SPEAKERS

Leah leads Open Arms of Minnesota as CEO, bringing more than 20 years of nonprofit leadership experience spanning the arts, community education, and health care. Open Arms is a nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services for people living with serious and chronic illnesses. Since joining the organization in 2013, Leah has guided significant growth, including the expansion of services through a second facility in St. Paul and the development of Open Arms' culturally familiar medically tailored meal program. Her career began as a victim advocate at a battered women's shelter, and her personal experience as a young mother shaped a leadership style grounded in empathy, dignity, and equitable access to resources. A recognized leader in the Food is Medicine movement, Leah serves on the Advisory Board of the Food is Medicine Coalition, helping advance national standards and best practices.  

Terese Hill leads the design, implementation, and scaling of system-wide food is medicine programs for Minnesota healthcare system, Fairview, working to address food insecurity across clinical and community settings. She oversees a portfolio of initiatives including Fresh Food Rx, medically tailored meals, food voucher programs, and Food Resource Navigation, serving patients across more than 60 care sites with dignified, collaborative food is medicine responses and programming. 

Jim Letts, MD is a family medicine doctor at Fairview Roselawn Clinic. He has been in practice there for 22 years and has helped lead multiple community partnerships with a focus on refugee health. He also works with Fairview's system Community Advancement team, addressing the social determinants of health including Food is Medicine.  

Emilie Cagnazzo serves as Strategic Partnerships Manager at Open Arms of Minnesota, a nonprofit provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition services for people living with serious and chronic illnesses. In her role, Emilie develops partnerships with health systems, health plans, community organizations, and public-sector partners to expand access to Food is Medicine interventions across Minnesota. She has helped cultivate collaborations that connect healthcare and community-based organizations to improve health outcomes, increase food access, and advance innovative models of care, including the Fair Table initiative. Prior to joining Open Arms, Emilie spent six years at Greater Twin Cities United Way, leading corporate and community partnerships. Outside of her professional work, she coaches high school speech, helping develop the next generation of advocates and community leaders.  

Anna Richardson, Director of Market Access Programs, oversees sales and procurement at The Good Acre. She has been with the organization for over 10 years and has led the expansion of programming from $100,000 in annual sales to $4 million. Anna brings deep expertise in cross-functional programming, strategic partnerships, and operations. 

Steph Wagner is the Associate Director of Programs at The Food Group, a Twin Cities-based food equity organization working across the food system to increase access to nutritious, affordable, and culturally connected food. In this role, Steph provides leadership for The Food Group’s two mobile market programs, Fare For All and Twin Cities Mobile Market, and administers the statewide Market Bucks program, which helps make locally grown food more accessible to people using SNAP.
Steph’s work is grounded in a belief that food access is about more than having enough food, it is also about affordability, dignity, community, and connection to the foods and places that matter to people.
Steph grew up snacking on fresh peas and raspberries straight from her family’s backyard garden and has since become someone who willingly pulls weeds. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time in her gardens, cooking, and reading. 

Kelly Naranjo is a cross-disciplinary scholar and researcher with a dual background in Biology and Bioethics. She joined God’s Love after a career in academic medicine, where she managed clinical research and clinical trials. She has used this experience to spearhead research infrastructure at God’s Love and, through our collaborative work with FIMC, extend it to our sister agencies. In her role, she has established academic partnerships with investigators committed to addressing health equity and supporting Food is Medicine interventions through clinical trials, structured studies, and pilot studies. Her ongoing projects include multistakeholder collaborations with payers, foundations, CBOs, and academic partners that prioritize community-centered research and uphold collaborative frameworks. 

Liana R.N. Schreiber, MPH, RDN, is a Research Scientist at the Minnesota Department of Health, bringing over a decade of experience designing statewide public health evaluations, managing complex data systems, and translating data into actionable insights. She is a registered dietitian and specializes in evaluating programs that support disease prevention, nutrition, and food systems, as well as focusing on advancing health equity through evidence-based, data-driven decision-making. In her work at Minnesota Department of Health, she has led comprehensive evaluations for major statewide health initiatives—such as the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP)—and has published peer-reviewed research on rural produce prescription programs and food retail minimum stocking standards. Currently, she serves as the Sage Cancer Program Evaluator, focusing on initiatives that support people getting screened for cancer. 

Ted Carling is Co-Founder and Principal of Ecotone Analytics, a Minneapolis impact strategy and design firm. Ecotone uses Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis to translate program outcomes into the financial terms that health systems, health plans, and funders use to make decisions. Ted works with hospitals and community organizations to show the value of their upstream community investments and build the case for sustained funding. He brings 19 years of experience in sustainability, operations, and data analytics, with a focus on making findings usable for the leaders who act on them. When Ted isn’t working, he’s building sandcastles with his two young children at the playgrounds around Northeast Minneapolis. 

Ben Waltz is a leader in the social drivers of health space with over a decade of experience working in healthcare. He has spent his tenure at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota working in multiple market segments and divisions, driving improved health outcomes for members and communities through interventions that utilize food as medicine and improved access to housing. His work focuses on creating decreases in cost for impacted members, such as chronic condition food delivery and education, as well as system-level improvements through cross-sector collaboration with non-profits, healthcare providers, for-profits, and government entities.  

Jennifer Compton coordinates patient support programs and community partnerships addressing food insecurity at Allina Health. In partnership with Open Arms, Allina Health is currently launching a robust Food is Medicine intervention for select patients living with diabetes. The initiative builds on Allina Health’s broader Health-Related Social Needs program, which connects patients experiencing food insecurity and other social needs with resources and support.  With a background in program evaluation, Jennifer focuses on building the evidence needed to understand what works, for whom, and under what conditions while keeping patient experience at the center of program design. Her work at Allina Health brings together health care and community partners to develop, evaluate, and strengthen sustainable strategies addressing social needs and improving health outcomes.  

Jesus Barrera is the Associate Director of Community Partnerships at the American Cancer Society, where he works to strengthen partnerships and advance cancer prevention, early detection, and health equity within communities. With 11 years of experience in healthcare and 7 years in public health, Jesus brings a strong understanding of the healthcare system and the importance of community-centered approaches to improving health outcomes.  He is fluent in Spanish and is passionate about connecting communities with resources, education, and support that can help reduce cancer disparities. Jesus holds a Master’s degree in Health Administration from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. Through his work, he collaborates with healthcare organizations, community partners, and public health professionals to help improve access to cancer information, screening, and services.  

Natalie Knutson is passionate about making healthy living feel achievable, accessible, and part of everyday life. As Director of Wellness at Lake Region Healthcare, she is helping lead a shift toward evidence-based Lifestyle Medicine in patient, employee, and community care. Natalie has been instrumental in developing LRH’s Lifestyle Medicine Referral program, Shared Medical Appointment Model, Food Is Medicine programming, and Workplace Wellness initiatives. She also oversees Unity Wellness, LRH’s onsite wellness center, where she coaches group classes and works one-on-one with patients, employees, and community members. Natalie holds a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science and is a Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach, ACSM Exercise Physiologist, and CrossFit Level 2 Coach. Outside of work, she enjoys life with her husband, two active boys, and their dog—exploring the outdoors, traveling, and embracing new adventures.  

Lauren Pipkin serves as the Community Partnerships Coordinator for Fairview Range in Hibbing, Minnesota. With a bachelor’s degree in Family Social Science and more than 12 years of nursing experience in clinic settings across the Twin Cities and Iron Range, Lauren brings both a health care and community-centered perspective to her work. She is passionate about connecting people, organizations, and resources to help strengthen the health and well-being of local communities. Lauren lives in Virginia, Minnesota, with her husband of 18 years, their three children, and two dogs. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and making memories at the family cabin.  

Kate Cowie-Haskell is an advocate for food systems that support physical, cultural, and ecological thriving. Their experience on farm field crews across New England and the Midwest interested them in the broader factors impacting food systems. They have served as a technical assistance provider for small farmers, producer of a podcast about alternative agriculture projects in the Midwest, and facilitator of farmer wellness retreats. They currently serve as Director of Northwoods Food Project in Grand Marais, MN. In their free time they enjoy growing dye plants and dancing.  

Allison Rian is a farmer in Aitkin, MN, a farmer advocate, and a local food champion. Allison has served as the Aitkin Farmers’ Market Hub manager since 2020 and has no plans to stop shortening supply chains, championing local businesses, and working for the chaotic good.  

Recently retired as Chair of Pediatrics at Hennepin County Medical Center, Dr. Cutts brings 40 years of pediatric practice with a special focus on young children with nutritional concerns and more than 25 years of research on food insecurity and related hardships. She was a founding member and principal investigator of Children’s HealthWatch, the Boston-based national research consortium which developed the Hunger Vital Sign and has collectively authored over 90 academic papers. At Hennepin, she helped establish a hospital-based food shelf, summer feeding program, cooking classes, Teaching Kitchen, system-wide food insecurity screening, electronic medical record referrals to WIC, and partnerships testing food delivery for high-risk patients, including those with diabetes, COVID-19, heart failure, or high-risk pregnancies. Now, she is studying retirement—with occasional happy lapses - and she’s delighted to be here today.  

Jenny Breen, has been working at the intersection of human, community and planetary health in the Twin Cities and throughout the country for over 30 years. She creates classes, training and coaching for individuals, communities, organizations and institutions focused on food, health and sustainability skills and their role in human and planetary health, wellbeing, equity and justice.  Jenny teaches 3 classes through the Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing/University of Minnesota, is a part of the Life Stages team in the Medical school, and engages in food justice and policy work throughout Minnesota. Classes explore the role of food choices and food skills in our complex food system. Students are undergraduate, graduate and practicing health professionals, school foodservice, food and ag based organizations and individuals. Jenny is passionate about engaging people from across the food system to build food skills and explore our stories and the stories behind our food.   

Reginaldo (Regi) Haslett-Marroquin has worked in regenerative agriculture since his childhood. He served as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme and as an advisor to the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, founding many fair trade initiatives. 

Before coming to the U.S. in 1992, Regi worked with artisan communities across the highlands of Guatemala and built fair trade networks in Europe, the U.S. and Canada.  Among many other recognitions, Haslett-Marroquin was named one of the Twin Cities International Citizens of the Year in 1996. He has served on numerous non-profit boards.  Haslett-Marroquin is the founder of Regenerative Agriculture Alliance and co-founder of Tree-Range Farms. For his work in Regenerative Poultry Systems, Regi was awarded a prestigious lifetime Ashoka Fellowship in 2018. 

Regi and his wife Amy currently farm at Salvatierra Farms, a 63-acre operation in Northfield, Minnesota. Regi authored “In the Shadow of Green Man: My Journey from Poverty and Hunger to Food Security and Hope” in partnership with acresusa.com. 

Anna has spent the past 10 years working in community nutrition with the University of Minnesota Extension’s Department of Family, Health and Wellbeing. She began her career as a SNAP-Ed educator, providing nutrition education to people of all ages across a wide range of settings. She now serves as a SuperShelf Lead Consultant, partnering with food shelves across Minnesota to create welcoming environments that promote good food and respect for all. This year, the SuperShelf team celebrated a major milestone: the certification of its 100th food shelf in Minnesota. Anna cares deeply about both education and access, with her inspiration coming from the relational nature of this work and the connections she builds with community members, food shelf leaders, and participants. Before coming to the U.S. in 1992, Regi worked with artisan communities across the highlands of Guatemala and built fair trade networks in Europe, the U.S. and Canada.  Among many other recognitions, Haslett-Marroquin was named one of the Twin Cities International Citizens of the Year in 1996. He has served on numerous non-profit boards.  Haslett-Marroquin is the founder of Regenerative Agriculture Alliance and co-founder of Tree-Range Farms. For his work in Regenerative Poultry Systems, Regi was awarded a prestigious lifetime Ashoka Fellowship in 2018. Regi and his wife Amy currently farm at Salvatierra Farms, a 63-acre operation in Northfield, Minnesota. Regi authored “In the Shadow of Green Man: My Journey from Poverty and Hunger to Food Security and Hope” in partnership with acresusa.com. 

Aimee Pappenfus is a healthcare and community impact leader with more than 18 years of experience advancing health equity, community engagement, and corporate responsibility initiatives. As Director of System Community Engagement & Impact at Allina Health, she leads the organization's enterprise strategy for community partnerships, charitable investments, employee volunteerism, community health improvement, and community benefit programs. She collaborates with executive leaders, nonprofit organizations, and community stakeholders to address critical health and social needs across Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Aimee has developed and led innovative partnerships with Federally Qualified Health Centers, food security organizations, and community-based nonprofits to improve access to care and advance health outcomes. She is recognized for her ability to bridge healthcare and community sectors, build sustainable cross-sector collaborations, and drive initiatives that create measurable impact. A passionate advocate for community wellbeing and health equity, Aimee currently serves on the Board of Open Arms Minnesota. 

Theresa Schneider leads The Good Acre as CEO, overseeing the largest nonprofit food hub in Minnesota. She brings extensive experience in strategic partnerships, fund development, program development, and operations, and prioritizes collaboration as the key to lasting change. Under her leadership, The Good Acre has accelerated equitable economic opportunities for Minnesota farmers, expanded access to local produce, and created a more resilient local food system. 

Christine is a Population Health Advisor at Hennepin Healthcare (HHS) who works with patients, providers, and care teams across the health system to improve quality of care, patient experience, and reduce health disparities. Christine has deep healthcare experience in patient education, program development and evaluation, and clinical research. She has also worked in the employee benefits industry, helping employers design programs to improve the health and well-being of employees and their families. At HHS, Christine led two pilot programs focused on reducing food insecurity for patients with high-risk pregnancies. She partnered with clinical teams and community organizations to connect patients with medically tailored meals/groceries and other supportive resources. Christine is passionate about creating practical, patient-centered solutions that improve health and make care more accessible for everyone.  

Princess Titus is a dedicated educator, community leader, and healer. A Chicago native, she has spent 30 years in the Twin Cities working with and learning from the community. Her work is rooted in a commitment to healing, empowerment, and creating opportunities for lasting social change. As a co-founder and Senior Engagement Officer at Appetite For Change (AFC), she champions food justice, using food as a tool to create health, wealth, and social change. Her community organizing training and leadership extend across multiple community initiatives. Her leadership has been recognized on National Philanthropy Day with AFC, and withing fellowships with IDEA, M Health Fairview Fellow and Black Leagacy Leadership. She believes in using trauma informed pracitices to building community power and advancing equitable, community-driven solutions. Her educational journey began with earning her GED and continued with a BA in Early Childhood Education from Metropolitan State University, a Global Career Development credential from Normandale Community College, and an Executive Certificate in Fundraising from the University of St. Thomas. Her work is grounded in the belief that communities are experts in their own needs. Princess enjoys and values writing, painting, and self care.  

Ranelle Kirchner is a Licensed Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES), and Le Cordon Bleu culinary graduate with more than 15 years of experience in nutrition, diabetes care, chronic disease management, and culinary education. She currently serves as Chronic Condition Program Manager and Diabetes Quality Coordinator at Southside, specializing in diabetes, hypertension, gut health and the microbiome, and food allergies and intolerances. Ranelle is passionate about helping people develop practical, sustainable relationships with food and health. Her client-centered approach tailors education to each person’s culture, budget, and relationship with food, incorporating motivational interviewing and trauma-informed care principles. She is also the author of The 30-Minute Prediabetes Cookbook and Gestational Diabetes Cooking for the Newly Diagnosed, and has served as a nutrition and diabetes content expert for mPulse and created hours of diabetes education videos.  

Kali Hazlett works at the intersection of healthcare and community health as part of the Food is Medicine movement. She works at Second Harvest Heartland, the second-largest food bank in the United States, where she manages the FOODRx program, which is Second Harvest Heartland's Food is Medicine program. In this role, she oversees program implementation, develops partnerships with healthcare systems, and engages in policy discussions regarding the role of nutrition in healthcare. Her journey began as a health coach, where she experienced the relationship between food and health while working with patients. With over a decade of public health experience in nutrition, research, and global health, Kali holds a Master of Public Health in Public Health Nutrition from the University of M. She has also been a member of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, has contributed to published research, and serves on committees advancing the Food is Medicine initiative. Born and raised in Minnesota, she is also an avid traveler. 

Kaitlin Overman has been working at NMH for almost four years as the Population Health Care Navigator. She has worked in health care for nearly 20 years with experience ranging from direct patient care, sports/rehab/therapy, strength & conditioning, nutrition, oncology, compliance, and community health. Though her experience is in health care, she has always said that food is her love language. She loves that North Memorial recognizes that food truly is medicine and helping their most vulnerable patients access the healthiest foods makes such a huge difference in their entire care experience. Patients are pleasantly surprised to learn that North Memorial Health actively works to connect patients with chronic conditions to healthier food options. 

Casey works for Scott County as the Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) grant coordinator, within her role as a community planner she leads work for Public Health around healthy eating, food access, and hunger relief. She works with local hunger relief and food access organizations on a variety of programs related to expanding residents access to culturally relevant, affordable, and nutritious foods. Her work focuses on strengthening food security and building strong local food systems at the community level.  

Andrew joined Open Arms in 2020, and in his current role he oversees the programs that deliver medically tailored meals to individuals suffering from critical illness. Before joining Open Arms, Andrew held various management positions in Behavioral Healthcare. Since joining the organization, Andrew has overseen the launch of the Culturally Familiar Meals Program and the creation of the Hmong and East African Menus to ensure our communities could have access to familiar, culturally appropriate, and medically tailored meals throughout their illness. Andrew himself is also a survivor of Soft Tissue Cell Sarcoma and is deeply passionate about helping improve the lives of those who suffer with any illness. Andrew relocated from Florida to Minnesota in October of 2020 with hopes of beginning work within the nonprofit sector to help those most in need. He also serves on the steering committee of the Minnesota Cancer Alliance.  

Janssen Hang is the Executive Director and Co-founder of the Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA) a non-profit organization that works to advance the economic, social and cultural property of Hmong farmers in Minnesota through capacity building, cooperative endeavor and advocacy to spur intergenerational and community wealth. Janssen grew up growing, harvesting and selling vegetables for the local food economy and has over 30 years of experience in agriculture and 15 years in small business management. In his capacity, Janssen works to create equitable access for Hmong farmers around access to land tenure, markets, credit and capital, training and research. He is an inaugural member of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Emerging Farmers’ Working Group that advises the commissioner and legislature on policies, programs and initiative; he served on USDA’s Equity Commission Committee under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2022; and led the first Hmong bi-lingual bi-cultural FSMA certified Produce Safety Requirement (PSR) training for Hmong farmers across multiple states.  

Nalini has spent the last decade working across local, national and global settings to implement and evaluate community-health programs. She has worked in global health as a HIV Health Specialist Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana and managing multi-country Maternal and Child Health (MCH) research protocols with RTI International. During Nalini's MPH at Emory University, she found her way to Food is Medicine through a Teaching Kitchen in downtown Atlanta, facilitating FIM classes and spearheading a qualitative evaluation of the program. At the CDC, she coordinated a federal strategy strengthening produce prescription and nutrition incentive programs through 83 grantees across the United States. Nalini supports the 48 Food is Medicine Coalition member agencies by coordinating various member benefits including peer-to-peer learning opportunities and MTM and MTG standards development. 

Andrew Marshall is Regional Market President at Medica, where he leads market strategy, growth, and stakeholder engagement across the Midwest. With more than 25 years of healthcare experience, he works at the intersection of health plans, providers, employers, brokers, policymakers, and community organizations to improve access, affordability, and health outcomes. Andrew is passionate about building trust across sectors and believes lasting progress in healthcare happens when organizations align around shared goals, clear accountability, and mutual value. Throughout his career, he has helped develop partnerships that balance mission and business objectives while creating meaningful impact for the communities they serve. He is also an active nonprofit board leader and advocate for collaborative approaches that address complex health and social needs.  

Marna brings decades of experience in community health improvement, nutrition, nonprofit leadership, and building community partnerships to her role as HealthPartners Vice President of Community Health. Marna leads HealthPartners strategy for Community Engagement, Assessment, Impact and Partnerships. She provides senior leadership for community health initiatives with a focus on mental health and well-being, social drivers of health, access to care and community evaluation. Social Drivers of Health and Access to Health Care. Marna is a recognized leader in the intersection between health and nutrition insecurity, including collaborative leadership to transform food shelves through SuperShelf. Marna’s nonprofit board service has included The Food Group, Valley Community Center and Valley Outreach. Marna received her bachelor’s degree in nutrition and biology from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN and completed her training as a Registered Dietitian at the University of Iowa. She received her Master’s in Community Health from Minnesota State University, Mankato. 

Robin Manthie is Vice President of Neighbor Impact and Strategic Growth at Second Harvest Heartland. Guided by the belief that thriving communities benefit everyone, she uses data, research, and neighbor input to shape programs and partnerships that address food insecurity as a key determinant of health. Robin oversees SNAP outreach, the Care Center call center, and FOODRx, a medically tailored grocery initiative developed in partnership with healthcare payers and providers. Previously, she served as Managing Director of Kitchen Coalition, leading efforts that delivered millions of culturally affirming meals to individuals and families facing barriers to preparing food. Before joining Second Harvest Heartland, Robin held leadership roles at Boston Consulting Group, General Mills, 3M, and Feeding America. She earned her MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and her B.A. from St. Olaf College. 

Dr. Abby Gold is a health and nutrition Extension specialist with the University of Minnesota Extension Department of Family, Health and Wellbeing and the Department of Food Science and Nutrition. Dr. Gold holds an appointment as an associate affiliate faculty in the UMN School of Public Health, she serves as co-director for the UMN Leadership Education and Training Program in MCH Nutrition, and a core research team member for the UMN CDC funded Prevention Research Center. Dr. Gold also was the lead evaluator for the GusNIP funded University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's VeggieRx Program.  

Reba Batalden, PhD, is the Associate Director at BrightSide Produce, a Twin Cities nonprofit working to build a more equitable food system by expanding access to affordable fresh produce. Trained as an ecologist, she joined BrightSide three years ago and now manages fundraising, communications, and strategic growth across all programs, including Healthy Corner Stores, Pay What You Can doorstep deliveries, and Food as Medicine partnerships with community health clinics. Drawn to work that links individual and public health with environmental sustainability, she sees produce prescriptions as an affordable, data-supported way to put healthy food on people’s dinner plates and improve health outcomes. Outside of work, she enjoys gardening, knitting, and taking long walks with her dog and four kids. 

Sophia has worked in hunger relief her entire career. She is always thinking of creative ways to bring good, culturally connected food to where it’s needed most. Her passion is collaborating with community partners to create a more equitable food system for all. Before becoming executive director, Sophia served as The Food Group’s director of programs and operations. In that role, she embedded equity and systems change into the agency, and she created new strategies for community engagement. Previously, she served as associate director at Hunger Solutions Minnesota, working on federal and state public policy and expanding cross-sector partnerships with healthcare providers, policymakers, and farmers markets.  

Katie is the Clinical Instructor at the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School. Katie joined the Center in 2014 and currently directs the Center’s whole-person care initiatives, including the Center’s Food is Medicine project. In her work on these initiatives, she has had the opportunity to work with community-based organizations, state agencies, health care providers, and coalitions to develop strategies to increase access to innovative services such as medically tailored meals, medically tailored groceries, and produce prescriptions. Prior to joining the Center, Katie was an associate at Ropes & Gray LLP. She is a licensed member of the Massachusetts Bar.  

Melissa Laska, PhD, RD, is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and co-directs the University's Prevention Research Center. As a registered dietitian and community-engaged researcher and evaluator, Dr. Laska brings over two decades of experience advancing nutrition equity, food security, and healthy food access. Her interdisciplinary, NIH- and RWJF-funded work focuses on evaluating local food systems, community engagement around food access issues, and evidence-based, sustainable policy solutions. Grounded in cross-sector collaboration, she partners with state and local health departments, health systems, community groups, non-profits, food distributors, and public health policy organizations to advance these goals. Author of nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications informing national guidelines, Dr. Laska serves as a collaborative research and evaluation resource for Food is Medicine partners, offering expertise to support, design, and evaluate emerging cross-sector initiatives. 

Diane Tran (she/her) is System Executive Director, Community Health Equity and Engagement and founding Executive Director of the Fairview Center for Community Health Equity. She directs the Center's Food is Medicine, Housing is Health, and Connection is Cure social determinants of health initiatives as well as population health equity initiatives including the "Healing in Four Directions" Native Health Equity Initiative, Black Health Equity Initiative, and Birth Justice Initiative. Diane currently serves as President of the Little Mekong Cooperative board of directors and is co-founder of LOCUS, a resource network for diverse leaders in Minnesota. Recent board service includes Chair of the Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation and co-chairing the search for President/CEO of Propel Nonprofits. Diane was named a 2025 Women in Business Honoree by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, invited as an inaugural member of the Young American Leaders Program (YALP) at Harvard Business School in 2015, and selected as a 2013 German Marshall Memorial Fellow. 

Hilary Gebauer MPH, RDN, LD is the Nutrition Policy Coordinator for the Office of Statewide Health Improvement Initiatives at the Minnesota Department of Health. Prior to this role Hilary worked in a variety of public health and clinical nutrition settings in for-profit, non-profit, philanthropic and government agencies. Her public health work has focused on building and sustaining statewide coalitions, including the Minnesota Cancer Alliance; and food access and systems change, including co-managing the statewide EBT and Market Bucks Initiative at the MN Department of Human Services. Her professional work has also included strategic planning, communications, program development and evaluation. She earned a BS in Biology from Valparaiso University and an MPH Nutrition from the University of Minnesota.