The 2021 Food for Thought symposium brings together experts in culinary arts, food security, policy, and food distribution on global and local levels for an unprecedented look into the approaches in combatting food insecurity both locally and globally.
Leanne Brown, Author
Leanne Brown is a New York Times Best Selling Author and member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Food and Drink. Her cookbook, Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day, has been downladed more than 15 million times and is available as a free PDF on her website leannebrown.com. She holds a Master's in Food Studies from NYU and is originally from Edmonton, Canada.
Sadie Neuman, Indiana University
Sadie Neuman is a current MPA-MSES Candidate at O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Her work focuses on accessibility and innovation in water management, community advocacy and science communication.
Chef David Tallent, IU Catering
David is a nine-time James Beard Award nominated chef and the Executive Chef of IU Catering. A native of Bloomington, Indiana, and a former Indiana University student, David previously worked as a private caterer for Indiana University. He studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and worked at some of the finest restaurants in Atlanta and the James Beard House in New York before returning to open Restaurant Tallent with his wife and fellow chef, Kristen. While in New York, David familiarized himself with the Slow Food movement, which inspired him to use local, organic, and seasonal ingredients.
Dr. Olga Kalentzidou, Indiana University
Olga Kalentzidou is a Lecturer at the Department of Geography at Indiana University. She is an archaeologist whose work encompasses the interaction between geographical boundaries and human behavior. She researches the role food has on immigrants' lives in Greece; how food insecurity impacts migrant and refugee communities, and students; the effect of urban agriculture on food access; and assessment of student learning through community engagement. She has been an active participant in teaching pedagogy and service-learning initiatives as well as active learning classroom strategies.
Indiana University (read bio)
Cendekia Study Center (read bio)
IU Office of International Services (read bio)
Dr. Shellye Suttles, Indiana University
Dr. Shellye Suttles is an agricultural economist with a focus on local and regional food systems, municipal food policy, agricultural energy production, and climate change's impact on agricultural land use. Her research applies macroeconomic and microeconomic analysis to a variety of sustainable food system topics. Suttles joined the O’Neill School as an assistant professor in 2020. She also serves as an assistant research scientist with Sustainable Food System Science at IU.
Taste the Diaspora (read bio)
Taste the Diaspora (read bio)
Black Church Food Security Network (read bio)
Dr. Clark Barwick, Indiana University
Clark Barwick, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer of Communication at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and an affiliate faculty member with the IU Food Institute. Within food studies, Dr. Barwick’s research and teaching focuses on the global coffee trade, and he has won several awards and grants connected with these activities. At IU, Dr. Barwick has taken an active role in working to eliminate food insecurity.
World Central Kitchen (read bio)
World Central Kitchen (read bio)
American University (read bio)
Dr. Gulnisa Nazarova, Indiana University
Gulnisa Nazarova is a senior lecturer at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global & International Studies. She was invited to teach intensive Uyghur at Indiana University in 2005 for the Summer Language Workshop, and due to the success of that course, the Department of Central Eurasian Studies invited her to continue teaching the Uyghur language during the academic year, in addition to employing her as a curriculum materials developer at the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR). Besides teaching three levels of Uyghur language, she occasionally teaches a cultural course titled “Central Asia: Cultures and Customs” as a part of the CEUS Department's expanding undergraduate curriculum. In 2015, Gulnisa Nazarova received the Trustees Teaching Award in the At-Large NTT Faculty competition.
Chef Zin Zin Htin
Chef Zin Zin Htin is from Burma who now lives in Indianapolis, IN with her husband and two children. After coming to the US only 6 months ago, she has already started pursuing her dream of sharing her food culture here. She likes to cook her own style of Burmese food, showing off all the culinary skills she has learned from her mom and mixing her own creativity to put together delicious meals. Chef Zin Zin feels so fortunate to share her food culture with her friends, classmates, and coworkers, and now the whole world through YouTube. Burmese food is very good at balancing the 5 major flavors: Sweet, Salty, Spicy, Sour and Bitter. The chemistry of these five different flavors create a magic taste and smell when it melts in people’s mouth.
Angela Babb, Indiana University
Angela Babb is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. Her research focuses on the rural counties of Orange, Greene, Lawrence and Crawford to learn more about the challenges around food that older adults in rural Indiana are facing, the strategies that older adults use to get food, and the policies and assistance programs that are working to help improve food security for older adults.
Hoosier Hills Food Bank (read bio)
Pantry 279 (read bio)
Chef Krysia Villon, Quechua chef, Chiqui's Kitchen
Krysia Villon is a born-and-bred Bostonian, Peruvian American chef of Quechua ancestry, instructor, and food historian. She runs a speciality empanada business, Chiqui's Kitchen, while also exploring, playing with, and teaching others about indigenous products of the Americas. Krysia has been everything from a dishwasher to a union community organizer to a chocolate factory store and tour manager and believes that all these personal and professional experiences inform her research and her cooking. She received her BA from Mount Holyoke College, her AS in Culinary Arts from Johnson & Wales University at Providence, and her MLA in Gastronomy from Boston University. Her research focused on quinoa's role in the expression of Indigeneity on the Peruvian table. Krysia is a proud mother of a 3rd grader, 2 guinea pigs, 1 bunny, and a full deck garden with many plant babies. She documents her food journey, thoughts, and recipes on a food blog, Kahlo's Eyes, named for her daughter. Kahlo is the inspiration behind all that is beautiful in her life.
Indiana University (read bio)
Dr. Carl Ipsen, Indiana University
Carl Ipsen attended institutes of lower and higher learning in Berkeley, CA (Ph.D. 1992). He is a professor of history at Indiana University and works on modern Italy. He books include Dictating Demography: The Problem of Population in Fascist Italy (Cambridge 1996); Italy in the Age of Pinocchio: Children and Danger in the Liberal Era (Palgrave 2006); and Fumo: Italy’s Love Affair with the Cigarette (Stanford 2016). He served as director of the Collins Living Learning Center for seven years and helped found and directs the IU Food Institute. He is currently working on both the history and present-day realities of olive oil production in southern Italy. He spent a decade working in restaurants.
IU Campus Farm (read bio)
Campus Kitchen at IU (read bio)
Crimson Cupboard (read bio)
Jodee Smith, Sustainable Food Systems Science IU
Jodee Smith directs the community engagement efforts for the Sustainable Food Systems Science research group at Indiana University. Jodee has been active in research, education and outreach in the Indiana Food System for ten years in multiple capacities including farming, extension work and research and implementation projects. Her asset-based community development approach involves communities in the exploration of ideas and opportunities in the food system and provides ongoing support in sustainable food systems science. Jodee has a BA from the University of Montana and an MS in Plant Biology from the University of California, Davis.
IU Dining (read bio)
Sustain IU (read bio)
Abby Aang is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English, completing a dissertation focusing on 12th-15th century human-insect encounters across medieval literary genres through ecocritical and animal studies lenses. Ang is the founder and lead organizer of No Space for Hate, a coalition of community members who confront and expose local white supremacist activities through education, direct action, and community building. She started the Monroe County Area Mutual Aid network as a response to the pandemic and currently is working on a project with the Indiana chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum to respond to anti-Asian hate.
Julio Alonso has been Executive Director and CEO of Hoosier Hills Food Bank for 15 years and is a graduate of Indiana University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He has also previously served as Executive Director of Community Kitchen of Monroe County; City of Bloomington Public Works Director; District Office Manager for Congressman Frank McCloskey and as a member of the Monroe County Council.
Christy Barton is a Masters of Public Affairs student at Indiana University as well as a graduate assistant at the First Nations Educational & Cultural Center.
Dazmonique Carr is the founder of Deeply Rooted Produce which is a produce company that specializes in CSAs and mobile solutions in Detroit. Carr has a Wayne State University Bachelor's Degree in Kinesiology Exercise & Sports Science, minoring in Nutrition (2017), and a Wayne State University Master's Degree in Sports Administration with a focus on Community Health (2019).
Erin Carman-Sweeney is the IU Campus Farm Manager and has managed the property since its first season in 2018. In this role, he directs the production and distribution of produce grown on campus with regenerative agricultural practices. Produce from the farm serves IU Dining, a CSA program, local food pantries and will once again host an onsite farmstand this summer. Erin also partners with classes and professors to conduct sustainable agriculture research and provide hands-on learning opportunities in local food systems. He believes that prioritizing local, sustainable food systems is key to addressing environmental degradation, economic inequality, and the overall health of our society.
Fiona Donovan joined the WCK team as a volunteer in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian, and has since responded to the earthquakes in Puerto Rico, the humanitarian crisis at the Mexican border, and returned stateside to support communities in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic. She first learned about WCK’s innovative and impactful disaster response model while getting her master’s degree in Emergency and Disaster Management at Georgetown University, and was eager to get involved. Before WCK, Fiona was a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica and spent over 6 years in international development in the education sector.
Chef Zin Zin Htin is from Burma who now lives in Indianapolis, IN with her husband and two children. After coming to the US only 6 months ago, she has already started pursuing her dream of sharing her food culture here. She likes to cook her own style of Burmese food, showing off all the culinary skills she has learned from her mom and mixing her own creativity to put together delicious meals. Chef Zin Zin feels so fortunate to share her food culture with her friends, classmates, and coworkers, and now the whole world through YouTube. Burmese food is very good at balancing the 5 major flavors: Sweet, Salty, Spicy, Sour and Bitter. The chemistry of these five different flavors create a magic taste and smell when it melts in people’s mouth.
Elyssa Kaplan first got involved with WCK in 2019 after Hurricane Dorian hit The Bahamas. Prior to that, Elyssa has worked in cities like Boston, Miami and Paris as a cook, chef, and baker for almost a decade. While her kitchen skills range from casual to gourmet, Elyssa’s favorite thing to cook is eggs. Above all else though, her one true love is her 7lb chihuahua, Trotter.
During the 2018-2019 academic year, Maryana Hira taught the Indonesian language at Indiana University, Bloomington as a Fulbright – Badan Bahasa Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Fellow where she engaged her students in the classroom by sharing Indonesian food and culture. Her favorite snack to prepare is pisang goreng (fried banana) accompanied by Indonesian kopi (coffee) during HLS’s Kopi Cafe days. She is an English teacher at Cendekia Study Center (a private English school) and a part-time teacher at the Police Academy Training Center in Madiun, East Java. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English teaching from Universitas PGRI Madiun.
Johanna Mendelson Forman is an Adjunct Professor at American University’s School of International Service. She is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center, where she heads the Food Security Program. Her frontline experience as a policymaker on conflict and stabilization efforts drove her interest in connecting the role of food in conflict, resulting in the creation of Conflict Cuisine®: An Introduction to War and Peace Around the Dinner Table, an interdisciplinary course she teaches at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC. In establishing this link between food and conflict, Johanna developed a new interdisciplinary platform examining why food is central to survival and resilience in conflict zones.
Lindsey Nelson is a May 2021 MPA graduate of the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs double concentrating in Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management and Sustainability and Sustainable Development. She is one of the founders and current coordinator of Campus Kitchen at IU, an intern concentrating in data analysis and demographics for the US Forest Service, and graduate teaching assistant at the O'Neill School. Post-graduation she has accepted a position with the USDA Forest Service in the Appalachian Ranger District of Pisgah National Forest. Lindsey is passionate about organizational sustainability, waste reduction, student and community food insecurity relief efforts, and equity in the natural resource field.
The Office of International Services is committed to helping international students and scholars achieve their goals—educational, personal, and professional. They provide valuable services to international students including an orientation and other educational, cultural, and social programming to help international students and scholars integrate into the academic, cultural, and social life at IU and within the Bloomington community.
Marria Peduto is the founder of the Food for Thought Project and a third-year student at Indiana University studying in Global Food Systems, International Studies, and East Asian Languages and Cultures. She will also receive certificates in Underwater Resource Management and the Peace Corps Prep program. In 2018, she received the National Security Language Initiative for Youth Scholarship to study Chinese in Chengdu, China, and is a proud International Exchange Alumni.
Andrew Predmore, Director of Sustainability, is responsible for cultivating the Transitions Lab (IU's take on the living-learning laboratory model) program in sustainability at Indiana University Bloomington. The Transitions Lab seeks to connect student learning, campus operations, and faculty research. Andrew joined the Office of Sustainability in August 2014, and came to IUOS from the University of Illinois Springfield, where he was an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies. In addition to teaching courses on environmental and natural resource policy and environmental ethics, he served as chair of the Campus Senate Committee on Sustainability. Predmore has a BA from the University of Virginia, an MS from Auburn University, and earned his PhD from Virginia Tech in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation in 2009.
With over two decades of dining and catering experience, Rahul Shrivastav loves working on a college campus because of the tremendous energy it brings. He is a large proponent of farm-to-table options, including IU Campus Farm, and utilizing local vendors whenever possible to ensure meats and produce are as fresh and healthful as possible. Rahul encourages all students to actively engage in learning more about their food and where it is sourced. His favorite IU Dining concepts are Lantern in the IMU and Farmer’s Table in Woodlands.
Brandon Shurr is the Assistant Director of Community Engagement in the Student Involvement and Leadership Center and the Director of Crimson Cupboard Food Pantry at Indiana University. Before coming to IU, he worked at various nonprofit agencies in Bloomington including Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, Shalom Community Center, and Habitat for Humanity.
Dr. Andrea Siqueirais a lecturer at the Department of International Studies, Hamilton-Lugar School of Global and International Studies. By training, she is a socio-cultural anthropologist, and her geographical area of research is Latin America, particularly the Brazilian Amazon region. Her teaching and research interests are focused on food, gender, human rights, health, environment, and social movements.
A rising and inspiring voice in the Black Food and Land Sovereignty community, Sha’Von Terrell is a child of the deep south, freedom dreamer and a strategic food systems planner specializing in food and land sovereignty. As the Food Sovereignty Fellow with the Black Church Food Security Network, Sha'Von manages a local market that steers thousands of dollars and support toward Black farmers and small business owners. Additionally, she travels the country organizing and consulting with anchor institutions, such as colleges, universities, churches and grassroots organizations. Through this work, she advances local self-reliance in the food system.
Cally Wilken is a December 2021 MPA-MSES candidate at IU's O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs concentrating in Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management. She is a founder and coordinator of Campus Kitchen at IU and works as a research assistant on environmental policy through the O'Neill school. After graduation, she hopes to have a career in water resource management and to continue with community-level food resiliency work wherever she might end up.
Raphael Wright is the Co-Founder of Taste The Diaspora Detroit which is an agency that celebrates black food and contributions that black people have made to American cuisine. Wright is also the founder of Neighborhood Grocery which is an equity-crowdfunded grocery store coming to the city of Detroit in 2021. Along with launching a grocery store, Neighborhood Grocery has partnered with Deeply Rooted Produce, founded by Dazmonique Carr, on a market garden named Deeply Rooted Garden that will produce salads and root vegetables to residents and surrounding businesses.
Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies