- Alumni
Sustainability in the Urban Built Environment
Warning: include(../simple_email.html) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/local/home/summersu/public_html/2009/ag_leaders.html on line 53
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '../simple_email.html' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /usr/local/home/summersu/public_html/2009/ag_leaders.html on line 53
Unlike a traditional academic experience or conference, this program is presented by a combination of leaders – including business people, university professors, government officials, and not-for-profit directors.
We assemble a multi-disciplinary group of thought leaders, recognizing that powerful learning and innovation often come from combining disparate skills, and that advances in sustainability require systems-oriented thinking.
Govenor Kulongoski Joins Our Panel of Leaders
The Governor will lead a joint session to provide the senior policy perspective on the built environment, agriculture and food systems, and their part in the state’s broader sustainability strategy.
The program delivers a carefully planned curriculum, not a loosely connected set of talks and panels. This includes a strong focus on addressing your questions, and applications to your situations.
Throughout the dynamic 5 day program, you can expect to meet with over 25 leading professionals and experts.
Featured Leaders Include:
- Erin Altz, Operating Manager – Edible Skylines, LLC
- Nick Andrews, OSU Metro Area Small Farm Extension Horticulturist
- Anita Azarenko, Professor and Head of the Department of Horticulture – Oregon State University
- Eileen Brady, Co-Founder – New Seasons Market
- Karla Chambers, Co-Owner and Vice President – Stahlbush Island Farms
- Alison Dennis, Director of Supply Chain - Burgerville
- Lauren Gwin Ph.D., Research Associate, Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, Oregon State University, and co-coordinator, Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network (NMPAN).
- Debra Sohm Lawson, Independent Consultant in Sustainable Food and Farming Issues
- John Luna, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis.
- Dr. Michael T. Morrissey, Professor of Food Science – Oregon State University and Superintendent – OSU Food Innovation Center
- Kirk Mustain, General Manager, Bon Appetit at The University of Portland
- Ron Paul, Private Consultant – Portland Public Market
- Larry Pearmine, Co-Owner – Pearmine Farms, Inc.
- Lisa Sedlar, President – New Seasons Market
- Manuel V. Silveira, Vice President - Agricultural Services, NORPAC Foods, Inc.
- John Stalley, Senior Farm Program Reviewer and Inspector – Oregon Tilth, Inc.
- Leather Storrs, Chef - Noble Rot
- Peter Truitt, Truitt Bros. Inc.
Erin Altz, Operating Manager – Edible Skylines, LLC
Erin Altz is the operating manager of Edible Skylines, LLC, a Portland based company that specializes in rooftop agriculture consultation, installation and maintenance services. Erin just recently finished working as a project manager and design consultant for Trillium Charter School’s edible rooftop garden project and will be doing installation as soon as the funding becomes available. She is pursuing a relationship with the City of Portland and Oregon State University to use Trillium as a demonstration site for rooftop agriculture in Portland. Edible Skylines will be responsible for maintenance and is exploring options including a Community Supported Agriculture model for “roof to table” consumption with Trillium families. This site will look at irrigation and fertilization regimes to minimize both yet still maintain healthy watersheds and plant growth. Prior to starting Edible Skylines, Erin apprenticed as a rooftop gardener doing maintenance for the Rocket restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Edible Skylines is currently exploring options for expanding services to include backyard farming installation and maintenance services as well as building integrated vegetable hydroponics.
Nick Andrews, OSU Metro Area Small Farm Extension Horticulturist
Nick Andrews earned his BS in Horticulture at OSU and an MS in Entomology from the University of Reading in England. He has worked with the UK Extension Service as a Vegetable Entomologist, as an independent IPM consultant to Hood River orchardists, and an organic inspector for Oregon Tilth. Since December 2005 he has served as the OSU Metro Area Small Farm Extension Horticulturist. His work focuses on ecological vegetable production in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas Counties. Nick and the OSU Small Farms team won four awards for their work in 2008. He developed the Organic Fertilizer Calculator, is conducting on-farm cover crop research and has started a research & education composting facility at the North Willamette Research & Extension Center in Aurora. Nick also organizes workshops for small farmers, including the North Willamette Horticulture Society Organic Crops Section and Growing Farms, a beginning farmer training series.
Anita Nina Azarenko, Professor and Head of the Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University
Dr. Anita Azarenko is Professor and Department Head of the Department of Horticulture at Oregon State University. The Department of Horticulture is a comprehensive department with active research, Extension, and teaching missions with emphasis on ecological landscapes and sustainable cropping, farming and food systems. The department serves a diverse and dynamic high-value horticulture sector and strives to serve the horticultural needs of all citizens in Oregon. Anita is responsible for strategic planning, program development, priority staffing, public relations, marketing, and other activities that enhance or serve the Horticulture Department, faculty, and statewide programs. She also conducts research on integrated and organic tree fruit farming systems, especially orchard floor and soil management systems. With her husband, they are stewards of a small direct-market farm that grows organic fruit and hazelnuts for local markets in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
Dr. Azarenko’s educational background includes a B.S. in Horticulture, M.S. in Horticulture/Genetics, and a Ph.D in Horticulture/Plant Physiology all from the University of Maryland.
Eileen Brady, Co-Founder – New Seasons Market
Eileen is co-founder of New Seasons Market, a landmark neighborhood grocery chain in Portland, Oregon. She is co-owner and Chair for Celilo Group Media, publisher of Chinook Book and the Eco-Metro guide. Eileen serves as the Chair of Zenger Farm, an urban agriculture park for school children, is a member of the Metro Blue Ribbon Bike Trails Commission and serves on the Oregon Business Association (OBA) Board. In addition she is the Vice Chair of the Oregon Health Fund Board. Eileen speaks regularly on "Sustainability and Building Regional Food Economies." Eileen helped launch Oregon Solutions, Governor Kitzhaber’s state-wide effort at building citizen based solutions and served as Vice President of the Food and Farm program at Ecotrust. She has over twenty years operational, marketing and human resource experience in the high-tech and natural foods industries.
Karla Chambers, Co-Owner and Vice President – Stahlbush Island Farms
Karla is responsible for administrative, marketing and sales functions at Stahlbush Island Farms, Inc. in Corvallis, OR. Stahlbush Island Farms is an environmentally friendly farm and food processor committed to sustainable agriculture. Stahlbush provides consumers with the highest quality food products available, and focuses on improving natural resources. Over 130 products are processed on this vertically integrated, 5000 acre farm. These products are exported into sixteen different countries and throughout the United States through retail food service, export and industrial ingredient channels.
Alison Dennis, Director of Supply Chain - Burgerville
Alison Dennis serves as the Director of Supply Chain for Burgerville, where she champions the company’s fresh, local, sustainable values within every link in the food supply chain, from the farm to the kitchen to dining room to the compost bin. In her first year with the company she led a cross-functional green team who found over $2.1 million and counting in triple bottom line contributions through process improvements, and launched a groundbreaking composting and recycling program – a first of its kind in the fast food industry. Prior to joining Burgerville in 2006, Alison served as Purchasing Director for Oregon Health and Science University. Between jobs, she took a full year off and traveled the world, eating and drinking her way through the local food traditions of 27 countries across 6 continents in 365 days. When she got back, Alison knew she was looking for company who would see her year of culinary travel as a asset rather than a gap on her resume. She’s grateful every day that Burgerville is that company.
Burgerville has been a family-owned restaurant company since 1961, with 39 locations now operating in Oregon and Washington. Burgerville is committed to sustainable business practices which provide fresh, local, sustainable food for our guests and contribute to a healthy local community.
Lauren Gwin Ph.D., Research Associate, Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, Oregon State University, and co-coordinator, Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network (NMPAN).
At OSU and with NMPAN, Lauren works with people and organizations all along the supply chain who are bringing more sustainably-produced meats to the table. She is motivated by the belief that we need to move sustainable food production beyond a narrow niche, while assuring that we don’t reproduce the problems of massive-scale production. She has a particular interest in meat processing, a link in the chain which is often weak or broken. She co-founded NMPAN as both a network to connect people across the country trying to solve their own processing challenges, and a source of planning tools, regulatory and policy information, best practices, and other processing-related resources. www.nichemeatprocessing.org
Debra Sohm Lawson, Independent Consultant in Sustainable Food and Farming Issues
Debra is an independent consultant working on sustainable food and farming issues. She works on projects for Seeds of Change, Cascade Pacific Resource Conservation and Development, Oregon State University, and Mercy Corps Northwest. In addition, she is producing the documentary film INGREDIENTS which tells the local food story through the voices of farmers and chefs who are on the vanguard of the local food movement (www.ingredientsfilm.com). Debra currently serves on the boards of the Portland Chefs Collaborative and Portland Farmers Market.
Previously, Debra was Director of the Food & Farms Market Connections program at Ecotrust in Portland, OR. Of her eight years at Ecotrust, six of them were spent building the Market Connections program in order to create robust regional food economies. Projects included creating and managing the Farmer-Chef Connection, Fisherman-Chef Connection, Guide to Local and Seasonal Products – a direct marketing publication, and the Autumn Graze. In addition to these projects, she contributed to the book Renewing Salmon Nation’s Food Traditions, conducted market research, developed and managed databases and wrote code for interactive web pages. Debra also spoke on numerous panels at conferences both in the U.S. and in Italy.
Prior to working at Ecotrust, Debra spent four years at Conservation International (CI) in Washington, DC, where she served as the research assistant in the Science Department investigating and mapping global biodiversity, and later became the Ghana Program Assistant. Following her work at CI, Debra served as a Fulbright Fellow in Ghana and worked with the staff at a National Park on visitor-use issues.
John Luna, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis.
As an applied researcher in sustainable agriculture, John works with Oregon farmers to develop more economically viable and energetically efficient farming practices, while enhancing soil, water and environmental quality. His research focuses on cover cropping and conservation tillage systems, and on biologically-based pest management alternatives. John has also serves as consultant to agricultural businesses and nurseries transitioning to more sustainable practices.
John received his Ph.D. in entomology from Virginia Tech in 1986 and served as statewide Extension specialist in integrated pest management and sustainable agriculture until he joined the faculty at Oregon State University in 1992. He served as statewide Extension coordinator for sustainable agriculture until 2002, and has taught courses in agroecology, integrated pest management, and organic vegetable production.
Both he and his wife Sue are avid gardeners and grow and process most of their own fruit and vegetables. Their home garden serves as an off-campus "research station" to develop and implement practical approaches to ecological gardening.
Dr. Michael T. Morrissey, Professor of Food Science – Oregon State University and Superintendent – OSU Food
Dr. Morrissey is a Professor of Food Science at Oregon State University and the Superintendent of the OSU Food Innovation Center in Portland. He also serves as the Director of the OSU Seafood Laboratory. He has published more than seventy-five articles in food processing, safety, quality, product development, and by-product utilization. Dr. Morrissey is a Principal with the Community Seafood Initiative, which is a partnership between OSU and Shorebank Enterprise Cascadia, and offers assistance to seafood entrepreneurs and small and mid-size businesses throughout the Pacific Northwest. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for SEAFOODplus, a 26 million Euro project funded by the European Union, that involves 17 countries and 55 institutions. He has been recognized through various awards such as the Oldfield-Jackman Team Award (1996) for Pacific whiting research, the Earl P. McPhee Award (1999) for his contributions to seafood science, an elected Institute of Food Technologists Fellow in (2003), and the Briskey Award for Faculty Excellence from the College of Agricultural Sciences at OSU (2004).
Kirk Mustain, General Manager, Bon Appetit at The University of Portland
Bon Appétit Management Co. is an onsite custom restaurant company offering full food service management by providing café and catering services to corporations, colleges and universities, and specialty venues.
I believe food service serves a much larger purpose than simply sustenance. Dining rooms are gathering places. Breaking bread together helps to create a sense of community and comfort. We recognize the important role we fill and take great care to honor our position on campus.
Kirk started his food service career in 1980 working in local restaurants in Southern California. He would continue to hone his culinary skills over the following 19 years working in kitchens including The Beverly Hilton and The Portland Hilton. In 1992 he accepted a position with Bon Appetit at The University of Portland.
Kirk attended Western Culinary Institute in 1987, and continued education at The Culinary Institute of America in St Helena, California in 1995, 1997 and 1999
Ron Paul, Private Consultant – Portland Public Market
For over two decades as a chef and restaurateur, the artistry and sustainability of food defined his professional identity. While some would have argued in the late 1970s that food was not a bona fide art form, the public’s perception has now shifted to acknowledge the merits of that claim, as well as fully recognizing the role culinary artistry plays in the region’s economy and ecology.
In the public sphere, his work with the City of Portland engaged him at the intersection of politics and policy. As chief of staff to then-Commissioner Charlie Hales, he convened a diverse group that began the effort to develop a year-round, food-focused Public Market that would re-connect with Portland’s long tradition of Public Markets. He also participated in shaping the city’s arts policies and funding decisions; in that role he coordinated the city’s lobbying for the creation of the Oregon Cultural Trust and now serves as chair of the Oregon Arts Commission.
In the city’s Bureau of Planning and then in the Office of Sustainable Development for three years, he continued to advocate for the Public Market as well as citywide arts and culture planning. Now as a private consultant and self-described civic entrepreneur, he continues his efforts to create a Public Market for Portland. His bias is for food systems and cultural planning to advance to the same level that other environmental planning has already achieved. He calls it “habitat for urbanity.”
Larry Pearmine, Co-Owner – Pearmine Farms, Inc.
After earning a B.S. in Agricultural Economics at Oregon State University and spending three years as a Peace Corp volunteer in Liberia, West Africa, Larry returned to the family farm in 1973. He and his brother own and operate Pearmine Farms Inc. They grow vegetables, grass seed, and cherries in the Willamette Valley north of Salem.
Lisa Sedlar, President – New Seasons Market
Lisa Sedlar is the president of New Seasons Market. She hails from the mighty Midwest and has lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Chicago, Illinois, and Boulder, Colorado. Lisa is a formally trained chef and has worked in retail food markets for over 20 years, in positions ranging from store chef to director of purchasing for the nation’s largest natural foods retailer.
Lisa is on the board of directors for the Oregon Food Bank, the Sustainable Business Network of Portland, and the Portland Public Market. She also serves on the business advisory committees of the Food Alliance and the Food Innovation Center. Lisa is a member of the City Club of Portland and the Portland Rotary.
Manuel V. Silveira, Vice President - Agricultural Services, NORPAC Foods, Inc.
Manuel is Vice President of Agricultural Services for NORPAC Foods, Inc., a farmer-owned cooperative of over 200 family farms located in the Willamette Valley.
Manuel has been with NORPAC since 1982, and in his current position since 1995. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Entomology from San Jose State University. Prior to working in the Food Processing industry, Manuel worked as an independent Integrated Pest Management consultant in the Central Valley of California.
John Stalley, Senior Farm Program Reviewer and Inspector – Oregon Tilth, Inc.
John received his Bachelor of Science in Crop Science from Oregon State University in 1989.
Following graduation, from 1989 to 1996 he was employed as a certified Crop Advisor for Cenex in Tangent, OR. In 1996 until 2003 he served as a field representative for Pickseed West in Tangent.
Currently John is employed as Senior Farm Program Reviewer and inspector for Oregon Tilth, Inc. and has held that position since 2003.
Leather Storrs, Chef - Noble Rot
Leather Storrs, a native Oregonian, grew up on the rough and tumble west side of Portland. His mediocre academic career culminated in a B.A. in English from the University of Colorado. After graduation, Storrs got serious at the Culinary Institute of America, taking home the coveted “Perfect Attendance” award. Formative cooking experiences included stints at Chez Panisse and the French Laundry, under the frightening brilliance of Thomas Keller.
Leather returned to Portland in 1998 to run dinner service at the Bijou Café, a venerable breakfast joint. The experiment was disastrous. In an attempt to retire from cooking, Storrs took a position at Brick House wines as an assistant to Doug Tunnell. He also worked as a food critic for the Portland Tribune and Citysearch.com. His wife, Courtney, rescued him from his desert wanderings and installed Leather as the chef of her (and partner Kimberly Bernosky’s) new wine bar, Noble Rot, in 2002. That was big. Noble Rot was a critical and commercial success.
Leather’s food menu, a revolving selection of small plates, is grounded in seasonality and wine friendliness. The press has been kind and the humble onion tart has reached cult status. Now 35, Storrs is nearing the end of his run as a “young Turk,” but he remains cheeky and opinionated. He, Courtney and Bernosky are designing a new restaurant, but his finest creation by far is his young son, Rye.
Peter Truitt, Truitt Bros. Inc.
Peter and his brother, David, took over a cannery in Salem, and eventually formed Truitt Bros. Inc. which has always been more than just a food processor. They represent the third generation of a food processing family and are leaders in bringing quality and innovation to the industry. They provide shelf stable products for a wide variety of establishments, from restaurants and businesses to health care and retailers.
Peter was raised in rural Louisiana in the 50’s and early 60’s. He left for boarding school in ’62, began college at Cornell in ’64, finished at Oregon State. His family includes his wife, Lynda, a Louisiana native, married 39 years; daughter Kathleen, 36, an actress lives and works in NYC; son Jordan, 25 and an Agriculture major at OSU, Ag harvesting business.
Peter has been active on the business advisory council of the Food Alliance and the advisory council for the State of Oregon Food Innovation Center.
