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Team

		Michael Dimock Executive Director 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. Since 2006, Michael has been spawning and leading education and policy campaigns, community dialogues and creative engagements with government and corporate leaders to advance regenerative food and farm policies and practices that make agriculture and food enterprises solutions to critical public health challenges of the 21st century. His leadership has rendered one new law and funding program at the federal level and three new California laws that included two new funding programs and five successful budget requests. As a result, nearly $400 million in funding for improved nutrition has flowed to CBOs. He has been a player in passing regenerative agriculture policies that have resulted in $500 million in funding to provide farmers with incentives to reduce emissions and/or capture carbon and retain water in the soil and reduce the use of toxic chemicals. He is the host of the podcast Flipping the Table featuring honest conversations about food, farms and the future. 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 Master International Affairs at Columbia University.
		Doris Meier Communications Specialist Doris brings various business and management experiences to her position as Communications Specialist 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 for mission-driven brands to help consumers reconnect to the origins of the food they eat and make more ethical purchasing choices. 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, climate-smart, healthy and accessible food system in California. 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, is bi-lingual in German and English and speaks conversational French and Spanish. She has called the Bay Area her home for more than half her life, is an avid photographer, traveler and cook…and loves to eat!
		Coco Sanabria Program Manager Coco Sanabria is a Program Manager with Roots of Change working on a variety of projects and assisting in facilitating stakeholder engagements including state and federal agencies, industry associations, businesses, and philanthropic supporters. Coco has a background in engineering with a focus on development of health technologies. She has also worked in teaching, mentoring, and community engagement to address skill and knowledge-building in critical topics ranging from sexual health to gun violence. She completed advanced studies in systems thinking to address global challenges. Noting how food systems impact health, Coco turned to work upstream to improve and maintain health through investments in healthy food environments that will serve this generation and those to come. Coco has a B.S. in Bioengineering, with honors, and an M.S. in Sustainability Science and Practice both from Stanford University. She is trilingual, speaking English, Spanish and French.
		Matthew Marsom Consultant Policy Advisor Matthew Marsom, CEO of GoodWin Strategies serves as consultant policy adviser for ROC, providing strategic counsel and support to help ROC secure our goals in a rapidly changing and complex public policy landscape. Matthew is an experienced strategist, advocate, and nonprofit leader with almost three decades of experience serving in senior leadership roles in nonprofit organizations and government agencies in the U.S. and U.K. Previously, Matthew held executive roles at the Public Health Institute, where he led government relations, program management, and public policy initiatives and his career also includes impactful work at the California Department of Public Health and the United Kingdom’s Department for Education and Skills.

		Carol Mills Program Administrator, Finance & Operations Carol Mills has 20 years of experience in grants administration, healthcare research and program and operations management. Her current position entails providing financial and operational support for a portfolio of projects within the public health sector – budget development, financial forecasting, overseeing payables, expense tracking and overall financial management. Carol’s career includes organizing community outreach programs to promote cancer awareness as well as collaborating with schools and local programs to develop key partnerships to address minority underrepresentation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). Carol grew up on the Caribbean island of Barbados. She has a B.S. in Business Administration and has worked in medical research centers and institutions of higher learning throughout the US including New York, Florida and most recently in Atlanta, Georgia.
		Angela Blatt Research Scientist Angela Blatt has extensive experience leading national efforts to advance food system financing, including managing initiatives that position local and regional food systems as investable asset classes. She has worked directly with communities across the country, providing technical assistance and developing strategic plans that leverage development finance tools to support infrastructure, agriculture, and small business growth. Her work emphasizes building equitable, resilient food economies through targeted investment and financial innovation. A U.S. Navy veteran, Angela holds two degrees from The Ohio State University: a Master of Public Administration with a focus on food policy from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, and a Bachelor of Science from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
		Anna Kathawala Bachelor’s Practicum Intern Anna Kathawala is an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley pursuing a degree in Society & Environment and Political Science. She has long been passionate about the intersection between resilient food systems, natural resource management, the climate crisis, and regenerative agriculture. Anna has interned for the regenerative agriculture advocacy organization Kiss the Ground, conducted research on the impacts of compost policy on California food systems, and worked on an urban farm. Outside of work, she loves anything outdoors, cooking, and eating!
		Kathy Mossburg Contract Lobbyist Kathy Mossburg is a member of Mosaic Solutions and Advocacy, a team of professional partners who are uniquely experienced in the world of public policy, public advocacy and association management. Prior to joining Mosaic Solutions and Advocacy, Kathy was a partner with MVM Strategy Group for eight years, another Sacramento based lobbying and advocacy firm. Kathy has been lobbing for over 20 years and 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. In addition to ROC, she 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.
		Courtney Grace Podcast Producer Courtney Grace is a sound designer, vocalist, and music producer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied Sound Design at San Francisco State University and started her music and sound business, Courtney Grace Music and Sound in 2015. She has worked on several podcasts, films, and songs, and has worked on projects with Google and Skywalker Sound. Aside from work, she is very passionate about social justice issues, video editing, graphic design, and enjoys healthy foods and adventurous hikes in nature.