Certificate in Food Systems, the Environment and Public Health
Kelsey Crawford
Certificate in Food Systems, the Environment and Public Health, 2024
Graduate: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, MPH
Undergraduate: Florida Southern College, Psychology, BS
Hometown: Hamersville, Ohio
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While working at Tumbling Shoals Farm in Wilkes County, North Carolina, Kelsey Crawford felt that owners Shiloh Avery and Jason Roehrig were doing all the right things—including paying and supporting workers well, donating time and food to our community, engaging in advocacy and strengthening our food systems, making the farm as efficient as possible. And yet they still struggled to make farming work. “I felt like it was necessary I learn about ways to strengthen our regional food system, especially for small and medium sized farms,” Kelsey says. When she enrolled in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, she found a home at the Center for a Livable Future after Phil McNab connected her to Dr. Patti Truant Anderson, who became her capstone advisor. “She and I developed a Policy and Practice Brief of the 2019 New Swine Inspection System, where we analyzed the impact of increased line speeds on swine processing worker safety and wellbeing. When we presented this, we were met with so much enthusiasm and ideas, and we are in the process of publishing our work,” Kelsey says. Now, Kelsey works as the Marketing, Harvest, and Packing Shed Manager at Tumbling Shoals Farm.
Read Kelsey's capstone: Policy and practice brief on the 2019 New Swine Inspection System, line speeds, and workers
“I want to keep farming forever, and because of BSPH and the CLF, I feel like I have the connections and resources to be more effective in the field.” —Kelsey Crawford
Alexis N. Peña
Certificate in Food Systems, the Environment and Public Health, 2021
Graduate: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Whiting School of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, PhD
Undergraduate: Syracuse University, Bioengineering
Hometown: Durham, North Carolina
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Alexis is a biomedical engineer building a career in healthcare technology and biomaterial innovation, who has also spent time as a volunteer at the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming, 70 miles from Yellowstone National Park, living on a certified organic farm that uses solar power for operations. Informing all of her career goals is a desire to improve health outcomes and quality of life, a “north star” that inspired her to complete a graduate certificate from Bloomberg's School of Public Health in Food Systems, the Environment, and Public Health. For part of the graduate certificate requirements she completed a service-learning project for a Food Systems Practicum course and volunteered at a nonprofit called the Bit Center that serves the Greenmount/York Road community in Baltimore. She supported their K-5 nutritional food instructional course called “Be a Chef for a Day” by creating nutritional education content. In 2023, she participated in an event series called "A Taste of Black Freedom: Black Foodways in Baltimore and Beyond," co-sponsored by The Center For Africana Studies, The Program In Racism, Immigration, And Citizenship, and The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute, and she worked with the Alternative Protein Project to write a review with former CLF director Martin Bloem about alternative protein solutions and environmental impacts.
“With the globalized, complex, and dynamic food system, there was a lot to learn. As an innovator, understanding the food system processes, challenges, and stakeholders helps me ideate solutions.” —Alexis N. Peña
Audrey Tran Lam
Certificate in Food Systems, the Environment and Public Health, 2021
Graduate: University of Iowa, College of Public Health / Occupational and Environmental Health
Undergraduate: Luther College, Iowa, Environmental Studies and Sociology
Hometown: Vinton, Iowa
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After graduating from Luther College, Audrey wanted to participate in climate change solutions. Her work on an organic farm helped her realize that there are a lot of dots to connect—land use, climate, nutrition, food access, to name a few—and that it all came back to public health. While attending an APHA conference at which CLF’s founding director spoke, Audrey realized that the Center for a Livable Future was making food system connections that she hadn’t been able to articulate, and she began thinking about the food system in a new way. Her investigations into the Center led her to apply for the Certificate Program in Food Systems, the Environment and Public Health. Determined to make real, positive change in the Midwest, she is currently the Environmental Health Program Director at the Center for Energy & Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa, and she serves on several organizations, including the Iowa Rural Health Association, the Iowa Food Systems Coalition, the Heartland Health Research Alliance, and the Pesticide Action Network.
“I suddenly saw the food system as one problem, repeated over and over: fewer players, less diversity. Fewer famers, bigger farms. Fewer crops, higher yields.” —Audrey Tran Lam
Ilana Moreno
Certificate in Food Systems, the Environment and Public Health, 2021
Graduate: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, MSPH
Undergraduate: Washington University, BFA in Fashion Design
Hometown: Washington, DC
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With a degree in fashion and work experience in events, marketing, and operations, Ilana took time during the COVID-19 pandemic to explore what really mattered to her professionally. That’s when she learned that it was possible to build a career in food systems, and that the Bloomberg School offered a certificate in the subject. The concept of food systems being a “wicked problem” resonated with her, and her coursework clicked. With so many interconnections in the food web, she learned, solving one problem could inadvertently create new problems. In her career, she aims to use a multi-disciplinary approach to tackle climate change and to work toward policies that incentivize healthy soils, diverse ecosystems, and a variety of affordable and nutritious crops.
“The Bloomberg School constantly challenged me to consider all the angles and perspectives to a problem … . The professors really emphasized the importance of the ‘systems’ lens and the various social, economic, political, environmental, and cultural layers that need to be considered when tackling any challenge.” —Ilana Moreno
Anne Rosenthal
Certificate in Food Systems, the Environment and Public Health, 2018
Graduate: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Undergraduate: Wesleyan University, Environmental Studies and French
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
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After college, Anne gained work experience in a number of fields, from supporting community health workers in rural Mexico, to researching sustainability in Belgium, to building communications tools for global health initiatives in New York. Connecting these diverse experiences was an interest in equity—she was keenly interested in helping to further equal access to food, health care, information, and opportunity. While earning her MPH degree, she focused on health systems and policy and enrolled in the Food Systems Certificate Program. Her current work continues to focus on equity, as she focuses on school meals and food education in the Baltimore City Public School System as Food & Nutrition Specialist.
“What gives me hope is hearing elementary students from Baltimore City Public Schools chant “BROC-CO-LI! BROC-CO-LI!” during local farm field trips and watching them dig into gardens at their schools.” —Anne Rosenthal