I am pleased to announce that Jennifer Sowerwine has accepted the position of leader for the Sustainable Food Systems Strategic Initiative. She has been a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management at UC Berkeley since 2014. Her research and extension is focused on development of equitable, economically viable and culturally relevant food systems in metropolitan areas.

In Northern California, she has collaborated with Karuk, Yurok and Klamath tribal leaders and community members to restore their food security. In the Central Valley, she spent years working with Southeast Asian farmers. More recently, Jennifer has been studying how community farms and...