Team Member ZEL TAYLOR Fund Advisor Zel Taylor (they/ she) is a Black queer nonbinary farmer in the deep South. Their people are from Atlanta, Waynesboro, Calhoun, and Augusta Georgia area. As the descendant of sharecroppers, enslaved land workers, farmers, and…

Team Member TERENCE COURTNEY Fund Co-Chair Terence Courtney is the Director of Cooperative Development & Strategic Initiatives for the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. He began organizing with the Service Employees International Union to improve economic conditions for working people. He led…

Team Member SARAH BOBROW-WILLIAMS Fund Advisor Sarah Bobrow-Williams is an activist and community planner committed to community-based organizing, participatory research, and decolonizing land-based practices and policies. She received her master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of New…

Team Member OLETA GARRETT FITZGERALD Fund Advisor Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald is the Regional Administrator for the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic & Social Justice (SRBWI). SRBWI operates in 77 counties across the Black Belts of Alabama, Southwest Georgia and…

Team Member KOLU ZIGBI Consultant Kolu Zigbi serves as a re-sorceress, strategist, connector, facilitator, and catalyst for social and environmental justice, with a focus on collective governance of land and financial resources by BIPOC and marginalized communities. She believes in solidarity…

Team Member BRANDI TURNER Fund Advisor Brandi Turner is the Co-Founder and Co-Director for the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (MCCP), best known as Sipp Culture (SC) in Utica, MS. MCCP, an organization taking a place-based approach to holistic community development…

Team Member JOE BARNES Fund Advisor Joe Barnes is an Agribusiness Management Specialist with the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives. The fund now welcomes funding from a broad array of donors to continue to support rural Black community self determination throughout the…

Team Member DR. JASMINE JACKSON Fund Advisor Dr. Jasmine Jackson (she/hers)  Co-Executive Director of the National Black Food & Justice Alliance – Dr. Jas is an applied food systems research and policy-based specialist. She partners with academic research teams, anchor institutions,…

Team Member M. DOMINIQUE VILLANUEVA Fund Advisor M. Dominique Villanueva (she / her) is a dedicated advocate for health and justice in marginalized communities. As the Co-Founder at Fountain Heights Farms, a Black-centered urban farm in Birmingham, AL. Dominique extends her impact…

Team Member ALSIE PARKS Fund Co-Chair Alsie Parks is an Atlanta-native, that advocates and activates the use of food as an organizing tool for healing and liberation. As a child of the south, she is the granddaughter of educators, sharecroppers, and…