Sowerwine named SFS Strategic Initiative leader

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 gardens improve food security among at-risk people in the urban East Bay.

Jennifer's experience in designing community-led food systems projects with under-represented Californians will be informative as we strive to solve new food-related challenges. We are fortunate to have her lead us in this role. 

Jennifer succeeds Rachel Surls, who has led the Sustainable Food Systems Strategic Initiative for the past 18 months and is retiring this month from her 35-year career.

UC ANR's Strategic Initiative leaders work with their respective strategic initiative panels to improve communication, highlight research/extension gaps, and conduct detailed panel meetings. SI Leaders represent their panels, program teams and statewide programs/institutes at Program Council, providing programmatic input into resource allocation recommendations.

Jennifer joins SI leaders Helen Dahlke for Water Quality, Quantity and Security; Josh Davy for Sustainable Natural Ecosystems; Tom Turini for Endemic and Invasive Pests; and Steven Worker for Healthy Families & Communities. 

Brent Hales 
Associate Vice President

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