Staff & Board of Directors
Executive Board Leadership Team
Linda Royster
Executive Board President
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Linda Royster retired from corporate life recently. Her educational journey started on Chicago's South Side where she graduated from Chicago Vocational High School and the Illinois Institute of Technology. After earning her PhD in Counseling Psychology, she returned to Illinois to work for notable companies such as Arthur Anderson, Trans Union Corporation, and United Parcel Service. Linda is a lifelong gardener, learner, and traveler. She now gardens in Gary, Indiana and travels across the world, spending most of her time exploring Asia.
Favorite Book: Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
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llouiseroyster@gmail.com
Rebecca Koetz
Executive Board Vice President
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Rebecca has long had a passion for ecological work, earning her Master’s in Forestry and Natural Sciences from Purdue University and now creating a litany of new urban farm programming in her role as Lake County Purdue Extension’s Urban Agriculture Educator. You will often find Rebecca holding her newborn daughter while leading farm tours, teaching elementary students how to garden and running a wide variety of urban farming workshops and projects.
Favorite Food: Mushroom saag
Favorite Food Podcast: Earth Eats
Food Systems Focus: Supporting local farmers
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busser@purdue.edu
Cheryl Dornberg
Executive Board Treasurer
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As a Culinary Nutrition Expert and Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, Cheryl is passionate about using the power of food to achieve optimal health and believes that a healthy lifestyle begins in the kitchen. Her focus is on empowering others to prepare more from-scratch meals at home and to seek out more locally-sourced, nutrient-dense ingredients.
Favorite Food: Sauteed Greens
Favorite Food Movie: The Biggest Little Farm
Food Systems Focus: Food Security and accessibility
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Alicia Pellegrino
Executive Board Secretary
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Alicia has a passion for environmental stewardship and community engagement. She has been involved through her professional and community leadership roles in developing and managing community-based programs, facilitating community engagement, and coordinating partners to achieve successful projects. In her current role at Shirley Heinze Land Trust, Alicia works alongside a diverse set of partners in both rural and urban communities to increase access to resources and further conservation initiatives. Alicia enjoys hiking the trails of northwest Indiana and trying new recipes and restaurants with her husband.
Favorite Food: Homemade pasta with sauce made of tomatoes from the garden
Favorite Food Book: To Boldly Grow
Food Systems Focus: Farmland Preservation and Land Access, Conservation Practices
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apellegrino@heinzetrust.org
Executive Board
Amber Zimmer
Executive Board Member
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Bio coming soon!
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amber@nwifoodcouncil.org
Major Rebecca Simmons
Executive Board Member
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Bio coming soon!
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Rebecca.Simmons@usc.salvationarmy.org
Matthew Wells
Executive Board Member
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As the Director of External Engagement and Partnerships for Purdue University NW, Matt has built his career on weaving together relationships and projects that build capacity and accelerate progress. He has a clear vision to build on burgeoning resources of Northern Indiana to create a farm-to-table ecosystem that benefits students and attracts families to the region for generations to come.
Favorite Food: Doro Wat
Favorite Food Book: Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Food Systems Focus: Economic development
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Wells84@pnw.edu
Nicole Weaver
Executive Board Member
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As a Northwest Indiana local, born and raised, Nicole has dedicated her career in social services to the betterment of the community, as a whole. Whether working in the classroom, daycares, or directly with families, Nicole has seen the benefits and ongoing need for access to robust and nutritious food systems. From her own love of locally grown food and curated meals to informing others on topics such as food insecurity and food deserts, Nicole is committed to the journey of strengthening our food system from the inside out.
Favorite Food: Grapes
Favorite Food Movie: Ratatouille
Food Systems Focus: Food Access
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nmweaver3@gmail.com
Gina Avila
Executive Board Member
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Gina is passionate about cultivating relationships and is excited to foster community connections for NWI Food Council. She is a Community Development Educator with Purdue Extension in Porter County. In her prior role, Associate Director, of NWI Area Health Education Center, she collaborated with community partners to create experiential opportunities to help provide readiness skills for health profession students soon entering the work field. Programming included training on food for health and well-being.
Favorite Food: Homemade Flautas
Favorite Food Book: Rotten
Food Systems Focus: Food justice
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ghavila@purdue.edu
Oliver Bhamani
Executive Board Member
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Bio coming soon!
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oliver.bhamani@gmail.com
Dr. Matthew Bauman
Executive Board Member
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Bio coming soon!
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mjbauman@pnw.edu
Lucero Donato Martinez
Executive Board Member
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Lucero is a seasoned culinary professional that has moved back to her birthplace in Gary, Indiana from Chicago. She’s closely worked with non-profit organizations to promote local small businesses. Lucero has always been an advocate for good food and feeding our kids a colorful plate. The agriculture oligopoly has made her focus on community sustainability, shop local, support the environment to establish a strong economy that services its people.
Favorite Food: Spicy Coconut Curry Anything and Chile Rellenos
Favorite Food Book: The Omnivore's Dilemma and Salt Fat Acid Heat
Food Systems Focus: A small community of people that aim for a sustainable environment, serving its community for future generations.
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aplateatthepark@gmail.com
Daryn Pobanz
Executive Board Member
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As the meatmonger for a 7th generation family farm called Jake’s Country Meats, Daryn travels all over NWI, Chicago and SW Michigan building connections and relationships with farmers, chefs and everyday customers. Daryn believes in the power of raising animals on pasture–that regenerative grazing practices are key to creating healthy animals, healthy people and a healthy environment.
Favorite Food: Cubano
Favorite Food Movie: Sacred Cow Documentary
Food Systems Focus: Regenerative Ag
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Staff
Anne Massie
Co-Executive Director
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Immediate Past Board Executive President.
Anne has a tenacious appetite for all things local food. From owning and operating her own diversified vegetable farm to leading significant non-profit work on food insecurity and farm viability, Anne has fully committed herself to changing our local food system as we know it.
Favorite Food: CabbageFavorite
Food Movie: Kiss the GroundFood Systems Focus: Policy
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info@nwifoodcouncil.org
Dominique Edwards
Equity & Engagement Coordinator
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It’s hard to capture all Dominique has done in the food systems world, from her MBA from DePaul University in Urban Planning to managing a successful community garden in Michigan City; from time directing Gary Urban Farming initiatives to leading community engagement for the City of South Bend. You’ll often find Dominique speaking about food insecurity, resilient urban planning and the history of racism in the food system locally, around that state and nationally as she works to shift the narrative around equity in food.
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dominique@nwifoodcouncil.org
Dr. Virginia Pleasant
Co-Executive Director
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Virginia loves food systems work so much, she earned her PhD studying it from Purdue University. From urban homesteading with her husband and 3 young children, to her role as Interim Director of Food Systems Initiatives at Purdue Northwest, Virginia has committed herself to dozens of initiatives for the council, the community and across the state. She works to weave networks along the food value chain — from farmers, to eaters, and all points in between to build capacity, collaboration, and community resilience.
Favorite Food: Tomatoes fresh off the vine
Favorite Food Book: Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience
Food Systems Focus: holistic systems, food justice
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virginia@nwifoodcouncil.org
Porchea McGuire
Equity & Engagement Coordinator
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Bio coming soon!
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porchea@nwifoodcouncil.org
Anna Martinez
Region Roots Hub Coordinator
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It all started with making small batch kombucha in her home, and next thing she knew Anna was bottling and boxing hundreds of jars of locally made “booch” in Gary, Indiana each week, supplying small businesses throughout NWI and eventually even opening her own cafe and kombucha bar in the Miller Beach neighborhood. Anna is deeply committed to improving healthy lifestyle options for families in NWI, and lifting up local food entrepreneurs in the process!.
Favorite Food: Seafood Tacos
Favorite Food Book: Anything by Dr. Perlmutter
Food Systems Focus: Food Security
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anna@nwifoodcouncil.org, info@regionroots.org
Allyssa McAley
Farm-to-Chef & Logistics Coordinator
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My love for food started at a very young age. I began working in the restaurant industry and attending culinary classes in high school. After moving to Chicago and experiencing shopping at farmer's markets I learned just how diverse real food actually is. I now live on a homestead of my own growing and preserving a large portion of my family's food and raising ducks and chickens for eggs. My passion now is cooking with seasonal whole foods either grown by myself or locally sourced,
Favorite Food: Anything Asian or Indian inspired
Favorite Food book: Ball Book of Canning and Preserving.
Food System Focus: Food security and supporting Local Farmers
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allyssa@nwifoodcouncil.org
Becca Tuholski
Local Food Access Coordinator
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Becca Tuholski has an undeniable passion for local food systems, resilient community building, and community education. From her time as an Agricultural Science Teacher at LaPorte High School, to her ongoing career as a beginning farmer alongside her husband on their farm (Tuholski Produce), to her current role as the Local Food Access Coordinator with the NWI Food Council—Becca is dedicated to strengthening our food system from the ground up.
Favorite Food: Homemade pizza with farm veggies!
Favorite Food Book: The Power of a Plant: A Teacher's Odyssey to Grow Healthy Minds and Schools
Food Systems Focus: Food justice, farm to institution
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becca@nwifoodcouncil.org
Veronica Jalomo
Farm to School Coordinator
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Having grown up as a child migrant farm worker, Veronica has a special connection to and understanding of the importance of equity in a food system that so often overlooks both the farmers and the food insecure. She currently leads farm-to-school initiatives in the northwest region of Indiana. She is one of the Indiana state leads for the Lake Michigan Food System Innovation Hub, a multi-state cooperative agreement to advance farm-to-school efforts. Veronica has cultivated a career in sustainable food systems serving vulnerable communities and underserved populations. She has been instrumental in creating community and urban gardening networks in both Lafayette and East Chicago, Indiana; as well as introducing and growing the Great Lakes Apple Crunch in secondary schools and after-school programs.
Favorite Food: Arroz con Pollo (Chicken and Rice)
Favorite Food Book: Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel)
Food Systems Focus: Food access/food security, food chain workers (rights and well-being
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Advisory Board Members
Nupur Aurora
Advisory Board Member
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Nupur was instrumental in the exponential growth of the Food Bank of NW Indiana, transforming the small non-profit into a highly functioning organization. She has an intense passion for feeding the community and addressing some of the toughest challenges of systemic poverty especially now in her role as Director of Finance & Operations at Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County.
Gabrielle Biciunas
Advisory Board Member (Founding)
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Gabrielle has been shaping the way our communities develop for the better for over several years as the Long Range Planner for the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission and now as Business Development Manager for Commonwealth Engineers. She’s always recognized food and farming as some of the most important pieces of successful, long range community planning built on equity and resilience.