Staff
Our team comes from a wide variety of backgrounds, bringing a diverse blend of expertise and experience in food business strategy and sustainability, finance, data analytics, culinary arts, research, agricultural development, and communications. Meet the people who make our work possible.
Dana Gunders
Executive Director
Dana Gunders serves as ReFED’s Executive Director. Dana is a national expert on food waste and one of the first to bring to light just how much food is lost throughout the food system. For almost a decade, she was a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). She then launched Next Course, LLC to strategically advise on the topic. Some of her career highlights include authoring the landmark Wasted report and Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook, launching the Save the Food campaign with the Ad Council, testifying in Congress, consulting to Google, appearing on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and being a founding Board Member of ReFED.
Alexandria Coari
VP of Capital, Innovation, & Engagement
Alexandria (Alex) serves as ReFED’s VP of Capital, Innovation, & Engagement, working to catalyze the more than $140 billion of public, private, and philanthropic capital needed to scale innovation and accelerate the adoption of solutions to food waste by 2030. She brings 12 years of investment banking, sustainable food supply chain, and innovation acceleration experience with startups, for-profits and nonprofits in the U.S. and Latin America, including time at JP Morgan, Fair Trade USA, OLLY, and Agora Partnerships. She is passionate about helping mission-driven companies grow their impact and believes in the power of market-based approaches to solving today's biggest challenges.
Angel Veza
Capital, Innovation, & Engagement, Senior Manager
Angel Veza serves as ReFED's Senior Manager of Capital, Innovation, & Engagement, working to catalyze adoption of top food waste solutions. She originally worked in the education field teaching underserved communities. After working with students for 7 years, Angel received her Grade Diplome at the French Culinary Institute and worked through New York City’s top restaurants including Morimoto and two-Michelin starred Atera and with foodservice companies like Compass Group. During that time, she witnessed the significant amount of food being wasted in the hospitality industry and decided to work with the Food Waste team at World Wildlife Fund. As an expansion of that, she worked in supply chain and led strategic sourcing and procurement with a focus on food waste reduction at Manahtta Restaurant, part of Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group in NYC.
Alejandro Enamorado
Capital, Innovation, & Engagement Manager
Alejandro serves as ReFED’s Capital, Innovation, & Engagement Manager, working to spur investment in the food waste sector. In his position, he works to contribute to the Insights Engine and build relationships with solution providers. He brings six years of technology investment banking, equity research and sales, and trading experience, including time at TD Securities, CI Investments, and RBC Capital Markets.
Lily Herd
Capital, Innovation, & Engagement Manager
Lily Herd (she/her) serves as ReFED's Capital, Innovation, & Engagement Manager. She works closely with ReFED's extended network of stakeholders to collaborate and share insights on food waste reduction strategies and to scale impact. Before joining ReFED, she worked in the agricultural and nonprofit healthcare sectors. She is passionate about food security, climate change mitigation through regenerative agriculture, and increasing equity and inclusion within the food system. Lily holds a Master's of Science in Food Security from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland as well as a Bachelor's in Psychology and Anthropology from the University of Oregon.
Jackie Suggitt
Stakeholder Engagement Director
Jackie serves as ReFED’s Stakeholder Engagement Director. In her position, she builds REFED’s diverse multi-sector network, manages external partnerships, and leads planning for the annual Food Waste Summit. Before joining ReFED, Jackie worked as Senior Manager of Sustainability at Walmart where she led a number of sustainable food and nutrition programs for Walmart’s global and private brand business.
Jeffrey Costantino
Communications Director
Jeffrey Costantino serves as Communications Director, helping ReFED connect to its key audiences with engaging and actionable content. Previously, he oversaw communications and marketing at the Western Union Foundation, which works to empower refugees and other migrants with education and workforce training. He also served as Managing Director for Marketing at Truth Initiative, a national public health nonprofit promoting tobacco-free lives.
Vanessa Mukhebi
Communications Manager
Vanessa Mukhebi serves as the Communications Manager at ReFED, supporting communications execution and strategy across the organization. Before joining ReFED, Vanessa worked in the international NGO sector, creating multimedia content for and facilitated inclusive interventions that promote improved nutrition, climate-smart-agriculture, gender equity, and poverty alleviation across sub-Saharan Africa. She is passionate about indigenous food systems and cultural dimensions of food security. Vanessa holds a Master's of Art in Anthropology (Food) from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor's in Media and Communication, Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Sydney in Australia.
Shawn Shepherd
Development Director
Shawn Shepherd serves as ReFED’s Director of Development, working to bring philanthropic support to our mission of eliminating food waste. She has a more than 30-year career leading nonprofit organizations and advancement offices in institutional settings. She has worked in the food system space as a national staff member with the American Farmland Trust, and has served on several regional boards addressing food insecurity. Recognized as a leader in environmental issues in her home states of Texas, New Mexico, and Idaho, her passion for addressing the existential crisis of our time – climate change – is what drives her work with ReFED.
Katy Franklin
Operations Director
Katy Franklin serves as ReFED’s Operations Director, supporting organizational development and strategy and designing systems for effective program implementation and management. Previously, Katy managed operations at Sustainable America, where she gained a deep understanding of successful food waste reduction programs with consumers, food service providers, private firms, and at major events. Katy has authored industry and academic research on food waste and opportunities to solve this global challenge. Katy also helped develop Further with Food, a public-private partnership convened to address food loss and waste.
Key Emeritus Team Members
In addition to our current team, ReFED would not be where it is today without the hard work and vision of the following individuals
Board of Directors
Our Board is comprised of leaders in the business, technology, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors who inform the organization’s strategic initiatives, offer technical expertise, and collectively provide a holistic analysis of the challenges and opportunities for food waste reduction.
Nicola Dixon
Chair, ReFED Board of Directors
Executive Director, General Mills Foundation
Eduardo Romero
Secretary, ReFED Board of Directors
President and CEO, Hana Group
Steve Swartz
Treasurer, ReFED Board of Directors
Chief Strategy Officer, The Wonderful Company
Jesse Fink
Non-Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, MissionPoint Partners
Trustee, Fink Family Foundation
Stacey Greene-Koehnke
Chief Operations Officer, Atlanta Community Food Bank
Emily Ma
Head, Food for Good, Google
Charles C. Savitt
Director of Strategic Client Relationships, Sher Edling LLP
Trustee and Treasurer, The Windward Fund
Yalmaz Sidiqqui
Vice President Corporate Sustainability, MGM Resorts International
Board & Steering Committee Emeritus
Rob Kaplan
Founder and CEO
Circulate Capital
Devon Klatell
Managing Director, Food Initiative
The Rockefeller Foundation
Advisory Council
ReFED’s strength has long rested in the power of the people who surround, advise, and contribute to our work. The Advisory Council is a group of thought leaders helping to provide expert input to ReFED’s priority programs and long-term strategy.
John Dannan
Principal, Generate Capital
Dr. Jonathan Foley
Executive Director, Project Drawdown
Elise Golan
Director for Sustainable Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Dr. Liz Goodwin, OBE
Senior Fellow and Director, Food Loss and Waste, World Resources Institute
Milen Mahadevan
Chief Operating Officer, 84.51°
Ami McReynolds
Chief Equity and Programs Officer, Feeding America
Tejal Mody
Managing Director, Rabobank
Susan Robinson
Senior Director of Sustainability, Waste Management
Ryan Shadrick Wilson
Founder, Boardwalk Collective LLC
Andrew Shakman
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, LeanPath
Expert Network
The ReFED Expert Network is a group of over 100 experts who share their knowledge and time on key projects at ReFED, as well as connect with, teach, and learn from their Expert Network peers. Experts bring perspectives from all parts of the food system and a diverse set of backgrounds. Together, they are influencing and strengthening impactful food waste reduction work in pursuit of our shared goal: a 50% reduction in food waste by the year 2030.
Become or Nominate a ParticipantLee Anderson
Director, Global Issues Management & Public Affairs, General Mills
Kari Armbruster
Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Manager, The Kroger Co.
Ricky Ashenfelter
CEO & Co-Founder, Spoiler Alert
Greg Baker
Executive Director, Center for Food Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Santa Clara University
Liz Baldridge
Interim Managing Director, Manufacturing Food Industry Partnerships, Feeding America
JoAnne Berkenkamp
Managing Director, MBOLD Coalition
Dylan Bondy
Director of Outreach, Imperfect Foods
Hunt Briggs
Senior Consultant, RRS
Kelly Bryan
Manager, Sustainability, Village Capital
Jean Buzby
USDA Food Loss and Waste Liaison, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Kathleen Cacciola
Vice President, Enterprise Sustainability, Aramark
Jill Conklin
Strategic Development Officer, Food for Soul
Erin Connor
Manager, Cisco Crisis Respone, Cisco
Christy Cook
VP Customer Success, Leanpath
Megan Cornish
VP External, FoodMaven
Claire Cummings
Waste Programs Manager, Bon Appetit Management Company
Steve Dietz
Vice-President of Development, Food Donation Connection
Nicola Dixon
Executive Director, General Mills Foundation; and Director, Global Philanthropy & Employee Engagement, General Mills
Josh Domingues
FlashFood
Claudia Fabiano
Environmental Protection Specialist, Sustainable Management of Food, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Jesse Fink
Chairman, MissionPoint Partners
Steve Finn
Vice President of Food Waste Prevention (Leanpath), Affiliated Faculty (UPenn), Leanpath
Hannah Friedman
Investment Associate, Closed Loop Partners
Nell Fry
Senior Manager, Sodexo
Nora Goldstein
Editor, BioCycle
Ben Gray
Chief Operating Officer, Upcycled Food Association
Andy Harig
Vice President - Tax, Trade, Sustainability & Policy Development, FMI
Dan Holladay
Food & Ag. Public-Private-Partnership Consultant, University of California ANR - The Vine
Darby Hoover
Senior Resource Specialist, Natural Resources Defense Council
Lisa Johnson
Independent Consultant and Adjunct Assistant Professor, LKJ Consulting and North Carolina State University
Danielle Joseph
Executive Director, Closed Loop Partners
Shannon Kenny
Senior Advisor for Food Loss and Food Waste, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Hannah Koski
Head of Sustainability and Social Impact, Blue Apron
Emily Broad Leib
Faculty Director, Harvard Law School, Food Law and Policy Clinic
Brian Lipinski
Associate, Food Program, World Resources Institute
Lorenzo Macaluso
Director, Green Business Services
Darby Molloy
Registered Dietitian, UChicago Medicine
Mary Muth
Director, Food, Nutrition, & Obesity Policy Research, RTI International
Roni Neff
Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for a Livable Future
Tom O'Donnell
Sustainability Coordinator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (NAHE) and Cabrini University
Denise Osterheus
Sr Director, Corporate Affairs, President of The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation, The Kroger Co.
Sunny Reelhorn Parr
Executive Director, The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation
Dan Plechaty
Program Manager, Global Intelligence, ClimateWorks Foundation
Ida Posner
Strategic Advisor, Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh
Bill Reighard
President, Food Donation Connection LLC
Darcie Renn
Director of Sustainability, Albertsons Companies
Dawn Rhodes
Program Lead - Sustainability, Chick-fil-A, Inc.
Kai Robertson
Lead Advisor, FLW Protocol, World Resources Institute
Brian Roe
Professor, Ohio State University
Jess Rosen
Closed Loop Partners
Andrea Schnitzer
Senior Environmental Scientist, ERG, Inc.
Matt Schwartz
Co-Founder & CEO, Afresh Technologies
Andrew Shakman
Co-Founder & CEO, Leanpath
Sueli Shaw
Head of Social Impact, DoorDash
Ned Spang
Assistant Professor, UC Davis
Elizabeth Washburn Surti
Senior Principal, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
Anna Vinogradova
Sustainability Director, Walmart
Turner Wyatt
CEO, Upcycled Food Association
Jeff Yorzyk
Director of Sustainability, HelloFresh US
ReFED's work is made possible with generous support from and in partnership with our funders.