People

Elisabeth (Liz) Miltenburg is the Project Coordinator for the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems and UNESCO Chair on Food, Biodiversity, and Sustainability Studies. In this role she supports multiple projects and initiatives working toward sustainable food system transformation - including the FLOW Partnership. She coordinates processes that strengthen  collaboration among partners and supports knowledge sharing and communication strategies that promote research activities to diverse audiences.    

Liz holds a MSc in Applied Human Nutrition from the University of Guelph and a BSc in Health Sciences from Western University. For the past five years, she has been engaged in community food work through both academic initiatives and volunteer organizing with local non-profits.  Across her work she helps connect community priorities with research processes. She is committed to strengthening the relationships between people, place, and food through community-led approaches. 

Shuchita Das supports communications, project, and administrative needs for the UNESCO Chair on Food, Biodiversity, and Sustainability Studies and the FLOW Partnership. In this role, she contributes to advancing research and knowledge exchange on resilient and equitable food systems across global and regional contexts.

Shuchita has a B.A. in International Development & Psychology and a MSc in Sustainability Management from the University of Toronto. With experience spanning international organizations, private corporations, research networks, and community initiatives, Shuchita connects ideas, people, and processes to evolve traditional paths of development. Having worked and studied across continents, she is inspired by cross-sector, global approaches to sustainable development and is grateful to contribute to the UNESCO Chair’s mission of transforming food systems through collaborative, action-oriented research.

You can explore more of Shuchita’s work and journey in sustainability here.

Carla Johnston is a PhD Candidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, specializing in community-based participatory action research, Indigenous rights, and food systems governance. She has a decade of experience in political advocacy, community-led planning, and policy analysis with Indigenous Peoples in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and at the United Nations. Carla was a Polar Knowledge Fellow for 2024-2025 and a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholar. She holds a Master of Arts in Political Economy from Carleton University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Development Studies from Trent University.

Damien Conaré is the Secretary General of the UNESCO Chair in World Food Systems at the International Centre for Higher Education in Agricultural Sciences (L'Institut Agro) in Montpellier, France. There, he develops activities around three main areas: coordinating action-research programs, particularly on the sustainability of urban food systems and on food solidarities; developing educational training programs, mainly an Advanced Master Degree on innovations and Policies for Sustainable Food Systems; and fostering science-society dialogues through conferences, seminars, and publications.

Kent Mullinix is Director of Institute for Sustainable Food Systems (ISFS) at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and is engaged in research and development to advance ecologically sound agriculture and robust regional food systems. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Professor in The Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia and serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development. With the ISFS, Kent is currently modeling the food self-reliance and economic development potential for a Vancouver Island bioregion food system and is bringing together key food system actors from across the Vancouver Island bioregion to collaboratively prioritize actions and inform regional food system resilience planning and development.

Lauren Baker is Deputy Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, where she leads program strategy and supports global initiatives focused on climate, biodiversity, food security, and equity. A systems thinker, skilled facilitator, and practical problem-solver, Lauren has worked for over 20 years in non-profit, government, academic, business, and philanthropic contexts. With Global Alliance members and partners, Lauren leads the program strategy and supports diverse organizations and initiatives including the True Cost Accounting Accelerator, Transformational Investing in Food Systems, and the Agroecology Coalition, to address global challenges related to climate, biodiversity, food security, and equity.

Dr. Rachel Carey is a Senior Lecturer in Food Systems in the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences (SAFES) at the University of Melbourne, where her teaching and research focuses on resilient and sustainable food systems, food policy and food security. One of Rachel’s key research interests is the resilience and sustainability of city food systems  in the face of growing challenges from climate change, pandemic, population growth, urban sprawl and from declining supplies of natural resources, such as land and water. Rachel leads the Foodprint Melbourne research project, which is investigating approaches to strengthen the resilience of Melbourne’s food system to shocks and stresses and the role of Melbourne’s foodbowl in increasing the resilience of the city’s food supply.

Dr. Tammara Soma, MCIP RPP, is an Associate Professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Management (Planning program) at Simon Fraser University and Research Director of the Food Systems Lab. She is also the Faculty Lead on the Simon Fraser University–Aga Khan University, Arusha Climate Environmental Research partnership in Tanzania. She conducts research on issues pertaining to food loss and waste, food systems planning, food security and food systems resiliency, Indigenous food sovereignty, and the circular food economy in Canada and globally. She is routinely featured in international and local media on various food-related issues (The Guardian, CBC, TVO, CTV, National Observer, Chatelaine, etc.) and is the co-director/co-writer of the CBC documentary “Food is My Teacher.” Dr. Soma was selected as a committee member of the US National Academies of Sciences and co-authored the consensus study A National Strategy to Reduce Consumer Food Waste. She also served on the expert panel of the Council of Canadian Academies’ report on “Atypical Food Production Technologies for Canadian Food Security.” Most recently she was selected as a UN expert panel to be on the drafting team of a report on “Building Resilient Food Systems.” Dr. Soma is the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Food Waste and has been published in various academic journals including in Journal of American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Agriculture Human Values, Journal of Cleaner Production, and more. Dr. Soma is a registered professional planner with the Canadian Institute of Planners.