Your Current Board Members
Andrea Blanton - Co-President*
A Chicago, IL native and Phoenix, AZ transplant, Andrea Blanton found her permanent home in the dirty south in 2006 after obtaining her B.A. in International Studies from Spelman College. After college, she worked as an executive assistant for Stacey Abrams, the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and the Illinois Department of Human Services. In these positions, Andrea realized her passion of serving organizations and assisting impactful projects. Looking for a safe and exciting place to spend her maternity days, Andrea began volunteering at Truly Living Well’s Urban Farm and realized her true calling was in food. In 2013, she obtained her Certificate in Sustainable Urban Agriculture from HABESHA inc. Shortly after graduating, she served as one of Georgia's first FoodCorps service members teaching the youth of Cobb and Atlanta Public Schools the importance of gardening and healthy food options. She was awarded the Community Builders award for her dedication to bridging gaps and facilitating conversations between school and community stakeholders. During this time, Andrea also became a key member of the Community Farmers Markets. From market ambassador, to managing 4 markets, and educational chef, Andrea grew her knowledge base in running markets, reciprocal economics and spreading the good food gospel. She received the CFM’s 2022 Lady Locavores “Everything But the Kitchen Sink” Award for her many roles in Atlanta food and agriculture. Andrea’s business, Food Earth Birth, consults as the first Garden Coordinator for Clayton County Public Schools, has facilitated Farm to ECE/School classes and trainings, and provides small catering for local organizations. As a birth keeper, Andrea counsels mothers in the birthing process and motherhood. Andrea relishes in mothering her five children, exploring seasonal recipes and wildcrafting herbal tea blends. Sister chats, prayer and naps are her sources of rejuvenation.
Marian Dickson - Co-President*
As an enthusiastic, veggie-forward home cook and full-time fundraiser, Marian combines her personal and professional interests in her work with Slow Food Atlanta. Marian’s mama taught her to cook simply and seasonally and to celebrate food’s central role in their family’s story.
Marian currently works to raise resources critical for global public health advancement as a Senior Advancement Officer at the CDC Foundation. Prior to joining the CDC Foundation, she worked as the Development Director for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Atlanta and as a Senior Associate Director of Development at The Carter Center. She received a Master of Public Administration from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University and a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in psychology and sociology from Mercer University. Marian holds membership in the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Atlanta Chapter and the World Affairs Council of Atlanta. She also works as a Check-in Clerk in DeKalb County on Election Day.
A native of south Mississippi, Marian cherishes the natural world and a good story—written, spoken, and sung. Marian lives in East Lake with her husband, Ben, and their pup, Rita.
Lori Levy - Co-Vice President*
Brings a unique perspective to the Slow Food Atlanta board, as she has first hand knowledge of the business of food from seed to shelf. As CEO of My Global Table, LLC she imports specialty foods with a focus on small producers. Lori was the Director of Trade and Product Development for New York City’s beloved Fairway Market. She went on to become a Vice President of Inalca Food & Beverage NA spending a great deal of time in Italy where she first learned about the Slow Food movement.
In addition to Slow Food, Lori serves on the Board of Women In Olive Oil as EVP of Global Trade & Policy. WIOO, a global network for change, is an international group of women in the Olive Oil industry. It has over 2000 members from more than 40 countries. Lori is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, Atlanta and New York, where she previously served on the Board. LDEI is a philanthropic organization of women leaders in the food, beverage and hospitality industries. Last year Lori was honored to serve as a mentor for the first track of SKU Atlanta, a CPG Accelerator. Spending time with local makers, bakers, chefs, farmers and producers, keeps Lori connected at the grassroots which is an impactful way to build community.
A cookbook collector and native New Yorker, Lori graduated Emory University with a BA in International Studies; she holds a JD from Fordham University School of Law. She is the proud mom of two grown up kids and a dog named Jackson, a tip of the hat to the airport where he arrived with his sister Mabel in 2019.
Chef Steven Satterfield - Co-Vice President, Emeritus*
Steven Satterfield is the executive chef and co-owner of Miller Union, an award-winning, seasonally-driven restaurant located in Atlanta’s Westside neighborhood. In 2015, Satterfield released his first cookbook, Root to Leaf, to broad critical acclaim. In 2017, after four previous nominations, He was named “Best Chef: Southeast” by the James Beard Foundation. The author’s latest work is another vegetable focused cookbook entitled Vegetable Revelations which debuts in Spring 2023. Satterfield’s dedication to seasonal cooking and his unwavering support for local farmers is the driving philosophy behind his restaurant and everything he does. He has served on the Slow Food Atlanta board for more than a decade in various roles.
Tasiana Wells - Secretary
Tasiana is passionate about food, cooking, and experiences with people in great spaces. Tasiana's love for food started at a young age; she grew up with her grandma, who cooked healthy comfort food and believed in balance. A typical meal always included seasonal vegetables and protein. Family game nights included whole fish, seafood, and Italian pastries like cannolis.
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, food was heavily influenced by eastern European culture. Trips to the century-old Westside Market are where she experienced handmade sausage, herbs, pasta, fruit, and much more. This experience instilled in her the importance of fresh food made with care. Food fuels us, and we should consume the highest quality food. Tasiana currently works as a commercial real estate developer, focusing on building industrial and mixed-use spaces. She's involved with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Next Generation Manufacturing.
Asha Starks, Martina Stanley - Food Justice Co-Chairs
Blythe Coleman-Mumford - Food Justice Co-Chair
Blythe Coleman-Mumford is excited to work with the Food Justice Committee as a third Co-Chair, and to use what she has learned in her three years in the Atlanta environmental justice movement to inform her ideation around new food justice projects in Atlanta and the regional south!
Blythe currently serves as the Just Energy Coordinator for the Partnership for Southern Equity, and the Co-Chair of the Education and Action Committee for the Just Energy Circle. Since High School, Blythe has been actively involved in environmental and food justice activism, notably co-creating a school garden project called the “Oberlin School Farm Collaborative” her sophomore year. Her experience curating diverse farm to school activities with multiple stakeholders lead her to pursue a degree in Environmental Science and Policy, with a sustainable food concentration at Smith College. During her time at Smith, she took part in and led many food and environmental justice spaces, and co-created a chartered organization called 5 College SCOPES. SCOPES was created to be a space where students of color across the 5 College consortium could come together to discuss how their environmental, climate, and STEM curriculum could be more intersectional, and advocated for this at the administrative level.
After Smith, Blythe decided to move to Atlanta. Blythe got her career started working as both a Farm to school contractor at Georgia Organics, and Wellness Clerk and Receiver at Sevananda Natural Foods Coop, a historic Black health food cultural destination. As a Type 1 Diabetic, Blythe always knew food would be an important, strategic part of her life, and has found it foundational to use holistic methods to balance her condition. Just as holistic health practices have been foundational and strategic for her, so has relationship building. Blythe found herself as an annual meeting intern at the US Climate Action Network after rekindling a conversation with then director Ife Kilimanjaro after meeting at a Human Rights Conference a year prior. At USCAN, Blythe helped coordinate and plan the 2019 annual meeting, and inaugural leaders of color dinner. This is where she met Chandra Farley, an already iconic energy equity advocate, and former director of the Just Energy Portfolio at Partnership for Southern Equity. Blythe joined Partnership for Southern Equity September of 2019. Blythe thrives off of collaboration and engaging in social and environmental justice activism from a pragmatic, intentional, and inherently intersectional lens at all times.
Cheryl Williams - Education Chair
Bridget Graf - Memberships Co-Chair
A native Atlantan, Bridget has always had an interest in learning more about locally-sourced food and eating well. She is passionate about eating sustainably and vegetable-forward, inspired by books like Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. While in the Georgia Tech MBA program, she was introduced to Slow Food Atlanta through a Non-Profit Consulting course, where she assisted the Food Justice team with their fair food initiatives around Atlanta. After graduating in May 2020, Bridget now works in marketing and business development in the Atlanta tech world. She joined the board in 2021 to advance the mission of Slow Food to Atlanta communities. In her role at Slow Food, she hopes to increase the reach of Slow Food to a larger, more diverse audience throughout Atlanta.
Habeebah Yasin - Volunteer Co-Chair
Habeebah Yasin whose pronouns are she/her/they, is a Black Muslim woman who cares about social justice issues. As an activist, model, and poet, she uses her platform to talk about important issues, provides thought provoking commentary on social structures and promotes self-care and wellness. With a master’s degree from Rutgers University – Newark, in Public Administration with a concentration in Public Health, she wants to bridge the gap between mind, body and soul, providing education to urban communities about the importance of health, sustainability, and mindfulness in every aspect of our lives, including the personal.
Daniela Bachman - Communications Co-Chair
Daniela is a Latin-American resident of Chamblee, GA. During Daniela’s childhood, her abuela instilled the importance of cooking food from her culture and how to show love through food. Daniela became involved in a culinary program throughout high school where she learned about the importance of nutrition, local food, and food sourcing. Her prior knowledge, paired with her studies in economics, has led Daniela to a career path beginning in grassroots PR in Florida politics and transitioning into data-driven decision making for large-scale marketing platforms for corporations in Atlanta, GA. Daniela brings her skills in communications, campaign execution, and project management to Slow Food Atlanta’s initiatives.
When she isn’t working, you can find Daniela working on a cookbook for her abuela’s recipes, exploring Atlanta’s parks with her husband and two dogs, or trying a new restaurant.
Bill Nigut - Communications Co-Chair
Bill is a partnership manager and communications professional with wide-ranging professional experiences in the coffee industry and global health. He developed a passion for sustainable agriculture while studying in Athens at the University of Georgia, where he frequented the farmers market and met farmers who made him think for the first time about where his food came from. From there he became completely enamored with Georgia’s local food scene. After graduating he moved back to Atlanta and began a career in global health. At the Task Force for Global Health he specialized in communications and served as coordinator of the International Coalition for Trachoma Control, a group of three dozen organizations based around the globe working in conjunction to eliminate blinding trachoma, the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness. Through this work he visited highly-trachoma-endemic areas of East Africa, many of which were prominent coffee-growing regions. Visiting farmlands and learning about the coffee industry rekindled the passions he discovered in Athens and he made a jump into a different career path in coffee. As a regional sales rep for Intelligentsia Coffee he worked with a fascinating array of cafes and restaurants across the southeast. Eventually he earned a spot in coffee sourcing as Intelligentsia’s Kenyan coffee buyer. In this role he built relationships with Kenyan farmers and worked to instill Slow Food values in both sides of the supply chain to bring good, clean, fair coffee to market in the US. After Intelligentsia he developed a wholesale program for an Atlanta-based coffee roaster and is currently helping to operate a new cafe and wine bar in midtown.
Lisa Nguyen - Communications Co-Chair
Lisa’s a Jane of a few trades and a master of one: making a mess in her kitchen. On any given day, you might find her experimenting with food and cocktail recipes (and failing to clean as she goes while doing it). When she’s not doing that, she’s exploring the culinary world around her, throwing ceramic tableware, or working her day job driving communications at Mailchimp—and at Slow Food Atlanta.
Lisa’s gateway into the Slow Food movement was through working in restaurants and specialty coffee in Atlanta, where she gained a foundational understanding of the importance of good, clean, and fair practices. Through the teachings of Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, and Michael Pollen, she’s on an ever-evolving journey of being a more conscious consumer.
Katherine Lines - Events Chair
A Blacksburg, Virginia native, Katherine Lines found her permanent home in Atlanta after attending the University of Georgia and meeting her husband and fellow gardener in Athens, who is a fourth-generation Atlantan himself. After college, she worked in Athens’ vibrant restaurant industry, then as an Au Pair in Genova, Italy where she learned about Slow Food International, next on to Washington, DC, and finally to Atlanta’s nonprofit community, working for the City of Roswell, CARE USA, and the Global FoodBanking Network. During this time she also completed her Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management at George Washington University and Georgia State University. Growing up, as Katherine’s mother was the Director of Extension for Virginia Tech, she visited countless farms around the state and saw the critical value and necessity for good, clean, fair food, she just didn’t know to call it that yet. Coupling those experiences with work in the nonprofit and service industries, Slow Food Atlanta was an obvious “yes,” as she considered where she could add value and service to her community. She now plans events for Delta Air Lines and is the mom to a three-year-old girl who loves to eat, just like her parents.
Pratibha Nayak - Events Chair
Pratibha Nayak, PhD, MPH, MBA is a senior scientist with 18 years of extensive experience synthesizing real world evidence to guide decision making and to develop health policies. Slow Food's mission envisions a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them and resonates with Pratibha’s values. The Slow Food movement is a path forward to ensure a sustainable food system where healthy food is accessible to all with minimal negative impact.
As a trained health scientist, Pratibha works on tackling chronic disease rates that are escalating globally, most of which are food-related. A broken food system has enormous human, social, and economic costs and impacts what we eat, our food choices, and access to healthy and locally grown foods. Pratibha’s passion for serving on this board stems from her desire to transform our broken food system. Serving on the board for Slow Food provides Pratibha an opportunity to work with the community and support creating a sustainable food system. Slow Food is a grassroots approach where everyone can contribute to the mission of good, clean, and fair food through their choices and individual behavior.
Kameko Nichols - Member-at-Large
Kameko currently works between two worlds - global health and local food systems. She is a global health consultant by early day and late night, focusing on transport and logistics, and more recently has started working to get more local farm products into large local institutions. She ties the two worlds together with a passion for equity and accessibility both in public health systems across the globe and in local food systems here in Atlanta. She is currently an At-Large Board Member of Slow Food Atlanta where she focuses primarily on leading the Snail of Approval program and also on Ark of Taste. She started her career in investment banking in New York and then made a career shift to global health, which has taken her across the world to see challenges and successes of health systems. She has lived/worked in sub-Saharan Africa, south/southeast Asia and Europe, working on health access and equity. She recently moved back to Atlanta with her partner, and they have settled in the Kirkwood neighborhood. In her personal time, she enjoys learning about aspects of access and equity in food, trying new restaurants, traveling and exploring new cuisines.
Open - Development & Membership Co-Chair
Ashley Childress Turner - Treasurer*
*Denotes Executive Committee
Past Board Leaders
Julie Shaffer - Founder Slow Food Atlanta, Slow Food USA Board Member
Judith Winfrey - Past President, Regional Governor
Susan Pavlin - Past President Peter Morich - Past President, Regional Governor
Past Board Members
Kris Martins - Communications Co-Chair
Chef Asata Reid - Food Justice Co-Chair
Ligaya Figueras - Member-at-Large
Maricela Vega - Member-at-Large
Colleen Morich - Education Chair (2013-2022)
Peter Morich - Member-at-Large, Board Chair (2013-2022)
Brittany Lemon - Food Justice Co-Chair (2018-2022)
Victoria Ly - Membership & Development (2019-2021)
Stefanie Garcia Turner - Secretary (2018-2021)
Ben Tompkins - Treasurer (2013-2020)
Carol McIntosh - Volunteer Chair (2015-2021)
Scott Long - Communications (2012-2015 and 2016-2018)
Charli Traylor - Secretary (2016-2018)
Jenny Harris - Slow Meat (2012-2018)
Venetta Coleman - Food Justice Chair (2016-2019)
Tracy Stuckrath Social Chair (2016-2018)
Kimberly Coburn Member at Large (2016-2018)
Whit Whitmire - Membership & Development Chair (2016-2017)
Bilal Sarwari - Member at Large (2011-2016)
Chef Jarrett Stieber - Youth Liaison (2015-2016)
Emily Chan - Communications (2016)
Brooke Lane - Communications ((2014-2016)
Emilie Cumbie Drake - Youth Liaison (2012-2015)
Robert Hamilton - Ark of Taste (2011-2014)
Christina Del Rocco - Communications Chair (2011-2014)
Asha Gomez - Chef Liaison (2013-2014)
Are there Others that served and we missed? let us know at slowfoodatl@gmail.com