Speaker Bios | Day 1 - February 20th
Miguel Flores Jr.
Chief Executive Officer
Miguel Flores Jr.
LISAC, CSOTS, ADS
He/Him
Chief Executive Officer
Organization
Mr. Flores has a 33-year career in providing behavioral health services, Spiritual Leadership, and Traditional Medicine for The People. As the CEO of Holistic Wellness Counseling & Consultant Services, Miguel coordinates a team of traditional healers, acupuncturists, counselors and artists to provide holistic healthcare. A Licensed Independent Substance Abuse Counselor in the State of Arizona, a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Specialist, and certified by National Board of Forensic Counselors, Miguel provides prevention, outpatient, residential, and aftercare services to patients. A member of both the Pascua Yaqui and Tohono O'odham tribes, Mr. Flores sits on a variety of national boards and committees, and is a consultant to the National Institutes of Health Tribal Health Office and now the White House on cultural competency and traditional healing.
Vicki Cuscino
Executive Director
Vicki Cuscino
she/her
Executive Director
Vicki has dedicated most of her career to social justice, focusing on disability rights, health equity, and ending violence against women. She has worked in disability rights since 2000, joining Direct Advocacy & Resource Center as Executive Director in 2015. Prior to joining Direct, Vicki worked in management at four other disability organizations and for a nonprofit public entity HMO. Vicki holds a Master of Social Work degree and is a Certified ADA Coordinator with advanced certification in Health Care and Law Enforcement as well as a Certified Aging in Place Specialist.
Hailey Thoman
Associate Director
Hailey Thoman
she/her
Associate Director
Hailey has worked in disability rights since 2011 and is ADA Coordinator Certified. Most of Hailey’s work has been focused on eliminating barriers to employment for people with disabilities while being the Executive Director for Linkages. She expanded her advocacy efforts when joining Direct Advocacy & Resource Center in 2019. Her community involvement includes Board Member for Living Streets Alliance, Arizona Disability Advocacy Coalition, and the Statewide Access and Functional Needs Task Force. In Hailey’s free time she enjoys spending time outside mountain biking with her family.
Lee Shainis
Founder
Lee Shainis
he/him
Founder
Simplify Language
Lee is founder of Simplify Language, training hundreds of organizations to elevate awareness and provide actionable skills to communicate more efficiently, effectively, and inclusively. Lee gives keynote speeches at conferences and has led over 500 engaging workshops nationwide on language and culture. Lee has authored several publications, and he co-founded the national nonprofit Intercambio Uniting Communities in 2000 and was the CEO for 20 years. Lee is excited to shift responsibilities, power, and privilege as they relate to language.
John Hohn
Executive Chef
John Hohn
he/him
Executive Chef
John Hohn grew up in a household that made $17,000 annually while supporting a family of six. Since 1995, John has been employed in Tucson kitchens, and presently serves as the Director of Culinary Arts at Gap Ministries where he established and oversees a free culinary training program. This initiative has successfully produced 148 graduates & 90,000 complimentary meals for children residing in low-income areas, individuals in transitional housing, and the elderly who are unable to prepare meals for themselves. Chef John is not only an accomplished chef but also an author, and holds awards such as "Iron Chef Tucson," "Flowing Wells Hall of Fame," and "Tucson's 40 under 40." His most cherished blessing is his wife, Cassandra, with whom he has shared a marriage of over 16 years, and their three children.
Speaker Bios | Day 2 - February 21st
Don Guerra
Founder
Don Guerra
he/him
Founder
Barrio Bread and Barrio Grains
Guerra began his career 32 years ago in Flagstaff where he was hired as a bread-baker. He opened his first bakery there in 1995, and another in Oregon two years later. He eventually returned to Tucson and became a teacher but was also experimenting with bread baking, starting Barrio Bread in his garage in 2009. He chose the name because Barrio is Spanish for neighborhood, and the name emphasizes his commitment to his community. When Guerra founded Barrio Bread, he had a vision to revive native and heritage varieties of grains in order to build a sustainable grain economy in Southern Arizona. Today, his bakery is a model for the future as Guerra unites regional farmers and millers in bringing healthy whole grains, flours, and breads to consumers, expanding the meaning of Tucson’s gastronomy. Guerra has won numerous awards, including the 2022 James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker, a 2022 MOCA Local Genius Award, was named one of the Top Ten Bakers in America by Dessert Professional magazine, and more. He shares his knowledge through interactive workshops and in the classroom with school children, at Tucson Village Farm, the University of Arizona and collaborations with brewers, restaurateurs, and retailers to bring new foods and drinks to life. Recently, Guerra opened a Barrio Bread location in Gilbert in partnership with Hayden Flour Mills.
Edward Beltran
Community Outreach Assistant II
Edward Beltran
he/him
Community Outreach Assistant II
University of Arizona Cooperative Extension - The Garden Kitchen
Ed has been a Community Outreach Assistant II with Cooperative Extension, The Garden Kitchen for three years. He believes self and cultural identity are vital in building belonging and influencing strong beliefs of good nutrition and mental health in early childhood settings. Ed currently supports and collaborates with the Pasqua Yaqui Head Start in sustaining healthy habits through gardening.
David Jaimez
Transportation/Safety Supervisor
David Jaimez
he/him
Transportation/Safety Supervisor
Ili Uusim Mahtawa’apo Head Start
David has worked with the Ili Uusim Mahtawa’apo Head Start for 21 years. He believes preserving the Yaqui language and culture is a vital part of early childhood education. David is a strong believer that educating children while they are young builds the foundational and social skills needed to gain success in life and places them on the pathway to higher education.
Jasmine Sanchez
Summer Food Ambassador
Jasmine Sanchez
MBA
she/her
Summer Food Ambassador
Jasmine Sanchez is an active member in her community. She is a proud parent of 4 children and a Summer Food Ambassador. Jasmine enjoys being an advocate by sharing her knowledge on resources available to families.
Gladys Cabrera
Summer Food Ambassador
Gladys Cabrera
she/her
Summer Food Ambassador
Gladys Cabrera served as a Summer Food Ambassador in the Summer of 2023. Determined to bring information about the Summer Food Service Program to every corner in her local community of Buckeye, AZ, Gladys helped to spread the word by sharing posters with businesses, engaging families at farmers markets and food banks and informing everyone she could about free meals served for all youth 0-18.
Marina Gallardo
Community Lead, Food Systems
Marina Gallardo
MS
she/her
Community Lead, Food Systems
AZ Health Zone/Zona de Salud AZ
Marina Gallardo is a Community Supervisor and Food Access Lead for the AZ Health Zone at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Maricopa County. For the past three years, she has collaborated with the Summer Food Workgroup to facilitate the Summer Food Parent Advisory Committee and the Summer Food Ambassador pilot aimed at involving parents and caregivers in the promotion of the Summer Food Service Program. The Summer Food Ambassador pilot alone has reached over 5,500 families and a planned expansion of the pilot hopes to reach even for families across Arizona in 2024.
Kaylee Haddad
Program Coordinator
Kaylee Haddad
she/her
Program Coordinator
School of Nutritional Sciences & Wellness, University of Arizona
Kaylee graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics and always knew she wanted to work in the community to promote nutrition and overall health. Having worked for AZ Health Zone as a student in college, Kaylee has now been a Program Coordinator with them (AZ Health Zone) for over 2 years. Being on the Childhood Systems team, and working in the Sunnyside community, Kaylee met her co-presenter, Nova Kline who has been an outstanding partner to work with, helping implement the goals of AZ Health Zone in her district and sharing her own amazing ideas that align with our program’s values to further improve our work in schools.
Nova Kline
Teacher
Nova Kline
M.Ed.
she/her
Teacher
Sunnyside Unified School District
Nova Kline is an active teacher within the Sunnyside Unified School District for the last ten years and possesses a Master's degree in early childhood education. She has bridged community partnerships for the last 5 years to help students understand the role food plays in their lives. Her work includes several garden projects across two school campuses to help students realize the benefits of gardening beyond classroom walls.
Kara Haberstock Tanoue
Kara Haberstock Tanoue
M.A.
she/her
Kara Haberstock Tanoue, M.A., is a data scientist with the Community Research, Evaluation, & Development (CRED) team at the University of Arizona. She has over a decade of experience acquiring, analyzing, mapping, and visualizing data for needs assessments in the domains of public health and early childhood systems. Kara is the creator of the UArizona SNAP-Ed Interactive Maps, a collection of web applications that map key sociodemographic and community resources data related to SNAP-Ed, which provided data for the 2023 AZ Health Zone Needs Assessment.
Dr. Madeleine deBlois
Dr. Madeleine deBlois
MEd, ScD
she/her
Dr. Madeleine deBlois, a social epidemiologist by training, is a Research Scientist with the Community Research, Evaluation & Development (CRED) Team at the University of Arizona. CRED's mission is to generate accessible, actionable information that our community partners can use to support their program and policy decision-making. To that end, in 2023, the CRED team conducted a needs assessment for AZ Health Zone focusing on nutrition, active living, and other inter-related social determinants of health in communities across Arizona and will be presenting findings during our session.
Rachel Gildersleeve
Rachel Gildersleeve
MPH
she/her
Rachel Gildersleeve, MPH, is a research professional on the Community Research, Evaluation, and Development (CRED) Team at the University of Arizona. On CRED, Rachel supports community partners’ program and policy decision-making with community engagement, strategic planning, and qualitative, quantitative, and geospatial analysis efforts. In summer 2023, Rachel helped lead a needs assessment for AZ Health Zone focusing on nutrition, active living, and other interrelated social determinants of health. Take-aways from this assessment will be covered in the CRED presentation.
Speaker Bios | Day 3 - February 22nd
Anvi Bhakta
Anvi Bhakta
she/her
Anvi Bhakta is currently an evaluator with the AZ Health Zone (SNAP-Ed) Evaluation Team. In this role, she designs and conducts statewide evaluations focused on food systems, active living, and youth education. Anvi is passionate about community-driven policy, systems, and environment change. As such, her research interests include transformative and equitable evaluation.
Laurel Jacobs
Laurel Jacobs
DrPH, MPH
she/her
Laurel facilitates the state evaluation team for AZ Health Zone, and she seeks to capture and celebrate successes in creating healthier communities through Arizona’s SNAP-Ed evaluation project.
Theresa Kulpinski
Theresa Kulpinski
she/her
Theresa Kulpinski has worked with Coconino County Health & Human Services AZ Health Zone for the past twenty years; the first eleven as a public health educator and the past nine years as the Program Manager. She assists staff with the gardening initiatives at the Flagstaff Family Food Center and implements gardening strategies with the schools and community in Leupp, AZ. Theresa completed the Coconino County Master Gardener program, worked with the farmers participating in the Little Colorado River Farmers Coalition, and is looking forward to revitalizing school gardens in the Leupp community.
Sharon Sifling
Sharon Sifling
she/her
Sharon serves the Flagstaff community as a health educator through Coconino County Health and Human Services’ AZ Health Zone program. She has been working with the Flagstaff Family Food Center for over 10 years through outreach events, community engagement, youth direct education and gardening. She has completed the Master Gardener course and teaches the Seed to Supper curriculum to further food access in northern Arizona communities through community and home gardens.
Teresa Manning
Health Educator
Teresa Manning
Health Educator
Yavapai County Community Health Services
Teresa Manning has worked for Yavapai County Community Health for over two years as a health educator. She works in SNAP-Ed facilitating garden clubs, nutrition classes and Tai Chi for Kidz, as well as in Maternal and Child Health teaching anti-bullying and running a girls recovery support group. Being a part of Nature Ninos is a great monthly collaboration for our community and families!
Sharmel Jordan
Program Manager
Sharmel Jordan
Program Manager
Yavapai County Community Health Services
Sharmel Jordan has worked for Yavapai County for 17th years as a program manager in the health education department. She works on several grants, one of which is SNAP-Ed., helping to oversee the grant and working with community partners to offer programs such as Nature Niños.
Nicole Lund
Nicole Lund
she/her
Yavapai County Cooperative Extension
Nicole Lund is a Community Outreach Professional at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Yavapai County. Nicole is a former middle school science teacher/high school biology teacher and was the Food Safety Program Coordinator at Yavapai County Cooperative Extension from 2015-2017. In her current role with AZ Health Zone, she works on food systems strategies and select ECE strategies focused on ECE Based Agriculture and ECE PA Environments. Nicole first connected with Nature Niños in the first years as a participant with her three young children and then beginning October 2022 as part of the core implementing partners through AZ Health Zone. She helps with planning, finding new community partners, site visits, social marketing for the program and at some of the monthly events hosts an interactive table with a food demo.
Ellen Snyder
Ellen Snyder
she/her
Ellen is an AmeriCorps member serving her third term of service with GEM Corps, a nonprofit organization in Prescott that connects students 17 and older who are underrepresented in the STEM fields with internships and scholarships. In her position, she works to secure grant funding for various projects at GEM, and performs community outreach, including volunteering her time to run the nature-based infant sensory station at Nature Niños every month. Ellen has a bachelor's degree in environmental science, experience working in environmental conservation, focused on invasive plant species, and was previously an integrated pest management lead at a cannabis production facility. She has a passion for botany and a one-year-old daughter who loves attending Nature Niños!
Gloria García-Hernández
Hunger Relief Program Manager
Gloria García-Hernández
Hunger Relief Program Manager
Arizona Department of Economic Security
Gloria García-Hernández is a dedicated public servant with over two decades of experience in Emergency Food Assistance and Hunger Relief programs for the state of Arizona. Since 2017, Gloria has managed the Hunger Relief program, overseeing its impressive expansion from one major initiative to a robust portfolio of 12 programs, providing crucial assistance to families across the state. Her impact extends to the SNAP Relief Program, where she has transformed a budget of 57,000 dollars into an impressive 12 million dollars. Under her leadership, this program, which started with a single partner, has flourished to encompass a network of over 60 partners, further enhancing its reach and effectiveness in addressing the needs of the community.
Francesca Currie
SNAP CAN/E&T
Francesca Currie
SNAP CAN/E&T
Arizona Dept. of Economic Security
Francesca Currie is a seasoned professional with a Bachelor's in Marketing and a Masters in Criminal Justice. With five years of experience working with the state, she is passionate about making a positive impact wherever possible. Born in Panama and residing in Arizona for most of her life, Francesca enjoys listening to crime podcasts, taking walks with her kids, and playing low stress video games like The Sims or Animal Crossing.
Jennie Altman
AZ Health Zone Community Programs Manager
Jennie Altman
MS, RDN
she/her
AZ Health Zone Community Programs Manager
Arizona Dept. of Health Services
Jennie Altman, MS, RDN is the Community Programs Manager for AZ Health Zone (SNAP-Ed). She provides professional development and training in the area of trauma-informed nutrition and supervises a team of specialists that support community-led policy, systems, and environment changes (PSEs) and health initiatives. Jennie is passionate about inclusive and positive health messaging, and person-centered approaches to health and wellness.
Brenda Biebrich
Program Manager
Brenda Biebrich
Program Manager
Arizona Department of Economic Security
Brenda Biebrich is a Program Manager with the Arizona Department of Economic Security (ADES), Division of Benefits and Medical Eligibility. She contributes to providing benefit support services for Nutrition, Cash Assistance, and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) Health Insurance. After spending 22 years with the State of Arizona she has served in various capacities within DES. A recent workgroup she has been a part of is the SNAP Collaboration workgroup focusing on minimizing the gap between services and programs provided by government agencies.