About Slow Food Urban San Diego

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Slow Food Urban San Diego 2011 Board of Directors

Co-Leaders

Steph Johnston has been a member of Slow Food since 1998. She served as co-chair of the Urban San Diego education committee from 2008 - 2010, which focuses on providing opportunities to expand awareness and increase connections in our food community. Steph works to coordinate student transition services for the San Diego County Office of Education's Juvenile Court and Community Schools, helping to ensure that students and their families have access to needed resources and opportunities to plan for future goals. Expanding her home garden, learning about food preservation methods, and reading extensively on anything food related occupies her remaining time.

Candice Woo is an award-winning food and drink writer who is currently the dining critic and main food writer for San Diego Magazine. She was the restaurant reviewer for San Diego CityBeat and is a regular contributor to Edible San Diego; her work has also appeared in many local and national publications. She served as Education Co-Chair on the board of Slow Food Urban San Diego from 2008 - 2010, where she helps to create continuing food enrichment opportunities for the Slow Food community, advises Slow Food on Campus chapters and works on bringing better food into local schools. In 2010, Candice was chosen as a delegate to represent San Diego at Terra Madre, an international food and sustainability conference held in Turin, Italy. She enjoys learning about the food histories of cultures both abroad and close to home, and is passionate about artisan food and craft beer. Candice loves nothing better than sharing a good meal with friends and family.

General Members and Committee Chairs (In alphabetical order by committee):

Melissa Mayer is a creator - an artist and a chef - with a purpose. As an artist she is dedicated to creating and documenting the art and culture of food. As a chef, she is devoted to using local and sustainable ingredients, preserving and promoting culinary traditions and bringing those principles directly to the table. As a partner with Martini Media she writes about the politics of food and water, educates and promotes a greater understanding of sustainable food communities, and engages the public with multi-media creations that provoke and encourage a continued dialogue about food. Her culinary training includes an apprenticeship with chef Ann Bryan and education at the Culinary Institute of America, St. Helena. Her work has earned her awards and accolades both locally and nationally, including being named one of the Top 5 Chefs in America in 944's National Food Issue, November 2007. She is a member of Cooks Confab and Chef's Collaborative. Melissa's ethos is honest and simple: use less, do more, practice self-sustainability and self-reliance. Buy whole foods, plant small edible gardens, even in urban dwellings. Buy local and organic, and absolutely know where your food comes from. Celebrate the connection between good farming and good food. Give back to the food community while creating and knowing small changes can lead to bigger ones.

Hillary Noyes has been a member of SFUSD since 2009 and is co-chair of the Education Committee. Hillary is a small animal veterinarian serving the San Diego community. In her undergraduate and veterinary studies, she focused her research on farm animal behavior and welfare, and the Human-Animal Bond. She is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association Human-Animal Bond committee. Hillary's food-related interests include supporting humane animal agriculture, local producers and artisans, trying very hard to keep her small garden alive, and sharing homemade meals with friends. She enjoys traveling and thinks the best way to experience a new place is through its food.

Jen Sparkman is a San Diego native who has been involved with healthy eating and dining most of her life. She was an original participant in the People's Food Co-Op and has always had a keen interest in cooking and buying healthy food and produce. She loves Italy and the pace of life and way of enjoying food. She owned a foreign student travel business for 17 years has worked and travelled around the world. In 1990, she left the travel business to follow her heart in live theater. She has been involved in theatre management and producing ever since, and currently volunteers for the Southwestern College Theatre Department. She loves music, theatre, and the arts and enjoys nature, gardening, and animals. She finds Slow Food to be a perfect match for her philosophy of healthy, enjoyable food experiences for all.

Luke Schaner is a recent graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in Bio Resource and Agricultural Engineering. After stints in construction management and packing house field work, his passion for local farming and food has brought him back to his roots in San Diego County. He continues to help his father on their small family farm in hopes of creating a more sustainable and lasting operation. He loves sharing his knowledge, experience, and produce with customers he meets at the Farmers' Market. He values the relationship between grower and consumer and will do anything to promote it. He believes Southern California is a great place for agriculture and he is motivated to keep it around!

Vicky Kern, a native San Diegan, has been a member of Slow Food since 2009 and is a member of the finance committee. She enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her family. She is passionate about eating and preparing non-processed food and spends much of her spare time figuring out what to do with produce from her family's garden, fruit trees, and weekly CSA box. Vicky is an alumnus of both UCSD and San Diego State and is self-employed as a financial consultant.

Kate McDevitt has 10 years' experience in the nonprofit sector, focused on educational programming and membership associations. Kate has certifications in both Indigenous Permaculture Design and Nonprofit Management. A member of Slow Food since 2008, her hope is to help bring the Slow Food movement to a more diverse audience in San Diego through increased accessible programming, education and expansion of outreach efforts to new communities. She currently serves as SFUSD Liaison on the Cultivating Food Justice Conference Steering Committee and pro bono consultant for The Eat Well Guide. She is also working with the San Diego 1-in-10 Coalition to reform the permitting process for community gardens in the city of San Diego

Stacy Slagor is a grant consultant with over 16 years of experience successfully building and implementing university, industry, nonprofit, and government partnerships. Specializing in corporate and foundation relations and higher education fundraising, Stacy has secured support for projects as diverse as biomedical research, the arts, education, and community development. Stacy's love of cooking and sharing meals with family and friends led to an early career as a cook and caterer, and she continues now as an avid home cook, baker, nascent organic gardener and food preserver, and national recipe-contest winner.

Laura Bianconcini, a native Italian from Rome, has being a strong follower of Slow Food for many years, since Italy is the native home of this movement. She combines her cultural interest and passion for good food and traditions by organizing events and trips to Italy to discover Slow Food presidia and meet local producers. In San Diego, Laura has been a board member of the Italian Cultural Center for several years, for which she also served as President. She is the founder of Exclusively Italian, a tour operator specialized in designing customized trips to Italy. She also gives lectures of Italian culture to a wide range of audiences, and teaches Italian through the ICC and UCSD Extension programs. Laura is fluent in English, Spanish, and French, and of course Italian, her native language. She has lived in Rome, Milan, Brussels, and London, and moved to San Diego in 2004.

Bill Riedy has been committed to the promotion of sustainable agriculture and creation of local agricultural economies for more than 20 years. Bill worked as a chef in San Francisco for nearly 20 years where he supported local farmers and the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA). One of his earliest mentors was the famous Southern chef, Edna Lewis. He currently serves as the executive director of a small nonprofit dedicated to promoting the local maritime technology industry and sustainable use of the oceans. He also serves on several boards, including Slow Food Urban San Diego, Maritime STEM Fest (promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics education), and The Security Network. He moved to San Diego in 2006 and earned two master's degrees: an MBA and an MA in Latin American Studies. His thesis was on the "Economic Links between Local Agriculture and Tourist Restaurants in Los Cabos," and he has done extensive research on sustainable agriculture in Baja, and in particular the Los Cabos region.

Maria de Vincenzo was born and raised in a small town in the north east corner of New Jersey, about 20 miles from Manhattan. She was raised in an Italian family with six kids: her twin sister, an older sister and three brothers. After high school, she left New Jersey to discover herself and flew to San Francisco. She traveled up and down the state for a few months, lived in Hollywood for almost a year, and finally settled in San Diego. She loves it here and has been here over 30 years. Her love of travel has taken her throughout the United States and Canada as well as to Italy, Lisbon, and Costa Rica. She loves experiencing good food and good wine in new places and is very seldom disappointed! She is creative and channels her creativity in different ways, including pottery, embroidery, needlepoint, macramé and photography. She studied interior design and loves to decorate and help friends do the same.

Gayla Pierce is a native San Diegan and has been a member of Slow Food off and on for the last nine years. She has spent nearly 35 years in the non-commercial sector of the Food Service industry. She was a K-12 Director of Food Service for many years and fully supports the Slow Food objective to improve the quality and diversity of the school lunch program. Currently, she is the Director of Food Service for the San Diego Community College District. Gayla is a confirmed Mexiphile with focused interests in both the food and art of Mexico. She has had to opportunity to travel extensively in Mexico and to study Mexican cuisine with everyone from village cooks to famous chefs. Gayla is an avid collector of Mexican folk art, specifically textiles, ceramics and wood carvings. She also has strong interests in Metaphysics and has also been an astrologer for the last 12 years.

Anita Boen has been a Slow Food member since 2005 and is a member of the provisional board. She previously served as the leader of the Food Justice Committee. She believes that collaboration with other like-minded local organizations is our best strategy to achieve the common goal of creating a good, clean, fair and sustainable local food system. Anita works as a sales representative for a distributor of specialty foods. She loves teaching classes in organic gardening, medicinal and culinary herbs, nutrition, and healthy cooking, and enjoys empowering others to make wise choices for themselves, their families, their communities, and the planet.

Kristen Goodrich, as SFUSD Special Projects Chair, works to connect our local chapter with larger national campaigns and movements, including those spearheaded by Slow Food USA. Her background is in marine policy and has worked with artisanal fishing communities internationally to develop participatory fisheries management approaches. At the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington D.C. she gained experience in mitigating environmental impacts of large-scale agricultural practice. Currently, as the Coastal Training Program Coordinator at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, she hopes to build capacity in San Diego through training on sustainable seafood and food systems. Hailing from New York, where sharing food with family is the way of life, Kristen celebrates the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment. Most recently beer-brewing, cheese-making, and bread-baking keeps her full and happy.

Janet Lancaster currently works in corporate America helping information technology and software development teams improve their daily workflow. In her spare time, she enjoys tending her organic edible front-yard garden with her husband, Kelly, and has been a volunteer with Victory Gardens San Diego since 2009. Janet lives Ghandi's declaration to "be the change you want to be" by promoting recycling, composting, solar electricity, harvesting rain- and greywater-and by doing the same herself.

Advisory Members

Dominick Fiume has been a member of Slow Food since 2003 and in 2008 helped found the Urban San Diego chapter after being on the board of the San Diego chapter for 2 years. He served as the founding Co-Leader of the Slow Food Urban San Diego chapter for two years and also served as chair of the communications committee. Dominick is a real estate broker, a University of California Certified Master Gardener and makes cheese, raises chickens and farms in his spare time.

Donna McLoughlin, a member of Slow Food since 2004, was a founding Co-Leader and member of the Slow Food Urban San Diego Executive Board for two years. She previously served on the Slow Food San Diego board for 2 years. She is liaison to SFUSD committees and volunteers with membership, outreach and education activities. Donna was founder of Best Wishes, card, gift & jewelry store and the Crest Café. She is a property manager for residential and commercial real estate. Donna enjoys learning and working with the local food community of gardeners, chefs, farmers, artisan food makers, vintners and brewers. She makes pinot noir in Russian River, California, and is now learning about craft beer.

Past Board Members

Lauren Duffy Lastowka is a writer and editor whose work focuses on food, nutrition, and preventive health. She chaires the Communications Committee for Slow Food Urban San Diego, which oversees the chapter's website, monthly e-newsletter, and other special communications. Lauren serves as the managing editor of Edible San Diego, writes a regular craft beer column for the San Diego Uptown News, and writes and edits consumer health content for San Diego-based American Specialty Health. She is also an avid cook, kitchen gardener, and home brewer, and has become enamored with making bread, preserves, and homemade condiments. She hails from the East Coast, where she earned a BA in English and anthropology from the University of Virginia, but considers San Diego home. She first became a Slow Food member in 2006.