I have had an interesting and varied career. I started off in pharmaceutical marketing out of college and went on to obtain a master’s degree in public health and community health delivery. I worked in the non-profit sector for a few years in emergency health care planning and then took a position in clinical research at Jefferson. I soon realized that my interest in food took me to working in a very popular cutting-edge restaurant for what was supposed to be one year, eight years.

I soon moved over to the corporate food delivery world, and that brought me both high-quality food and business experience, which led to a Vice President’s position with $60million in revenue.

In 2004, I took a position with my local coop that was in financial crisis for a two-year stint. I had never worked in grocery/retail work, but what was also supposed to be a two-year commitment led to an 11-year run until I left to run the food bank of Philadelphia, Philabundance, from 2015 to 2020. I left just at the beginning of Covid. Revenue was $50 M per year with donations of food and money.

In January of 2021, I took on a consulting position in Berkshire County, MA, for a non-profit, Berkshire Agricultural Ventures, which was to be for 6 months until we found a replacement. I stayed for 2.5 years. Revenue increased from $350,000 to $2M.

Since then, I have been semi-retired, running food tours, subsitute teachingin the Philadelphia School District, and traveling.

Overall, for me, it is about food, community, “food justice”, ethnic and cultural understanding through food, and great customer service.