Archives: People

Throughout his career, Jay has always committed his time to mission driven organizations dedicated to making positive change in underserved communities. Prior to joining Full Circle Fund, Jay was the Senior Vice President at buildOn, an international nonprofit working to break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy. In addition to overseeing buildOn’s fundraising goals, Jay managed the West Coast Office as well as the national operations team. As an innovative social sector thought leader, Jay has a long track record of programmatic impact and building innovative corporate philanthropy models to scale that ensure sustainable funding. Jay and his wife Chelsea live in Berkeley with their two year old son Cole and ten year old dog Coosa.

Rachel is co-founder and co-CEO of Amy’s Kitchen, the international food brand she started with her husband, Andy Berliner, over 27 years ago. Rachel’s creative vision and drive to innovate have always guided the work at Amy’s and fueled the company’s consistent double-digit growth.

Her passion for organic and natural foods began at an early age. Rachel’s parents were early-adopters to the urban homestead and organic food movements and, as early as the 1950’s, they were tilling up their suburban yard to grow their own pesticide-free carrots and lettuces. Rachel inherited her parents’ passion for organic food.

Rachel and Andy travel internationally every year and have freiends all over the world. From the beginning, their global travels have imbued Amy’s Kitchen foods with international flavors. Wherever she goes, Rachel is inquisitively looking for the best food, whether it’s from top restaurant chefs or humble home chefs. She follows her taste buds into their kitchens, in search of delicious recipes.

Lauren Singer is author of the Zero Waste blog Trash is for Tossers and founder of organic cleaning product company The Simply Co.

An Environmental Studies graduate from NYU and former Sustainability Manager at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, the amount of trash that she has produced over the past four years can fit inside of a 16 oz mason jar.

Through her blog, she has empowered millions of readers to produce less waste by shopping package free, making their own products, and refusing plastic and single use items.

Her work has been profiled by The New York Times, New York Magazine, MSNBC, NBC, AOL, CNN, Yahoo, Fox Business, BBC, and NPR amongst others.

Amy is an engagement manager and consultant at the Trium Group, a boutique management consulting firm in San Francisco, working with executives from the world’s top organizations to help “change the world by changing the way business leaders think.” She supports and teams who are undertaking critical initiatives at the intersection of strategy, culture, and leadership, with a particular emphasis on transformation at the individual leader level. Amy honed her ability to decipher and reconcile the needs of multiple stakeholders as an organizational transformation consultant working with large multinationals at Ernst & Young and Infosys Technologies.

Amy believes that strong, visionary leadership is the key to driving sustainable change, and she is thrilled to be working with the students from Turning Green. Amy holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a BA in Political Science, Economics, and Hispanic Studies from McGill University. Prior to her consulting career, Amy spent several years in the outdoor industry in rural Colorado and is passionate about taking care of the planet and all of its inhabitants. She stays grounded through her connection to the outdoors – hiking, running, snowboarding, climbing, and kite surfing – and exploring the world through adventures near and far.

Kari Hamerschalg has been challenging, changing and improving our food system for more than fifteen years. She is currently the deputy director of the food and technology program, based in Berkeley, California. Kari carries out research and implements market and policy campaigns aimed at reforming animal agriculture, protecting pollinators and promoting sustainable, fair, healthy and resilient food and farming systems. Prior to Friends of the Earth, Kari worked for five years as a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group where she focused on wide range of food and ag issues including the U.S. farm bill, GMOs, climate change, organic agriculture, food security and conservation policy. Kari has done extensive research on the links between food production and climate change and was the lead author of a comprehensive web-based Meateater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health, and numerous other blog posts, op-eds and reports. Prior to EWG, Kari worked for many years as a sustainable food policy and fair trade consultant. Kari began her career more than twenty years ago as an organizer, researcher and advocate for socially and environmentally sound development policy, focused in Latin America. Kari has a Masters from UC Berkeley in Latin American Studies and City and Regional Planning. She speaks Spanish, French and some Portuguese.

Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff is the Executive Director of 5 Gyres Institute, a nonprofit that fights ocean plastic pollution. Previously, Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff designed and executed marketing and development strategies for mission-driven brands and organizations through her company, Sugar Conscious Communications. She is the former Executive Director of the non-profit Healthy Child Healthy World who founded EcoStiletto and MommyGreenest.com and appeared as a sustainability expert on “The Today Show” and “CNN Headline News,” and at SXSW Eco and Natural Products Expo West, among others. Rachel is also the author of The Big List of Things That Suck and The Mommy Greenest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond.

Megan Farina is the Senior Communications Manager at Nutiva, an organic superfood company that makes coconut, hemp, chia, and red palm products. Nutiva is on a mission to Revolutionize the Way the World Eats, by building a healthy, just, sustainable food system. This means starting with organic, non-GMO farming— done without chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
Nutiva donates 1% of sales (more than $3 million to date), to support sustainable agricultural programs — everything from food advocacy organizations to urban gardens.

Megan’s early struggle with health issues and food allergies sparked a passion for cooking, nutrition, alternative medicine, and mindfulness practices. She reclaimed her health through eating clean, organic, unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods. Megan studied English Literature and is an avid writer and reader. Her love of story combined with the deeply held belief that healthy food has the power to heal, brought her to Nutiva. Her role involves educating and empowering consumers on key issues like the benefits of organics, GMO labeling, the legalization of industrial hemp in the U.S., and the difference between sustainable palm oil and conflict palm oil. Megan believes that we all must participate in reclaiming our food system because the future of our planet depends on it.

Jenny was born and raised in the East Bay and attended Claremont McKenna College and Washington University in St. Louis, studying Economics and Engineering. She spent some years interning with Turning Green and in 2015, she was a Project Green Challenge Finalist. Jenny isn’t a same old same old kind of person and is known by her friends to be a seeker of new meaningful experiences; you will always find her doing something that fills her with joy. She’s a professional at sparking connections and currently works as a product manager at a tech startup.