Suzanne Palmieri

I am still newish to the Phoenix food community, but I have years of experience in food policy and some political acumen about how to bring about change. I believe Slow Food Phoenix’ and my interests in food policy are a perfect match and I am honored to serve on the Board to support its work. Currently, I am the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems within the Global Futures Laboratory and the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University (ASU). As a key leader at ASU, I am working to promote food system transformation through our various programmatic and research efforts as well as support the next generation of food policy leaders through courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and in particular, the ASU Masters of Food Systems and the Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership program. During my time in Washington, DC, I served as one of USDA’s leaders local and regional food policy initiatives as well as the effort to stablish a fully functioning Farm to School office at USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services. My work leading USDA’s global food security efforts which coordinated policy across dozens of federal agencies to better focus the US response in combating global hunger showed me the profound impact and transformative power of food and community.