborhood-based community development, leadership, and equitable investment. As a former local vegetable farmworker and trained as an applied cultural anthropologist, she brings a multi-cultural, research-based background in local farm & food systems, food sovereignty & justice, grounding advocacy conversations in both lived experience and systems thinking. Known for her curiosity and collaborative approach, Rosa believes strong food systems and strong neighborhoods are deeply connected. She is also a recovering regional economic development data nerd who still believes good data should serve people first.

Sable Bender

Sable is guided by a belief that thriving communities are rooted in care—for land, food, and people. She is a lifelong naturalist and community steward. As founder of WESTIL, she brings global experience across agriculture, sustainability, and engineering-driven sectors, applying a systems-oriented perspective to her work. Outside of professional life, she is often gardening, reading, traveling, with her crew of critters, or on the pitch with the Cincinnati Kelts Women’s Rugby Football Club. She also founded the Best Side Neighborhood Coalition, where she works to amplify and expand initiatives on Cincinnati’s West Side.

Taylor Newman

Taylor is an advocate for equitable access to healthful, affordable food for all. A registered dietitian, she previously served as Director of Nutrition at Kroger where she led efforts to integrate nutrition across more than 2,800 stores and the Kroger website and app. Her work focused on supporting balanced eating patterns, addressing diet-related disease, and advocating for improved access to expert nutrition care, drawing on her background in nutrition policy and program development. Prior to Kroger, Taylor taught nutrition at Mercer University and conducted research on produce prescription programs. She is a food gleaning volunteer for Society of St. Andrew.

Celebrate Our Returning Council Members

Emalee Richman – Steering Committee

At Rich Life Farm, we cultivate gourmet mushrooms year-round in a controlled environment. We work directly with local restaurants, retail markets and consumers. My work as a Council Member on the Food Policy Council aligns well with my work in my farm business, serving shared goals to increase access to local, nutritious food, bringing awareness to small-scale farms and to support regional food systems infrastructure. Advocating alongside other members is empowering, and I’m excited to see the impact on local communities.

Fran Knox-Kazimierczuk – Consulting Member

Fran has collaborated with community activists and agencies focused on developing a just food ecosystem. In addition, she worked as a dietitian, developing nutrition education programs for over two decades in Cincinnati. She believes in accessible, equitable, and sustainable food systems for all families.

Gary Beatty – Consulting Member

Gary is a lifelong foodie with years of experience in the culinary and farm industries. While selling farms and farmland, he witnessed firsthand many issues present to local growers. Gary founded Inland Shrimp Company and presently serves as its Chief Shrimping Officer. He plans to become the region’s largest domestic seafood producer and aims to use his passion for sustainability, local food production, and alternative energy to help and serve the community.

Joy Kostansek – Policy, Education, and Advocacy Committee

Joy is a passionate advocate in the community development and food systems fields. She is the Manager of Economic Initiatives at the Ohio CDC Association where she supports organizations doing small business and individual asset development across the state. Joy’s background is rooted in the food system, including food pantry management, farm to institution, and sustainable agriculture. She earned her BA and MA in Sociology from Ohio University, and completed her Masters of Public Administration from the University of Cincinnati in 2024.

Kimberly Jacobs – Steering Committee

Kimberly Jacobs helped found the East Walnut Hills Farmers’ Market, established in 2022 in a Cincinnati neighborhood with limited food access. She worked with the Ohio Council on Aging to qualify the market to accept Senior Farmers Market Nutrition coupons to obtain locally grown, fresh produce. Kimberly has attended multiple UN COP environmental conferences as a League of Women Voters delegate, focusing on food systems and their role as both a cause and effect of climate crisis.

Michelle Merrett – Consulting Member

Michelle is a Community Food Advocate and serves as Board Chair for Hamilton Urban Garden Systems (HUGS), which operates a community garden that grows produce organically and donates to local food pantries, community meal centers, and residents. Michelle is a huge proponent of equity and access for fresh produce in underserved communities. She also aspires to educate youth on the benefits of healthy eating and sustainability.

Mark Mitchell

Mark Mitchell is an educator and researcher at Xavier University and a cofounder of intersect Agriculture, a startup that produces sustainable animal feed and soil amendments. Mark’s background is in soils, plant science, and sustainable land use. Marks goals for the Food Policy Council involve access for farmers to clean water and better food waste management systems. He is a food producer and environmental scientist who believes a resilient regional food system demonstrates efficiency in production, transportation, and waste usage within the food system.

Polly Campbell – Steering Committee

Polly wrote articles, storytelling elements of the local food system, for years at Cincinnati Enquirer. She sees the fundamental importance of a cohesive, area-wide approach that supports and connects the people and projects working to build a food system that is an alternative to the mainstream industrial agriculture approach. She advocates for a food system that produces locally-raised food that is healthy.

R. Alan Wight – Consulting Member

Alan is a visionary educator, connector, and food systems leader whose groundbreaking work is redefining how communities engage with sustainability, storytelling, and place. As the creator and lead author of Cincinnati’s Foodshed: An Art Atlas, Alan spent over five years building a one-of-a-kind, multimedia chronicle of the Greater Cincinnati food system.

Rosie Allen

Rosie Allen recently retired as an Area Educator with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service. She supervised Nutrition Assistants in 13 Kentucky counties who taught people how to prepare nutritious foods while stretching food dollars. Her philosophy on building community relationships is, “Each one, reach one.” Visit PlanEatMove.com to learn more about the Kentucky Nutrition Education Program.

Tony Staubach – Steering Committee

Tony is passionate about limiting food waste by supporting food rescue and compost organizations. He is a founding member of the Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council. To Tony, a resilient regional food system will help everyone thrive.

Tracy Wilking – Policy, Education, and Advocacy Committee

Tracy’s career has progressed from ensuring people had something to eat, to caring about the nutritional quality of what they were eating, to later seeking policy and system changes within schools and early learning centers. She has worked throughout the country. Currently, she oversees the Heldman Family Food Pantry for Jewish Family Service of the Cincinnati Area.

How You Can Get Involved!

In 2026 we are excited to introduce some newly evolved “spaces” to get activated in the Council’s work. 

Our Food Policy Council will meet in person Quarterly to serve as advisors and representatives of their communities, and virtually as needed in between. They will be sharing challenges, best practices, and resources across our region’s food system. Another goal will be to coordinate and collaborate to implement action through our other spaces. 

Our Policy, Education, and Advocacy Committee will meet Bi-Monthly to research and analyze policy, craft advocacy campaigns, and organize around community engagement and education. This group will be led by members from the Council and will work to refine actions under our four policy pillars: Farms & Land Use, Access & Education, Infrastructure, and Institutions. If you are interested in contributing to this space, please sign up here! We will keep signups moving forward for this committee, but we are starting with a strong core group of committed folks.

OurNourish Network is a quarterly convening of folks working in our regional food system to share ideas with our broader network, make connections, facilitate discussions, and provide networking opportunities. We hope these mini-events can serve as a fun and engaging space to celebrate our food system! If you are a venue, farm, or food business interested in hosting a Nourish Network – email rosa@greenumbrella.org.

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Additional Resources

• FPC 2026 Council Member PDF