College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Liberal Arts and Sciences Liberal Arts and Sciences

Leah Cohen first became aware of some of the horrible and unjust working and living conditions of U.S. farm laborers in 1995 as an intern driving a mobile dental clinic serving migrant camps in northwest agricultural fields. From 2004 through 2009, she consulted on monitoring and evaluation assignments for USAID Title II food security programs in Africa and served as managing editor of the Africare Food Security Review, but concluded that there was a lot of work to do on social justice issues here in her own community and country. She has been working with the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP) ever since and currently serves as the national general coordinator. Her work with AJP centers around root causes of injustice that cross socio-cultural and sector lines throughout the food system, with the aim of working towards justice in the food system for farmworkers, farmers, food chain workers, mom and pop businesses, eaters, and local communities.

Anna Prizzia is Commissioner for District 3 in Alachua County. She founded and currently oversees the UF/IFAS Field & Fork Program and works as the campus food systems coordinator for the University of Florida. She has two decades of experience in sustainability efforts, including working as statewide coordinator for the Florida Farm to School Program, founding and managing sustainability efforts at UF, and working with several non-profits and community organizations to address education, food access, and economic opportunity. Prizzia was a co-founder and served as the president of the board for Working Food from 2012-2020. Working Food is a non-profit organization focused on supporting and sustaining local food efforts in North Central Florida. Anna currently serves on the Community Revitalization Board for Habitat for Humanity. She received her B.S. in Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington and her M.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation with a certificate in Tropical Conservation and Development from the University of Florida. She served in the Peace Corps at Vanuatu from 2004 to 2005. Anna lives in Gainesville, FL, with her husband and daughter, and loves live music, water recreation, and cooking with friends and family.

Hari Pulapaka is a professional Chef and a professional Mathematician. Hari is a Worldchefs Certified Master Chef (WCMC) and a full-time, tenured, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Stetson University, completing 21 years at the university. For the past 15 years, Hari has also been a classically-trained professional chef, a four-time semifinalist for a James Beard Award for Best Chef-South, has cooked by invitation at the prestigious James Beard House on six occasions, earned multiple Food and Wine Best Chefs in America recognitions, and was chosen as a GRIST 50 inductee for his pioneering work in reducing food waste in his restaurant kitchen. Hari is co-founder and co-owner of award-winning Cress Restaurant, a Certified Executive Chef of the American Culinary Federation, and on the Board of Directors for Mainstreet DeLand Association. Hari was inducted into the Orlando Sentinel Hall of Fame, won gold at the Inaugural national Chefs Taste Challenge in New Orleans, and has published two books – most recently Dreaming in Spice: A Sinfully Vegetarian Odyssey. Hari’s cooking philosophy is grounded in being inspired by the world we live in while developing globally inspired flavors using thoughtfully sourced ingredients. These days, Hari is setting the direction of a company he founded – The Global Cooking School – while teaching full time at Stetson University and advocating for a more just, equitable, and delicious global food system.

John H Nix is a community leader and fourth-generation farmer who produces natural beef cattle. He currently works as an Energy Conservation Engineer at the Alachua County Public Schools Energy Systems Department. He has been involved in different committees throughout Gainesville including: Alachua County Citizen Climate Advisory Committee, Keep Alachua County Beautiful, the City of Gainesville Food System Coalition, the Alachua County Friends Cuscowilla Camp, the NE Gainesville Community Science Club, and the NAACP Environmental Climate Justice Committee. Nix received his B.S. in Engineering from Kansas State University, and he graduated from Gainesville’s Lincoln High School in 1970.

Nezahualcoyotl Xiuhtecutli is a Research Coordinator at the Farmworker Association of Florida (FWAF), where he has been since 2016. Before that, Neza spent 12 years working with indigenous communities in central and southern Mexico and continues to pursue work with those communities as a way to build solidarity, share knowledge, and empower them to build indigenous and community sovereignty. His work at FWAF focuses on giving voice to the needs and concerns of workers engaged with research institutions carrying out community-based participatory research. Recent projects have focused on the health effects of heat-related illness on farmworkers and developing safety-training curricula in pesticides and worker-focused responses to COVID-19. He has an M.A. in anthropology and is a Ph.D. candidate in the Anthropology Department at Tulane University.