CFPAC Welcomes New Staff!
Amidst one of the most unpredictable years, the Chicago Food Policy Action Council is elated to announce that our staff has grown! We now have more folks working to build a sustainable food system here in Chicago, which means we have the capacity to do even more than before!
Keep reading to learn more about full time staffers Dakarai Howard and Stef Funk, USAN Communications Specialist Nick Davis, and our two Emerson National Hunger Fellows, Riani Carr and Niisoja Torto.
dakarai howard - supply chain development Specialist
Dakarai Howard is a gardener, organizer, and native Chicagoan from the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. In 2017 he worked as the Urban Agriculture Liaison for the office of then 5th District Illinois State Representative, now Ltd. Governor Juliana Stratton. He also worked as a horticulturist and youth farm manager in the Washington Park neighborhood. While also working as an undergraduate researcher for a graduate-level course discussing the historical disparity in food systems connected to racial and environmental injustice. He has returned this past spring from a two-year volunteer service with the Peace Corps, where he served as a business advisor, supporting cacao cooperatives on Colombia's Atlantic Coast. Dakarai holds a bachelor of science in Agricultural Economics from the University of Kentucky, where he was heavily involved in the College of Agriculture Food and Environment's office of diversity & inclusion. Dakarai plans to continue pushing sustainable agriculture as a means to insight policy reform and further promote civic engagement and community economic development on Chicago's South & West sides.
Photo credit: Leah Kuhn Photography
Stef Funk - Communications Specialist
Stef Funk is a multi-racial daughter of immigrants and a South Chicago native who has worked with various institutions and non profits to support Chicago's local food system. While earning her degree in Environmental Science from Clark University, she completed her thesis on the effect functional diversity has on carbon sequestration to inform climate mitigation policy in Costa Rica. After returning to Chicago, she went on to work with several organizations to improve their STEM curriculum, manage Plant Chicago’s and McKinley Park’s farmers markets, became one of the leaders of the Chicago Farmers Market Collective, and now sits on the board of the Illinois Farmers Market Association. She is passionate about educating all Chicagoans about the importance of local food and advocating for justice and equity for our growers, producers, and consumers. She is an avid plant lover (ask her about her varigated monstera) and designed, constructed, and cares for her own small scale aquaponic system.
Nick davis - urban stewards action network communications Specialist
Nick Davis is a storyteller, cook, gardener and consultant who is committed to creating experiences that deepen and transform our relationship to community, the earth, and our collective imaginations. A native of Inglewood, CA, he’s been based in Chicago for the better part of a decade. Nick’s work has involved building out programs designed to develop strong youth organizing networks, helping formerly incarcerated folks navigate the inequities of reentry, and empowering communities to take control of their access to healthy, fresh and affordable food. Nick studied sociology at Northwestern University where he was heavily involved in student organizing, developing hydroponic/aquaponic systems, and coaching middle school basketball.
riani carr - emerson national hunger fellow
Riani was born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland. As an Emerson Fellow, she serves as the Productive Landscapes Fellow with the Chicago Food Policy Action Council. She graduated in May of 2020 with her BA in Politics and International Affairs from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. Her senior thesis analyzed historical shifts in presidential rhetoric regarding social welfare programs. As a student, Riani developed her passion for racial equity and food policy through her AmeriCorps internship coordinating the USDA Summer Food Service Program and maintaining efficient food donation and distribution systems. Riani enjoys traveling, making sourdough bread and is always striving to create a more equitable food system.
niisoja torto - emerson national hunger fellow
Niisoja is a first-generation American who grew up in Gainesville, Florida. He joins the Chicago Food Policy Action Council as an Emerson Fellow. Niisoja has a particular interest at the intersection of food, health and equity--interests which have taken him from the Department of Nutrition at the World Health Organization in Switzerland, where he did health and nutrition policy work, to the outpatient clinic setting in Durham, NC, where he worked alongside food insecure diabetic patients. He holds a BA in Public Policy from Duke University in North Carolina. He loves partner dancing (ask him about his Latin social dancing experience) and is excited by the ways in which he might contribute to the collaborative fight to address racial inequities.