Kate Clancy
Kate Clancy is currently a food systems consultant and Senior Fellow in the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, University of Minnesota (she resides in University Park, Maryland).  Her present interests are the research and policy facets of Agriculture of the Middle, the development of regional food systems, the relationships between land use and farm viability, and the research needed to advance sustainable agriculture and food systems policy.

Jerry Cosgrove
Jerry Cosgrove is Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, where his program responsibilities include agriculture development, farmland conservation and dairy issues.  Previously, Cosgrove was with American Farmland Trust where he worked tirelessly to implement, fund and subsequently improve the Agricultural Protection Act of 1992.  While with AFT, Cosgrove used his expertise to author numerous publications, and he was instrumental in building support for American Farmland Trust’s farmland preservation, farm policy and conservation programs.

Michael Hamm
Michael Hamm is the C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University.  His research interests include community-based food systems, food security, sustainable agriculture and nutrition education.  Dr. Hamm’s outreach programs focus on working with communities to develop community-based food systems and working on local and state food policy issues, including membership on the Michigan Food Policy Council.

Duncan Hilchey
Duncan Hilchey is a consultant with New Leaf Associates Publishing and Consulting in Ithaca, New York, following 18 years as a senior extension associate (agriculture development specialist) at Cornell University.  He specializes in regional place-based food and agriculture and has a forthcoming paper being published by the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation entitled /Gôut de Terroir (Taste of Place): Exploring the Boundaries of Specialty Agricultural Landscapes. 

Clare Hinrichs
Clare Hinrichs is Associate Professor of Rural Sociology in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Penn State University.  Her research broadly addresses questions of how transitions to sustainability are understood, negotiated, organized, contested and assessed.  She has published numerous articles on rural sociology and agriculture and is co-editor with Thomas A. Lyson on the book ”Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability.”

Rich Pirog
Rich Pirog is Associate Director of the Leopold Center at Iowa State University and serves as the Marketing and Food Systems program leader.  He has been heavily involved in local food system efforts, is a member of the Governor's Food Policy Council, and has worked to open institutional markets.  Rich has conducted research on food system pathways and energy use in the food system.

Kathy Ruhf
Kathy Ruhf is coordinator of the Northeast Sustainable Working Group (NEWASG).  She is project director for the NEWASG project “Regional Food Value Chains for the Northeast,” which researches these issues:  Kathy has coordinated NESAWG since 1992 and is a food systems policy specialist. 

Dawn Thilmany
Dawn Thilmany is professor of agricultural and resource economics and Extension Economist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO.  Dr. Thilmany is known for her work on a variety of marketing issues, most recently a national study of consumers' motivations to purchase local foods.  She has recently been involved in discussions with Wal-Mart regarding their interest in selling local foods through her role on the Market Maker National Advisory Board.

Jennifer Wilkins
Jennifer Wilkins joined the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University as a Senior Extension Associate in 1993. Her work focuses on how the food and agriculture system impacts public health, environmental sustainability, and community well-being.  She was one of eight people selected from a national pool of over 150 for Class IV of the Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Fellowship.  During this 2-year fellowship (2004 to 2006) her work appeared in the media including an op-ed in the New York Times.  Her newspaper column, The Food Citizen, has appeared monthly in the Albany Times Union since May 2006, and in the Ithaca Journal since November 2007.