Our Backbone Support Team
As a collective impact nonprofit organization, Green Umbrella provides staff to offer backbone support to our Food Policy Council.
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Director
Maddie convenes partners across the Greater Cincinnati Region to share information and collaborate on advocacy and program work as members of the Food Policy Council. Maddie leverages data, communications, and funding to direct and monitor our collective impact toward the vision of a resilient regional food system. She brings over a decade of domestic and international experience as an educator, researcher, and nonprofit team member to her work, along with a PhD in Anthropology from Indiana University Bloomington, with a focus on food, the environment, and culture.

Community Connections Coordinator
Amanda brings over five years of experience in food systems and sustainability, including most recently as the Outdoor Market + Sustainability Manager at Findlay Market, the Warehouse Manager at the Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub, and the Market Manager at Madeira Farmers Market. She studied both Humanities and Biology at the University of Louisville. Amanda is deeply passionate about creating a sustainable, equitable regional food system that both mitigates and can adapt to climate change. She has proven success in engaging stakeholders like farmers, food businesses, and nonprofit organizations and in conveying complex information into digestible material.

Regional Agricultural Education Curriculum Coordinator
Cynthia also acts as the Green Schoolyards Coordinator for Green Umbrella. She is set on transforming the educational system through experiential learning and outdoor education, and by establishing policies focused on improving the health and wellness of school children. Cynthia served for two decades as a public school teacher and for fifteen years managing school-garden programs on a local and national level before applying this experience in her current roles.

Farm to School Coordinator
Kristine acts as a point person of Farm to School resources for regional school lunch programs. Her experience with local food broadly ranges from growing, to education, to community building while working for Sidestreams Foundation. Most recently she worked on local crop planning and procurement at Local Food Connection. The local food movement unites Kristine passions for environmentalism with her roots of being raised in rural Brown County, OH. She has a BA in Communication Management from the University of Dayton.