host & founder: Aaron Niederhelman

FOOD SYSTEM CHAMPION  ||  ECOLOGICAL AGRICULTURE EVANGELIST  ||  OCEAN HEALTH ADVOCATE  ||  CLIMATE ACTION HYPEMAN

Aaron Niederhelman is founder of media company All-Consuming-Behavior.

He hosts the widely listened to podcast SourcingMatters.show, and anchored the UN talkshow series for the FOOD SYSTEMS SUMMIT: ‘Laying Down Tracks‘.

He’s a fishmonger interested in preserving the unique values of the region that he’s from with sourcing agency monger.fish, and also a co-founder of food animal clearinghouse OneHealthAg. Previously, he was the SVP & Head of Marketing, Brand & Communications at Flagship Pioneering co., Invaio Sciences.

A lifelong advocate of healthier and cleaner food, Aaron was selected as a 2015 Eisenhower Fellow to explore the impact of good & bad resource management practice on an ever shrinking planet. In 2012, Niederhelman co-founded the seminal EAF Agrarian Fund. He enjoys spending time in the thriving soils and clean waters north of Boston.

BIO SNAPSHOT: Niederhelman

– founder at media company: all-consuming-behavior 

– founder at: OneHealthAg | FFC

– founder at: HINGELINE | monger.fish

– Eisenhower Fellow ’15

– host of UN talkshow series on Food

– founder at: EAF Agrarian Fund

– dad in a family of composters

– additional details:  aaron.farm

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co-hosts:

John Della Volpe || Jennifer Hashley || Scott Soares || Renée Vassilos

Ken Kaplan  ||  Lauren Abda  ||  Chris Sherman  ||  Jay Vilar  ||  Byron Niederhelman

 John Della Volpe

  • Founder at SocialSphere
  • Eisenhower Fellow
  • Director of Polling at Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics  

@DellaVolpe

Co-host: John Della Volpe is the Director of Polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, where he has led the institute’s polling initiatives on understanding American youth since 2000.  The Washington Post referred to John as one of the world’s leading authorities on global sentiment, opinion and influence especially among Millennials and in the age of digital and social media.  In 2008, he received an Eisenhower Fellowship for which he traveled extensively throughout China, Hong Kong, and Korea (including a supervised day in North Korea) studying Millennials; in 2011, he was appointed to the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission on Media.  John is also founder of SocialSphere, a Cambridge based public opinion and analytics company.  He serves on the Board of Trustees of iCatholic Media, the Ad Club of Boston and is a member of the Global Alumni Council for Eisenhower Fellowships.  John appears regularly on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and his insights on the Millennial generation are found in national media outlets in the U.S. and abroad, including the Daily Show with Trevor Noah. 

>>   John joins for conversations with Eisenhower Fellows:  JOHN DELLA VOLPE

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Jennifer Hashley

  • Founder of Tufts New Entry Sustainable farming project 
  • Owner of Pete & Jen’s backyard birds
  • Evangelist | Activist| Innovator
  • Eisenhower Fellow 2016

@JHashley

Co-host: Jennifer Hashley always adds insight to the conversation.  Coming at it from a producer, aggregator, and teacher’s seat – Hashley knows the bottlenecks, and the potential of it all.  Centered out of the Tufts Friedman School of nutrition – The New Entry Sustainable Farming program is one of the first initiatives nationwide to help immigrants and refugees develop commercial farming opportunities.  Jennifer’s goal is to help new farmers excel in the field, and New Entry gives them the tools to do that. It’s a revolutionary program that looks at sustainable and regenerative farming as jobs creation, and economic growth for regions often in need of stimulus.  In partnership with her husband, Jennifer oversees a diversified pasture based livestock operation, including Pete and Jen’s Backyard Birds on the the renowned Codman Community Farm in Lincoln MA.  She’s a wonderful advocate for the agricultural region of the Northeast, and the small farmers everywhere.

>>   Jen joins for 10 episodes:   JENNIFER HASHLEY

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Scott Soares

  • Director USDA Rural Dev Northeast
  • Former Commissioner MA Agriculture 
  • Dir. USDA Rural Dev Northeast for Obama administration
  • 15 years of fishery & Aquaculture experience
  • Served as 1st MA coordinator of aquaculture for a decade

@sjsoares65

Co-host: Scott Soares is former commissioner of Massachusetts Agriculture, and served as the Director of USDA Rural Development for Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for the Obama administration.  Scott has 15 years of fishery and aquaculture experience prior to that – including early in his career serving as the 1st Massachusetts coordinator of aquaculture for nearly a decade.

Soares has long since been dedicated to improving the lives of fishermen and farmers through facilitating economic and environmental adaptation. From creating agricultural support programs and services, to adapting laws and regulations to be more producer friendly, to administering international and domestic market development for US producers – Soares has well earned credibility in the aquatic and terrestrial food production industries.  Soares is now a Principal at HINGELINE- and a trusted voice to seafood producers up and down the east coast.

>>   Scott joins for 6 episodes:   SCOTT SOARES

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Chris Sherman

    • President of Island Creek Oysters
    • Eisenhower Fellow 2018
    • Regenerative Ocean Farming Pioneer
    • Curator of ICO Foundation

@IslandCreek

Co-host: Chris Sherman is President of Island Creek Oysters. Focused on promoting the many values that shellfish bring to humans, the Oceans and the planet – Chris and his team have built a brand known for global excellence.  As pioneers in regenerative ocean farming – Island Creek Oysters have established a sustainable model of sustenance, and jobs for their community in Massachusetts. Levering his ocean smarts to do greater good, Chris also curates the Island Creek Oyster Foundation, a non-profit which has codified a replicable model of aquaculture for the developing world.  Additionally, Chris is a 2018 Eisenhower fellow. As part of his program to Spain & Columbia – Chris assessed capacity building and innovative financing models for the future of aquaculture.

>>   listen to Chris as both guest & cohost:  CHRIS SHERMAN

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Kenneth Kaplan

  • Health care system research @ MIT 
  • Systems Designer & Architect
  • co-authored transformative Child Obesity study 
  • Contributed to the design of the modern operating room 

Co-host:  Ken Kaplan – Over the last dozen years Kaplan has been a visiting Scholar, a Senior Health System Advisor at the Sociotechnical Systems research center, and now he Advises the Sloan Initiative for Health Systems Innovation at MIT.  Continuing with his life’s passion, Kaplan has seen his theories on both Systems Design and Social Determinants of Health come to fruition.  Ken shares unique wisdom and perspective on the food system

“You can’t change the health care system without addressing the food system first” – explains Kaplan.

>> Ken joins for our conversation with Bob Martin:  KEN KAPLAN

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Renée Vassilos

  • Agricultural Economist
  • The Nature Conservancy Ag Innovation Director
  • past portfolio manager: Deere China
  • Bilingual Dutch / American citizen 

Co-host: Renée Vassilos is a Dutch-American Agricultural Economist who has spent over fifteen years in the production agriculture space.  Her work experience includes time spent with the USDA, she has started her own consultancy to help investors and Agtech companies, she spent  nearly a decade with John Deere; much of that in Beijing.  

Renée has recently joined The Nature Conservancy as their Agriculture Innovation Director.  She will manage TNC’s investments in early stage agtech companies that will support regenerative agriculture production – at scale.

>> Renée joins for 5 episodes:  RENÉE VASSILOS

 Lauren Abda

  • Founder at Branchfood
  • Partner at Branch Venture Group
  • ‘New Food’ hub of the Northeast  

@laurenabda

Co-host: Lauren Abda is the founder and CEO of Branchfood and Partner at Branch Venture Group. Her work is focused on supporting local, national, and international food initiatives transforming our food system for the better and also aggregates resources for food entrepreneurs to help their businesses launch and grow. Prior to Branchfood, she consulted for foodtech businesses in Boston and San Francisco, worked as an analyst for Salt Venture Partners LLC, a venture capital firm, focused on food startups, targeting content, commerce, and technology, and wrote reports on international food safety development initiatives on behalf of the Agriculture and Commodities division at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. She has a Masters in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Food Science from the University of Vermont.

>>   Lauren joins for our conversation with Brett Brohl:   LAUREN ABDA

 

 Jay Vilar

  • Founder of Nourish
  • A focus on Nutritional Therapy
  • Rodale Institute Fellow
  • Host of  ‘listen to your mother’ show

Co-host: Jay Vilar is the founder, and a Practitioner at ‘Nourish’ – a bespoke consulting company with a mission to educate, teach, and train people on the benefits of using food to heal your body and optimize your health.  Jay has always been on the forefront of using optimal health techniques, and bio-hacking his nutrition to achieve remarkable results in his career. He attributes his success to principles he learned studying health, nutrition, and business principles on increasing your energy, sharpening your mind, being a more productive human being.   Jay now spends his time teaching people how to use food to heal their body – and speaks to businesses on how to optimize focus & productivity using nutritional and behavioral science.  Jay also hosts his own podcast “Listen to your Mother” – a series he records with his mother, Rosalie. Additionally, Jay recently completed a Fellowship at the Rodale Institute.

>>   Jay joins for 6 episodes:   JAY VILAR