Minnesota Food Association is overseen by a community Board of Directors. The Board aims to represent the broad spectrum of the food system; from farmers and chefs to educators, policy makers and administrators.

Board of Directors

Joel Barker (Chair)
Joel is a philanthropic advisor who works in development and communications. He is President of Backpack Tactics LLC.

Linda Halley (Vice-Chair)
Linda enjoys being an author and educator on wide ranging farm topics, but first and foremost she is a certified organic farmer. Currently she manages Gardens of Eagan, a 100 acre vegetable farm, and is the President of the Board of The Organic Field School, a non-profit developing educated food citizens and organic farmers.

Leslie Reindl (Secretary)
Leslie is a retired trade/technical book editor and a part-time gardener/farmer.  She has been a small-farm advocate since the 1980s, and was on the board of MFA during the time of Ken Taylor's leadership

Bjorn Gangeness (Treasurer)
Bjorn has an M.S. in Environmental Policy with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture. He is a Policy and Research Analyst at District Energy in St. Paul, MN.

Daniel Tilsen
Dan is an Independent Consultant in Civil Engineering. He specializes in natural resource and recreational land planning design and construction projects from large to small.

William (Bill) Hunt
Bill is the retired State Conservationist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Minnesota. He has over 35 years experience in the USDA.

LaDonna Redmond
LaDonna is a Senior Program Associate at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in the Food and Justice program. She worked successfully to get Chicago Public Schools to evaluate junk food, launched urban agriculture projects, started a community grocery store and worked on federal farm policy to expand access to healthy food in low-income communities. In 2009, Redmond was one of 25 citizen and business leaders named a Responsibility Pioneer by Time Magazine. LaDonna was a 2003-2005 IATP Food and Society Fellow.  

Palee Yang
Palee is the Assistant Farm Program Coordinator for the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota. She has her degree in Nursing and Healthcare and is a Certified Nursing Assistant. She works with farmers and the larger Southeast Asian Community on food and health.