David LeZaks, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, is an environmental scientist and financial activist whose work is centered around developing innovative mechanisms for financing the transition to agroecological farming and food systems. Before joining Croatan Institute, Dr. LeZaks led the Regenerative Food Systems initiative at Delta Institute in Chicago, where he managed a portfolio of projects that focused on the design and deployment of disruptive mechanisms to unlock substantial capital flows into regenerative agriculture. Previously, he served as an RSF Social Finance Integrated Capital Institute fellow. He has served as Managing Scientist of the Knowledge Systems for Sustainability Consortium and Program Director of the university’s Agricultural Innovation Prize. Currently, he serves in advisory roles to Mad Agriculture, the Savanna Institute, Nourishn, Council of Development Finance Agencies’ Food Systems Finance Advisory Council, and the Transformational Investing in Food Systems initiative, an allied initiative of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food.

Jameeale Arzeno is a professionally trained Chef who has managed and cooked in fine dining since 1996. She has had an illustrious career, which began with apprenticeship at Le Grand Louvre in Paris, after receiving an Associates in Hospitality Management from New York City College of Technology. She has worked as a pastry chef, manager, and consultant in the New York restaurant scene with internationally known top chefs and consulted on restaurant openings, menu development, and staff cultivation with restaurants in Miami, New York, and San Francisco. Chef Jameeale has taught as an adjunct professor for Monroe College in the Bronx and has been a workshop coordinator speaker and panelist for Restaurant Opportunity Center (ROC), which supports food service workers who face workplace injustice, as well as the Start Small Think Big, org. She owns a private catering company and her current passion is  teaching kids to cultivate their inner chef through her organization “CHICpeas, Inc.” She has served as the first Culinary Director of the esteemed James Beard Foundation since October 2018. She is a mother, daughter, a Bronx-NY native and dynamic individual who believes in honesty, transformation, love, and the power of food.

Marie Spiker, PhD, MSPH, RDN is an Assistant Professor in the Nutritional Sciences Program at the University of Washington School of Public Health. As a core faculty member in Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health, she teaches interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate courses that prepare students to join an evolving food systems workforce. Dr. Spiker conducts research on public health nutrition, sustainable food systems, food loss and waste, systems modeling, and food systems governance. Dr. Spiker completed her PhD in human nutrition at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is a registered dietitian nutritionist.

Daphene Altema-Johnson completed her BA in Nutrition and Fitness at Florida States University followed by an MPH in Health Policy at George Washington University. After working in academia and public service for 15 years, Ms. Altema-Johnson changed career directions to focus on solutions to diet-related illnesses among vulnerable and low-income populations. She obtained a second Bachelor’s degree in Dietetics from the University of Northern Colorado before going on to work at the Food Communities and Public Health Program at the Johns Hopkins Center fora Livable Future.

Denee Bex is currently an outpatient Registered Dietitian employed with a Navajo Nation Hospital and an advocate for healthy traditional Navajo diets and home-grown foods in Native communities. She was born and raised on the Navajo Nation and she is the Charcoal Streaked Division of the Red Running into the Water Clan. Her concentrations are in diabetes nutrition, community health education and intuitive eating. Denee also contributes gardening articles for a local Native community newspaper and is the founder of Navajo Land Gardeners and Farmers on Facebook. Lastly, Denee is the owner and founder of Tumbleweed Nutrition LLC.