Michel Nischan, the son of displaced farmers, grew up with great appreciation for sustainable agriculture and those who work the land. As a professional chef and restaurateur, he has built on those childhood values and has become a catalyst for change and new initiatives in local and regional food systems. In 1994, when his five year-old son was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, Nischan was inspired to create “cuisine of well-being” focused on pure, flavorful, local, organic foods without highly processed ingredients. His passion for healthy cuisine and for a local sustainable food system helped propel Nischan to the forefront of the culinary scene and into an ideal position to make systemic change.

He is chef/owner of Dressing Room: A Homegrown Restaurant at the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut. He won a 2008 James Beard Foundation award for Best TV Segments for his work on PBS’ “Victory Garden” and author of two best-selling cookbooks –2004 James Beard Award winning Taste Pure and Simple (Chronicle Books, 2003) and Homegrown, Pure and Simple (Chronicle Books, 2005). Nischan’s third cookbook – Sustainably Delicious: Making the World a Better Place, One Recipe at a Time will be released in April 2010.

Michel lives in Fairfield, Connecticut with his wife Lori and their five children.

Gus Schumacher has been committed to helping farmers and reducing food insecurity for over 20 years. As Commissioner of Food and Agriculture in Massachusetts and subsequently Under Secretary with the USDA, Schumacher had successfully established the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Programs (FMNP). Today, Schumacher is a consultant to the Kresge Foundation and is a member of the 21st Century Sustainable Agricultural Task Force of the National Academy of Sciences.

Juliette Taylor-DeVries, as Chief Operating Officer, works directly with President and CEO Michel Nischan to further Wholesome Wave’s mission via national partnerships and public awareness initiatives.

Taylor-DeVries has over 10 years experience working with non profits and corporations engaged in the promotion of commercially viable, sustainable food systems. In 2007, Taylor-DeVries founded the DIVA Group, a public relations and nonprofit development firm. Prior to her role as CEO of DIVA Group, Taylor-DeVries served as executive director of the Churchill Economic Development Authority, where she spearheaded the first ever Nevada Agricultural and Energy Summit and created NevadaGrown, a nonprofit corporation focused on promoting Nevada agricultural producers and their products. In addition, she has previously worked with the Environmental Resources Development, Chef Rick Moonen, Cisco Systems and the New York School District.

Taylor-DeVries, who speaks multiple languages including Danish, German, French and Latin, has a BA from the University of California, Irvine. She lives in Connecticut with her husband Mike and their five children.

With over 15 years experience as a senior executive and administrator assistance, Melissa Hoffman provides executive support to both the Chairman and President/CEO. In addition, Hoffman manages the Connecticut office and establishes continuity and organization to a quickly growing foundation as the Executive Assistant for Wholesome Wave. Hoffman’s passion for a locally sustainable food system began in her childhood during summer visits to her grandparents in Mississippi where she was immersed in a garden to table tradition. Her efforts with community gardens has often resulted in surplus distributions to food banks that serve local housing projects. Her passions and experiences allow her to bring efficiency to an organic organization. Hoffman resides in Milford Connecticut.

As Northeast Regional Project Director, Cristina Sandolo develops and implements innovative programs that increase affordable access to fresh, healthful food in historically excluded neighborhoods within Connecticut.

Having been born into a traditional Italian-American family, Sandolo’s connection to food is strong. Sandolo most recently explored the relationship between culture to food as she spent time abroad in Rome, Italy. With a background in the environmental sciences, Cristina understands the importance of exploring the natural environment, nutrition and health through horticulture, the culinary arts and, of course, eating good food. Sandolo works to enrich the lives of her home state’s residents through the development of initiatives that reintroduce the critical components to a healthy, functioning food system: sustainability, environmental justice, equitable access, cultural influences and community involvement.
Cristina holds a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and Management.

Ellee Igoe has invested more than a decade in the support of food justice projects in Oregon, California and Mexico. From 2007 to 2010 she helped launch and manage the Food Security and Community Health Program of the International Rescue Committee’s San Diego refugee resettlement office. During her tenure at IRC, her innovative projects included the region’s first permitted urban farm, first food stamp accessible farmers market and first youth-driven food justice program, all of which have garnered national attention. She joined the team at Wholesome Wave in 2010 to support the nationwide expansion of the Double Value Coupon Program. Ellee has served as a steering committee member of the California Food Justice Coalition, co-founded San Diego’s annual Cultivating Food Justice Conference and served on San Diego’s first food policy council.

She earned her MA in Urban Studies from the University of Oregon and her BA in Journalism from Arizona State University.

Nessa Richman has been working as a food systems consultant since 2002. Her clients have included state departments of agriculture, organic certification programs, universities, and nonprofit organizations. Her areas of expertise include research, survey and interview instrument design and implementation, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, writing, public policy analysis and communications. Richman has been working in the field of sustainable agriculture since 1993. She started as a VISTA Volunteer with the nonprofit Sustainable Food Center (SFC) in Austin, Texas. In that capacity she organized a new farmers’ market in the low-income minority East Side neighborhood. She then moved within SFC to establish the Texas Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, serving as its first coordinator. She began her research work as a Policy Analyst with the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture (now the Henry A. Wallace Center at Winrock International).

Richman earned a bachelor of arts degree in Political Economy of Natural Resources from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a master’s of public policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with her husband and two children.

Lydia Oberholtzer is a special advisor to Wholesome Wave for data collection and research regarding the grantee partners. She is currently a researcher with Penn State’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. Before that, she was a program manager at the Wallace Center for Agricultural and Environmental Policy at Winrock International. She holds a master’s in environmental resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Oberholtzer has over 15 years of experience with sustainable agriculture and local food systems research and program management.