Team

Michael Dimock
President

Michael Dimock is an organizer and thought leader on food and farming systems and heads Roots of Change (ROC) a project of the Public Health Institute. ROC develops and campaigns for smart, incentive-based food and farm policies that position agriculture and food enterprises as solutions to critical challenges of the 21^st century. He is the host of the new podcast, Flipping the Table, featuring honest conversations about food, farms and the future. Michael serves on the boards of the UCLA Law School’s Resnick Food Law and Policy Program, Farm to Pantry, the Wild Farm Alliance and Sonoma Academy. Author, Katrina Fried, and Photographer, Paul Mobley, feature Michael in their book, Everyday Heroes: 50 Americans Changing the World.

He began his career in 1989 as a sales executive in Europe for agribusiness and in 1992 founded Ag Innovations Network to provide strategic planning for companies and governments seeking healthier food and agriculture. In 1996, he founded Slow Food Russian River and, from 2002 to 2007, he was Chairman of Slow Food USA and a member of Slow Food International’s board of directors. Michael’s love for agriculture and food systems grew from experiences on a 13,000-acre cattle ranch in Santa Clara County in his youth and a development project with Himalayan subsistence farmers in Nepal in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a campaign worker for California Governor Jerry Brown. Michael earned a BA in History with Honors at UCLA and a Masters in International Affairs at Columbia University.

Doris Meier
Project Coordinator

Doris brings various business and management experiences to her position as Project Coordinator with Roots of Change.  For close to a decade, she directed an international education business and later worked as an organizational development consultant and business coach.  She is currently also involved in a start-up company focused on building a story-telling platform to help mission-driven brands in the sustainability sector reconnect consumers to the origins of the food they eat. She is very committed to facilitating the growth and success of Roots of Change and its community and to reaching the goal of establishing a sustainable food system in California by the year 2030.  Doris received a Bachelor’s degree in Humanities from New College of California and a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology from Golden Gate University.  She grew up in a small farming town in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and has lived in the Bay Area for the past twenty years.  She is an avid photographer, traveler and cook…and loves to eat!

Justin Rausa
Everyday Impact Consulting, Contract Lobbyist for ROC

Justin has served as an effective legislative and regulatory advocate over the last decade in California. As a former nonprofit policy director and Assembly staffer, he has helped achieve legislative and budgetary outcomes that promote equity, through policies ranging from nutrition incentives to worker protections to money bail reform. He represents ROC’s policy efforts related to agriculture and rural community resilience.

Over the years, Justin has advised multi-sectoral statewide coalitions as well as local initiatives in the Bay Area. In the Capitol, he is experienced in diverse issues ranging from public safety to agriculture, labor to health and human services, including as staff to the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color. Justin’s career in policy and advocacy are rooted in the community organizing work that preceded it, and he has served as chair and commissioner to the Alameda County Public Health Commission and currently serves on the board of Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN).

He is a proud alum of UC Riverside, and obtained a Master of Public Health at UC Berkeley. Justin also served in the Peace Corps where he met his wife, Colleen.

Kathy Mossburg
MVM Strategy, Contract Lobbyist for ROC

Kathleen has represented a wide range of clients broadly focused on public health and safety net issues since she first formed Mossburg and Associates in 1998.  She has a comprehensive knowledge of legislative, administrative and budget processes and has successfully represented such clients as the Public Health Institute, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Essential Access Health, California Association of Food Banks, California Food Policy Advocates and the Local Health Plans of California. Kathy is our lead on sugary beverage tax policies.

Prior to 1998, Ms. Mossburg served as Public Affairs Director for a multi county clinic agency.  She designed and implemented the agency’s advocacy programs on reproductive rights and comprehensive reproductive and primary health care as well as their 501c(3) and 501c(4) advocacy activities.  She directed their legislative activities including building and mobilizing grassroots support and coalitions.  She led the agency’s community outreach efforts, representing the agency at community events and speaking engagements, in addition to organizing media and special events.  She was also responsible for community organizing for six Bay Area Counties.

Ms. Mossburg previously served as Legislative Director for a statewide clinic association based in Sacramento where she represented 10 affiliates before the California Legislature and Administration on maternal, child, and adolescent health, family planning, Medi-Cal and related budget issues.  Kathy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from California State University Sacramento. 

Bridget Shirvell
Social Media Editor

Bridget Shirvell is a New York-city based journalist. She has reported on a wide range of food, travel, and environmental subjects over the years for venues including VICE, Condé Nast Traveler, and Edible Communities. She has served as a digital strategist for Long Island Pulse Magazine, and Edible Holdings, an audience engagement specialist for PBS NewsHour, and a town reporter in Connecticut.

She holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the Quinnipiac University and a B.A. in Political Science from The George Washington University.

Patrick Sexton
Producer

Patrick committed himself early on to music and sound production. He toured with the San Francisco Boys Choir and later attended SAE Expression Creative Media College where he studied audio engineering and entertainment business. In the early 2000s he focused his passion on the emerging underground hip hop scene, founding a music production company, Dnae Beats. He produced cult classic recordings by Gift of Gab of Blackalicious and Eligh of Living Legends and toured the world as a performing DJ. His music is heard on television programs such Workaholics and Silicon Valley. In 2013 he moved from Los Angeles to Sonoma County where he has expanded his passions to include cooking and local organic food. As producer he applies his audio expertise with a vision to build a large and diverse audience.

Matthew Marsom
Vice President for Public Policy and Programs, Public Health Institute

As Vice President for Public Policy and Programs for the Public Health Institute (PHI), Matthew works to advance and support the work of the organization’s domestic and global health programs, identifying opportunities to strengthen program impact and promote cross‐program collaboration. Matthew is also responsible for designing and implementing strategy for monitoring and influencing public policy, legislation and regulations affecting PHI projects and public health policy relevant to PHI interests. Previously, he was chief of the Policy, Partnerships and Planning Unit of the Cancer Prevention and Nutrition Section of the California Department of Public Health, providing support for policy development, legislative analysis and external relations. He also oversaw the policy and partnership activities of the Network for a Healthy California. Originally from the United Kingdom, Marsom was an advocate for community‐based child care organizations and an advisor for policy and strategy within the Early Years and Childcare Unit for the Department of Education and Skills. Mathew is a strategic advisor to the ROC team, helping us to develop pathways and partnerships that will increase our impact on public policy.

Dan Imhoff
Strategic Advisor

Dan Imhoff is a researcher, author, and independent publisher who has concentrated for over 20 years on issues related to farming, the environment, and design. He is the author of numerous articles, essays, and books including CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories; Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill; Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World; Farming with the Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches; and Building with Vision: Optimizing and Finding Alternatives to Wood.

Dan is the president and co-founder of Watershed Media, a non-profit publishing house based in Healdsburg, California. He is the president and a co-founder of the Wild Farm Alliance, a ten-year-old national organization that works to promote agriculture systems that support and accommodate wild nature. He is the publisher, co-author and editor of the annual ROC-generated Report on California Legislation Related to Food and Farming.

He received a B.A. in International Relations from Allegheny College and an M.A. in International Affairs from the Maxwell School of Public Affairs at Syracuse University.