 |
|
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 21st 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
Program Manager
Doris brings various business and management experiences to her position as Program Manager 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 was recently 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-five years. She is an avid photographer, traveler and cook…and loves to eat! |
 |
|
Dr. Raissa Sorgho
Director of Global Nutrition and Partnerships at the Center for Wellness and Nutrition (CWN) and Roots of Change (ROC) under the Public Health Institute
She leads the design, development, and execution of three global human-centered food and nutrition programs in sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia, and Latin America. In addition to establishing ROC’s and CWN’s global nutrition portfolio, Dr. Sorgho is investigating international policy and program application to the USA context to advance key markets, support sustainable agriculture, and protect the health of agricultural workers. Furthermore, Dr. Sorgho manages partnership growth, client development, and oversees the alignment of leadership strategies with health equity principles.
She completed her undergraduate studies at Bucknell University (USA), holds a master’s in public health and a doctorate in global health from Heidelberg University (Germany). Her expertise includes health (nutrition and heat), climate change (adaptation and sustainability), and policy (review and implementation), with an emphasis on evidence-based decision making. She has professional experience in conducting qualitative political economic analyses in southeast Asia, investigating the association between reducing greenhouse gas emissions and health co-benefits in western Europe, and implementing agro-biodiversification and nutrition randomized control trials in east and west Africa.
Dr. Sorgho has published and presented her work at high level conferences including the World Health Summit (WHS) and the Conference of Parties (COP) while retaining her affiliation as a researcher at Heidelberg University and a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Health Organization (WHO). |