Maureen loves food -- thinking about food, growing food, eating food, cooking food, and, of course, buying local food at LEAP's famers markets. Maureen has been working with food, agriculture, and community since the early 2000s. Her work and professional experience is wide-ranging and includes teaching high school agriculture in Raleigh, NC, working with migrant farmworkers in eastern North Carolina and in the Colorado plains, doing food safety inspections in Boulder, CO, and studying the economic viability of the local food system in Northern Colorado. Maureen has an MA in Anthropology from Colorado State University and undergraduate degrees in Agriculture Education, Spanish, and Anthropology from North Carolina State University. Maureen is a Bloomberg Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health where she studies the intersection of food systems, community, and health. Maureen, her spouse, two young kids, and pup all love Roanoke and are happy to call Southwestern Virginia home.

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Jeff Bland, known as Chef Jeff around Roanoke, has been involved in the food industry for over 40 years. As a graduate of Johnson & Wales University, he gained a solid foundation of culinary fundamentals. After finishing school in 1987, his real education began, in Providence, Orlando, Williamsburg and, most recently, Roanoke, where he served 13 years as a corporate chef for a national food distributor. He has helped many people open restaurants and knows the challenges they face. Jeff is a passionate educator and advocate for the culinary arts and local food.

Elizabeth Borst has been a leader in food access programs and food system partnerships in Virginia for 14 years. As one of the state’s early nutrition incentive practitioners, Elizabeth helped develop Virginia Fresh Match, Virginia’s statewide Nutrition Incentive Network, working alongside Maureen McNamara Best at LEAP. She is also founder of Virginia Community Food Connections (VCFC), a Fredericksburg-based local food nonprofit that connects people, producers, and communities to increase consumption of healthy, Virginia-Grown fruits and vegetables. Elizabeth has started and managed farmers markets, piloted innovative food access programs and partnerships, and is passionate about connecting vulnerable people and available local produce to improve community food security and support family farms. Elizabeth has a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives in Spotsylvania, VA, with her husband, and enjoys occasional visits with her 2 adult daughters. In her free time, Elizabeth likes to cook, repurpose old things, and travel, especially to the NC coast.

Originally from Charleston, SC, Kyra grew up in a large southern and Greek family, where food was a way of life. Kyra first moved to Virginia in 2008 to attend Virginia Tech, from which she earned a B.S. in Wood Science and Forest Products. She has called Roanoke home since 2014. Kyra has most recently worked as a hardware design engineer, but also has experience in technical sales, and customer service. As someone interested in and passionate about sustainability, Kyra has been working on a personal level to break away from conventional agriculture. Her research into local, regional, and sustainable food systems lead her to LEAP. Kyra’s hobbies include experimenting with new recipes, spending time outside with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs, and helping as many people as she can access quality, locally sourced food.

Ashley is a recent graduate of Roanoke College where she studied Environmental Science and Public Health. Food and farms are important to her as she grew up visiting her family’s farm. The interaction between sustainable agriculture and food access is one of her main interests. One of her favorite parts of the job is thinking about systemwide changes that have impacts on our local community. As she is a people person, one of the main highlights of the job for her is working with others. She loves to cook, garden, and spend as much time as she possibly can outdoors. In the future, she hopes to operate a small farm. She has three cats and takes care of her grandmother.

Amelia Empson grew up in Bedford County and the New River Valley. As a child, she attended the Hale Community Garden in Blacksburg and enjoyed meeting and gardening with folks from all over the world. She spent her teens and early adulthood farming and landscaping in Montgomery County and the surrounding areas. Market farming helped her develop her passion for food and the community that grows up around food. It also nurtured a deeper understanding of agriculture’s effects on the earth, animals, and people. She has always had a passion for growing plants and fostering space for life to exist, and found her way to LEAP after working as a vendor at West End Farmers Market. In her spare time, find Amelia writing and playing original music, painting, making pottery, cooking, hiking, foraging and fishing with her partner, Jeremiah, and her dog, Katie.

Cameron was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but has lived in southwest Virginia for most of his life -- in Botetourt, Bedford, Montgomery, and Floyd. He moved to Roanoke with his partner, Kayla, 10 years ago to be closer to friends and to his job in the downtown restaurant industry. Growing up, he spent a lot of time outside. Cameron's parents often took him hiking and camping which instilled in him a love for nature and the outdoors that continues today. His dream is to one day live a homesteading lifestyle, growing most of his own food and living sustainably. He is currently a caretaker to his disabled partner and likes to spend his free time with her and their three cats, cooking, listening to music, playing guitar, reading, woodworking, being with friends, and gardening both in raised garden beds and indoor controlled climates. He is very excited to be involved with the community and to be a part of LEAP!

When Sam graduated college, he didn’t know how to cook a pot of rice. He was an adult by the time he realized that an onion is a root. In the decade following his formal education, he has learned a lot about food. Sam has worked as a baker, line cook, commercial farmer, market manager, farm volunteer, food writer, and as a board member and director of an Arkansas-based local foods nonprofit. He loves food for its tangible nature and believes in it as the ultimate unifier in polarizing times. He loves hearing about people’s personal histories with food and agriculture and is interested in the long tradition of agriculture in Virginia. When he isn’t trying to discover a new way to eat eggplant, Sam enjoys camping with his wife and dog and watching movies at The Grandin Theatre.

Lindsey first came to the area to attend Roanoke College, but spent much of her time after college traveling, spending time in California, Oregon, and Colorado. Though she started in the restaurant industry during college, it wasn’t until after she had finished a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail that she decided to enter the culinary world in Denver. After spending 10 years in kitchens from Colorado to Peru, she found herself looking for a new challenge. Working with local farmers at various restaurants, as well as being an avid gardener herself, led her towards finding ways to support a local food network. When not working at LEAP she assists several local small businesses, runs a hobby farm meetup group, and enjoys a really good tomato sandwich.

Connie grew up in Bedford County and has lived in the Roanoke Valley for 35 years. Connie now lives in Botetourt County with her lovely family. Her daughter has many food sensitivities and Connie’s search for solutions brought her to the local food market. Soon, this search turned in to a love and appreciation for local food suppliers and market outlets in the Roanoke and surrounding areas. She is a proud promoter of the benefits of local and healthy food. After many years of buying local food, Connie started working for Good Food Good People, a Floyd-based former LEAP vendor and distributor of local products. She now serves as the smiling face of LEAP's Grandin Village and West End farmers markets, as well as coodinating and supporting LEAP's Mobile Market.

Kelly grew up in northern Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.S. in Rural Sociology. Her main passions are travel, food, and farming. After graduating, she backpacked through Europe for three months. Upon returning, she worked in restaurants until being accepted as an intern on an educational farm run by Heifer International in Massachusetts. There she fell in love with farming, teaching, and her now husband, Daniel. After two years of apprenticing on a farm in California, Kelly and Daniel moved back to Daniel’s hometown of Roanoke to figure out their next move and never left! When Kelly isn’t at work, she is typically working on her small farm, lovingly called Truffula Farm, in SE Roanoke, with her husband and daughter.

A Roanoke native, Shawn has always had a deep love for the communities in Roanoke and a deeper love for community agriculture. To further this passion for farming, he has volunteered for a month on an organic farm in Greece, is involved with communities such as Star City Compost/The Harvest Collective, and is a current student majoring in Environmental Science. Shawn loves to hike, kayak, play cribbage, take care of numerous houseplants, meditate, and jam out to all kinds of music. Shawn feels especially connected to local foods, as they connect him to the people who have grown it and the ground it was grown in.

Maureen (Mo) McGonagle was born in Arlington, VA, and spent 13 years living and working in the New River Valley. Through her combined experiences working on a small-scale vegetable farm, working with local food access initiatives through the Blacksburg Farmers Market, and working with community gardens through the New River Health District, Maureen has cultivated a deep passion for alternative food systems as a mechanism for environmental and social sustainability. As a graduate from Virginia Tech with both a B.A. in Humanities, Science, and the Environment, and a M.S. in Agriculture, Leadership, and Community Education, Maureen is excited to harness her academic understanding of global food systems, and apply it in a local and regional context. In her free time, Maureen enjoys gardening, cooking, hiking with her dog, running, meditation, and playing music.

Christina has worked as a journalist and food writer in North Carolina, Atlanta, and Boston. She landed in Roanoke in 2006, where her need to feed her growing family in a nutritious and sustainable way sparked a love of local food that has not waned. Christina, her husband, and their three kids sold lettuce and herbs at the Grandin Village Farmers Market during the market’s first summer. She served on LEAP’s Board from 2018-2020. Since 2021, she has enjoyed sharing the story of LEAP as widely as possible.

Ned Savage grew up in the Roanoke Valley and, since receiving a Bachelor’s degree in History, has lived and worked all over the country and the world, as a teacher, political organizer, travel writer, whitewater rafting guide, fine artist and muralist, bartender, cook, tour guide, event coordinator, and farmer. Since returning to Appalachia more than a decade ago, he has managed various programs in the nonprofit sector, working in grassroots neighborhood development, heritage tourism, and has held various roles within LEAP since 2016. Ned dedicates much of his time to restoring his family’s 200-year-old log cabin and regenerating the surrounding farmland. His farm, Savage Acres, is also a campground and event space, and specializes in maple syrup, medicinal herbs and teas, mushrooms, produce, and various value-added food and health products. He’s a volunteer firefighter, officer of elections, and board member of the public library, and lives and farms with his partner Alexis and their dog Abita.

Andrea grew up on a small farm in Connecticut, where her father and his seven brothers raised vegetables for their families and to sell at farm stands and a farmers market. Andrea’s work background is in university administration and teaching English as a second language to adults in the Northern Virginia area. After moving to Salem in 2020, Andrea volunteered for several community groups, including the Roanoke Local Office on Aging where she became a Certified Medicare Counselor. She holds a BS in Spanish from Georgetown University, an MA in English Linguistics from George Mason University, a doctorate in Education from George Washington University, and most recently, a Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics and Revenue Management.

Although she received her degree in agronomy, Frances spent the bulk of her career in graphic design and advertising where she worked as a project manager. She first took an interest in LEAP as a member of the Roanoke Women’s Foundation back in 2014 when LEAP was raising money to build the LEAP Kitchen. A few years ago Frances started a microbusiness making mobiles (Fulcrum Mobiles) and now applies her balancing skills to LEAP’s books.