Chris has been actively involved in the agricultural sector since he was a child. He grew up on a farm in Pontiac County, which is about 1.5h from Ottawa. Chris has grown hops and helped manage farm operations, including care for a small herd of Angus cows. He maintains a strong connection to the land even though he now lives in the City of Ottawa with his own young family. Chris has experience working with local businesses, and is interested in partnerships and collaboration opportunities geared towards supporting the community, regional economy and food systems, as well as connecting people to food they eat and the farms it comes from. Chris has a policy background and has a joint major honours degree from Trent University in Environmental and Resource Studies and Geography, with an emphasis in politics, policy, and law.
Jill Guerra
M.A., Resources, Environment and Sustainability
After completing her degree in International Development and taking a jaunt into physical geography field work, Jill began her Master’s degree studying sustainable food systems at UBC’s Institute of Resources, Environment and Sustainability. Her thesis examined to what extent a progressive public procurement program in Brazil is able to create incentives for family farmers’ to transition to agroecology and organic agriculture. Since moving to the Ottawa area, Jill has been working in Canada’s organic sector first as a researcher with the Canada Organic Trade Association and more recently as a consultant with the Canadian Organic Growers. She admittedly does not have a natural green thumb, but she’s hoping that perseverance will overcome that.
Carly Hayes
Carly has always maintained a close connection to local food systems, growing up in a rural area near Peterborough, Ontario with a large vegetable garden and surrounded by family farms. She first engaged with food policy questions while completing her Master’s thesis at the University of Waterloo on the impact of free trade agreements on small-scale farmers’ livelihoods, sustainable agriculture, and nutrition. Following graduation, Carly led two research projects at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the first examining how to adapt undernutrition policies to address growing rates of diet-related disease in Peru, and the second on increasing global investment in adolescent nutrition research. She also worked with the Livestock Health team at IDRC, managing a research program to develop veterinary vaccines to reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance in livestock operations. While she now works at Global Affairs Canada, Carly has continued her involvement in advocating for healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems as the Research and Education Lead with the Food Secure Canada Youth Caucus Executive.
Nadia Ibrahim
M.A., Political Economy
Nadia is a recent graduate of the Master’s in Political Economy program at Carleton University. Her research focused on the meaning and value of adopting a “food systems approach” in the Ottawa context. Since graduating she has worked as a research consultant on a variety of issues including sustainable food systems, agriculture and trade policy, climate and environmental issues, and the impacts of trade and austerity policies on gender equity. She is also the coordinator for a Canada-wide network of labour, environmental and other civil society organizations working together to promote fairer, more socially just trade policies. Nadia is passionate about local food, food sovereignty and food justice, and is looking forward to working with the Ottawa Food Policy Council to promote a more just and sustainable food system for all.
Amy MacDonald
MSc., Nutrition, Registered Dietitian
Amy grew up in a family that valued the hard work that went into eating local, home-grown food. Her family has owned and operated a Maple Syrup Farm in the Muskokas since 1949 and she was raised harvesting the family garden, preserving its bounty and preparing meals at home.
It was these strong family values of eating off the land, cooking food from scratch and eating together that fueled her passion for healthy eating and using food as medicine.
Amy graduated from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelors in Human Kinetics, and then went on to complete a Masters of Nutrition and Graduate Diploma at McGill University. She now works as a Clinical Dietitian at the Ottawa Hospital and specializes in Obesity and Diabetes Management. She is passionate about Nutrition Education and helping her patients to see the importance of Good Food for living a long and healthy life.
Heather McLeod-Kilmurray
Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability (CELGS)
Heather McLeod-Kilmurray is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa and Co-Director of its Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability (CELGS). Her research and teaching focus on Food Law, Toxic Torts and Environmental Justice. She is co-author of The Canadian Law of Toxic Torts with Lynda Collins, co-editor of the forthcoming Canadian Food Law and Policy with Nathalie Chalifour and Angela Lee. She was a co-organizer of the second annual Food Law and Policy Conference at the University of Ottawa, and she co-teaches the Food Law course with Angela Lee. She is a member of the Ottawa Food Policy Council and a member of the Management Advisory Board of Wilfrid Laurier University’s Centre for Sustainable Food Systems. She is a former part-time member of the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal.
Alexis Wagner
Alexis is the Manager of Food and Beverage Processing at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) – a Department in the Government of Canada. In her role, she leads research, analysis, and policy advice to support a competitive and sustainable food and beverage processing sector. She began her career with Labatt Breweries and then took on head brewer and assistant brewmaster roles with Mill Street Brewery, prior to joining the federal public service.
Alexis holds a Master’s in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge, where she researched farm-level adoption of Beneficial Management Practices as a Chevening Scholar, and a Bachelor’s in Biological and Food Engineering from the University of Guelph.
Alexis is also on the Steering Committee of Hidden Harvest Ottawa, and on the technical committee for the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology. She was previously a founding member of the St. John’s Food Policy Council and the St. John’s Fruit Tree Project, in Newfoundland.
Past Members
Alicia Martin
M.A., Political Studies with a Specialization in Environmental Sustainability
Alicia has a Masters of Arts in Political Science with a Specialization in Environmental Sustainability from the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. Her Master’s research focused on conceptualizing comprehensive food literacy and measuring high school students food literacy in Ontario with a special focus on their knowledge about food systems. She is interested in raising awareness about the environmental, social and political impacts of the food we eat, which she believes can be mitigated at multiple different levels with a more comprehensively food literate population. Since Alicia moved to Ottawa in the Fall of 2015 she has gotten involved in different ventures in both academic and community settings. Throughout her years at UOttawa she was an active member on the Laboratory for the Interdisciplinary Study of Food, where she organized and participated in academic conferences and brown bag lunch discussions all pertaining food politics and food research.
Martin Settle
Executive Director, USC Canada
Martin Settle grew up in rural Alberta, helping tend family gardens and seeing the rhythms of agriculture. Food justice was an early passion, and has developed into a career. Following a decade of work with youth in the United Church, Martin added accountancy to his Human Ecology training, and helped start a locally-sourced school meal program in Dorset, UK. Now living in Westboro with Kate and their two sons, Martin has found a vocational home promoting food justice through USC Canada, where he serves as Executive Director.
Dara Marcus
M.A., Public and International Affairs
Dara grew up on a small farm in rural Maine with a family that instilled in her a deep appreciation for delicious homegrown food. She has worked in food-related jobs her whole life, from growing, preserving, preparing, and baking, to researching, writing, and her current work as a dairy economist and policy analyst. Dara has an MA in Public and International Affairs from the University of Ottawa, where she conducted her Master’s research on Canadian urban agriculture policy. She has a particular passion for urban animal husbandry. She brings her extensive knowledge of Canadian urban agriculture practices and bylaws to the OFPC with the hope of developing municipal policies that promote widespread local food production. She’s dedicated to sustainable urban development and would love to see the barren roofs of Ottawa sprout green. Longtime committee member of the University of Ottawa community garden, Dara is the happiest digging in the dirt, battling invasive species, and encouraging beneficial insect habitats to flourish. When she’s not in the garden, you’ll find her cycling, reading, or cooking up a storm.
Geneviève Gazaille
M.Sc., International Studies
Geneviève is passionate about food security, sustainability and sovereignty issues, and has more than ten years of experience in the communication sector, mainly with governmental and non-profit organizations. Over the past years, she has worked for Ottawa’s public markets where she developed projects and campaigns to improve the customer experience while raising awareness about the importance of buying local. This role brought her to sit on Savour Ottawa’s advisory committee, an initiative that aims to connect the different regional food system players that are producers, restaurateurs, retailers and consumers. Originally from Montreal, her five years spent volunteering and sitting on the board of the Gloucester Emergency Food Cupboard allowed her to see a different side of Ottawa. Geneviève has a Master’s in International Studies and a certificate in Sustainable Local Food. She likes to cook, garden and travel.
