EXECUTIVE TEAM

Jamie Harvie – Coordinating Director
Executive Director of Institute for a Sustainable Future and founder of Commons Health, Jamie has spent the majority of his career working at the intersection of health, healthcare and environmental issues. He coordinated the successful mercury elimination campaign and initiated and coordinated the national Healthy Food in Healthcare Initiative.

 

 

Warren King – Development Director
CEO of Wellspring Management. Warren King spent the majority of his professional career with Cargill, Inc. as a trader, futures analyst, commodities broker and international market developer. He was widely regarded as a leading expert on government commodity programs and the underlying fundamentals of food and feed grains.

 

 

Karen Schmidt -Managing Director
Karen is leader of the Fresno Food Commons prototype project and a member of the national Food Commons executive team. She is also currently leading a USDA-funded farm-to-school program to bring locally grown foods to school districts in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, and serves as executive director of the non-profit Ventura County SOAR (Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources) organization. Karen has worked on sustainable agriculture, food system development, and renewable energy for nearly 20 years. She holds an MS and a BS in biology and environmental earth sciences from Stanford University and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

 

NATIONAL BOARD

Larry Yee (Co-Founder)
For the past 25 years, Larry has worked nationally in sustainable agriculture and food systems and has helped create numerous organizations many of which provided conceptual threads that led to the Food Commons. Larry also serves on the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board, appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2012.

From 1976 to 2008, Larry had an academic career with the University of California Cooperative Extension and in 1986 he was appointed director of the Cooperative Extension office for Ventura County. In 1993, he founded the UC Hansen Trust, a multi-million dollar University of California endowment established to sustain and benefit agriculture in Ventura County, and, in 1997 he established and directed the UC Hansen Agricultural Research and Education Center. READ FULL BIO

James Cochran (Co-Founder)
As founder and president of Swanton Berry Farms, Jim grew the farm from a startup in 1983 to a successful mid-scale organic farming organization located on 200 acres along Highway One about twelve miles north of Santa Cruz, CA. Succession management has been in place for the last five years, and today he serves part-time as mentor to operational managers. READ FULL BIO

 

 

Fred Kirschenmann
A longtime national and international leader in sustainable agriculture, Fred shares an appointment as Distinguished Fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and President of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York. He also continues to manage his family’s 2,600-acre certified organic farm in south central North Dakota.

 

 

Warren King
CEO of Wellspring Management. Warren King spent the majority of his professional career with Cargill, Inc. as a trader, futures analyst, commodities broker and international market developer. He was widely regarded as a leading expert on government commodity programs and the underlying fundamentals of food and feed grains.

 

 

Kathryn Johnson
Kathryn served as the Chief Executive Officer of Health Forum for twenty-five years. She is the Co-Founder of the Center for Global Service and an active consultant on global health issues. Currently, Ms. Johnson serves on Boards of the UN’s World Food Program-USA, Global Women’s Leadership Network, the Health Technology Center, The Samueli Institute, Omni Med, and RENEW. In addition, she serves on the Advisory Boards of: MedShare Western Council, LIVING GOODS, and WE CARE SOLAR.

 

Craig Pendleton
Craig’s career started on the ocean as a commercial fisherman and spanned 41 years. Activism ran through his veins and he quickly was appointed to many local, state and federal commissions to represent fishermen and their way of life. In 1995, he joined forces with other visionaries to develop a multi-stakeholder organization – Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance. In 1998, he took the helm as Coordinating Director and successfully provided leadership to NAMA for 12 years. Opportunity called again and he left the fishing industry and is currently the Executive Director of the Biddeford+Saco Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

 

John Katovich
CEO-Katovich & Kassan Law Group; President-Cutting Edge Capital; Principal–Mission Capital LLC; Board Member-Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. Previously CEO-Boston Options Regulatory Group (NASDAQ Subsidiary); EVP & General Counsel for: Pacific Stock Exchange; Boston Stock Exchange; OptiMark Technologies and ePit Technologies.

 

 

Jamie Harvie
Executive Director of Institute for a Sustainable Future and founder of Commons Health, Jamie has spent the majority of his career working at the intersection of health, healthcare and environmental issues. He coordinated the successful mercury elimination campaign and initiated and coordinated the national Healthy Food in Healthcare Initiative.