Our Team

Linden Thayer, PhD (she/her)

CO-FOUNDER | Strategic Advisor

Linden co-founded FIG as a way to continue her passion for community-based, food-as-social-justice work. She holds a PhD in Nutrition Intervention and Policy from UNC-Chapel Hill, and she relishes the opportunity to work across disciplines, social agendas, and geographies to build programs, policies, research, and connections that promote the health and wellbeing of communities. As a former “Lunch Lady,” she has a particular passion for supporting schools’, students’, and families’ efforts to grow school food systems that support community wellbeing from farm to school to child. She hopes that FIG’s work empowers many others to take up food system causes in their own communities.

Debbie Friedman, JD (she/her)

Director of Policy + Strategy

Debbie is passionate about building consensus around food system transformation and evidence-based policy change. She’s a former practicing attorney who has launched and led community-based organizations focused on shifting agricultural policies towards agroecological systems. She is a strategist and coalition builder. Drawing upon her experiences in law, media, communications, and grassroots organizing, Debbie works towards a vision of a climate resilient, fair, and equitable food system that supports powerful regional food economies. Debbie is a Kitchen Table Advisor to State Innovation Exchange’s Cohort for Rural Opportunity and Prosperity (CROP) Program and a subcommittee member for the CA Farm to School Roadmap, Planting the Seed, released February, 2022.

Yasmeen Lee, MPH (she/her)

Evaluation Specialist

Yasmeen is passionate about the power of data to connect those at the grassroots with those who can enact change at the grass tops. She is a researcher, evaluator, project manager, and policy professional. Prior to joining Food Insight Group, Yasmeen worked on multiple consultancies for projects related to the North Carolina food system. Additionally, she worked as a consultant conducting large-scale evaluations for life sciences, regulatory, and healthcare organizations. Yasmeen received her MPH with a concentration in health policy from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Beth Katz, PhD (she/her)

CO-FOUNDER | Executive Director

Beth is passionate about the intersections of food, environment, culture, and social justice. She holds a PhD in Nutrition Intervention and Policy from UNC-Chapel Hill and has worked across the US and around the world to help communities identify food system challenges and address them by leveraging community strengths. Beth uses quantitative and qualitative research methods in her work with farmers, grocery retailers, schools, nonprofits, foundations, and community development financial institutions. She strongly believes in the power of food to connect people. Beth served on the Board of Directors for the Durham Co-op Market and is based in the Bay Area of California.
Curriculum Vitae

Jessie Wesley, MCP, MPH (she/her)

Senior Program + Policy Specialist

Jessie is passionate about creating liberation through the ways we enjoy, grow, buy, sell and eat food. Previously, she earned a joint masters degree in City Planning and Public Health from UC Berkeley with a focus on community engagement and healthy cities. For the past 9 years, she has worked throughout the Bay Area on issues ranging from equitable planning, to community training, to COVID relief food coordination. She thrives in spaces where she gets to engage with community members about what they care about most.

LaShauna Austria (she/her)

Principal, Seeds of change consulting

Seeds of Change Consulting (SOC) provides racial equity consulting with a focus on the food system, strategies for supporting the growth of farmers of color, organizational and leadership development, research, evaluation, feasibility studies, facilitation, and a range of services to individuals and organizations seeking to deepen and apply a racial equity analysis to their work and missions. LaShauna is a training consultant with the Racial Equity Institute, and she is passionate about rural life, preserving farmland and natural resources, and Southern foodways.

https://seedsofchangeconsulting.org/

Eva Ringstrom, MPA, MUP (she/her)

Raindrop Workshop

Eva works with groups, organizations, and government agencies to design learning and evaluation processes that support systemic change. She is especially dedicated to creating food systems that are just, resilient, and provide delicious food to all. Eva spent a decade building and leading FoodCorps’ evaluation program where she led the organization’s internal and external evaluation efforts, designed reporting and performance measurement systems, and advised on program design and strategy. Following her time at FoodCorps, she launched Raindrop Workshop, an independent evaluation and strategic learning consultancy. Eva’s professional experience spans multiple roles in service of sustainable, community food systems and healthy schools, including as a food access policy and urban planning consultant, a school-based food educator, and a pastry chef. She earned Master of Public Administration and Master of Urban Planning degrees from the University of Washington, where her graduate work focused on the intersection of policy, public health, and the built environment.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/evaring/