Ms. Laufer-Rottman is the founder of Palms for Life Fund and CFFF. She is a former employee of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) where she worked for almost 30 years in several senior positions. She has traveled extensively in developing countries and has had first-hand experience dealing with impoverished communities. She has managed anti-poverty projects, large feeding programs, and humanitarian operations in Burkina Faso, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Nicaragua. Her experience includes school feeding programs, vulnerable groups’ projects, advancement of women, rural development and assets creation.

Jennifer Schiff Berg graduated from the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University with a master's degree in Food Service Management in 1996 and a PhD in Food Studies in 2006. She has taught numerous courses in the Department since 1990 and now serves as the director for the Graduate Program in Food Studies.

With a focus on the intersection of food, culture, and identity, she conducts her own research on Jewish American foodways.

Berg serves as the treasurer for the Association for the Study of Food and Society, an international organization dedicated to an interdisciplinary discourse on the role of food in culture and society and advisory board member for the American Institute of Wine and Food. She co-chair Days of Taste, a yearly farm-to-table program for 2000 New York City public school students. She is a certified Greenmarket tour guide and tour market trainer for the New York City Council on the Environment.

William (Bill) Yosses, held the title of White House Executive Pastry Chef for 7 years from 2007 to 2014. Other pastry chef experience includes Bouley Restaurant in New York City and The Dressing Room in Westport Connecticut, owned by the late actor/philanthropist Paul Newman. As pastry chef of the White House he planned desserts for the First Family and their guests, from breakfast meetings to State Dinners, over the span of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. While at the White House he worked closely with Michelle Obama and her Let's Move initiative to improve health outcomes related to food issues and was responsible for managing the First Lady's South Lawn garden.

Bill teaches a baking and pastry course at Boston University, and works on the pastry team at the 2 Michelin Star, Blue Hill Restaurant at Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Tarrytown NY.

He has published three books, The Sweet Spot, Perfect Finish, and Desserts for Dummies.

Caroline Schiff is a NYC born pastry chef, recipe developer, writer and cookbook author with a passion for nostalgic desserts, whimsical layer cakes, rustic sourdough loaves and the Jewish baked goods and sweets of her Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. With almost 14 years of industry experience, Caroline is currently the Executive Pastry Chef at Gage & Tollner; the historic oyster and chop house in Downtown Brooklyn. She also serves as the Executive Chef at Slow Up. Her first cookbook, The Sweet Side of Sourdough, out Fall 2021 with Page Street Publishing, explores all the delicious, sweet things one can do with their sourdough starter, from sticky buns and doughnuts, to cakes and cookies. Caroline Schiff is a long-time resident of historic Fort Greene, Brooklyn

Abena Anim-Somuah is a James-Beard award-winning entrepreneur, writer, and podcast host.

She is also the Founder of The Eden Place, a company whose mission is to use food to harness community. Abena is also the host of The Future of Food is You, a Cherrybombe Podcast Network show where she interviews emerging talent in the food world.

Additionally, Abena writes her newsletter, Your Friend in Food, where she shares her musings on all things culinary. She's also written for publications like Food & Wine, Synonym Magazine, and Food and Beverage Insider. When she’s not cooking up ways to expand the Eden universe, you can find Abena reading a good book, travelling, playing tennis, spending time with her loved ones and taking long walks around her Brooklyn or Mexico City neighbourhoods (making frequent stops for pastries).

Michael Indjeian is an Emmy-winning Producer and Emmy-nominated Director with 5 total Emmy nominations. Michael is known for producing the feature film, FOLLOW HER, line producing the Nick Jonas film, THE GOOD HALF, and producing (NYC Unit) the doc series, QUEER FOR FEAR: THE HISTORY OF QUEER HORROR. His work also includes producing (60 episodes) and directing (10 episodes) the 2-time Emmy-winning PBS travel show, SAMANTHA BROWN’S PLACES TO LOVE, serving as UPM (USA Unit) for the Harvey Keitel film, CHOSEN, and writing/directing/producing the LIIFE-winning short, LUCKY DAY.

In the advertising arena, Michael has achieved over 80+ awards, producing and directing over 800 projects that include HBO, AMC, FOX, USA, Discovery, Sony, Hertz, Gap, Pepsi, Avon and Super Bowl XLVIII. Michael is also a member of the Producers Guild of America and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Adam Kaye is the Co-Founder and Chief Culinary Officer of The Spare Food Co., a food and supply-chain innovation platform for upcycled foods and drinks crafted from overlooked ingredients. Over two decades as chef and culinary director at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a restaurant at the forefront of the next food movement, sited on a working farm, Adam developed a unique understanding of the ways we can affect systemic change in our food system. His chef-driven culinary approach is the special sauce that drives the creation of new food solutions that live at the intersection of real ingredients, better agricultural practices, and human and environmental health.

Joanna is a creative executive who specializes in connecting Content with Commerce. She has put her expertise to work for brands including Rachael Ray, Chamberlain Coffee, Tastemade, Food Network, VOGUE, MTV, L’OREAL, Pepsi, Budweiser and many more.

Her role co-creating viral sensation Tiny Kitchen and trailblazing social content best practices while scaling Tastemade’s studio production from 3 shows / year to more than 3 shows / day earned her Webby and Streamy Award accolades.

She currently works as an independent consultant helping brands connect and scale their omni-channel marketing, content production and e-commerce operations. She has yet to meet a pasta she doesn't like.

Ben Flanner is co-founder and CEO of Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm. Ben’s early days gardening began at a young age, alongside his mother in their Wisconsin backyard. After earning his BS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Ben moved to New York City, where he began a promising career in management consulting and financial marketing, notably at E*Trade Financial. But his desire to engage more with community than numbers–and more parts of his body than his brain–drew him to the world of food and farming.

He is widely considered a pioneer for his groundbreaking model, which adapts existing green roof technology to intensively cultivate vegetables, beginning with Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, a pilot project on a 6,000 square foot Brooklyn roof, which Ben co-founded in 2009.

When he’s not meeting with soil scientists to develop a better growing mix or tinkering with a fussy irrigation pump, Ben can be found whipping up a batch of his homemade bitters, or lacto-fermenting whatever is in season at his home in Brooklyn.

Sylvia Caminer is an Emmy Award-winning director and producer. She received more than 15 top awards at film festivals worldwide for her narrative feature directorial debut, FOLLOW HER (2023). She previously directed the documentaries, AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART (2012), about Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Rick Springfield; TANZANIA: A JOURNEY WITHIN (2011), an odyssey that explores beauty and suffering in East Africa; and the Daytime Emmy-winning travel show, SAMANTHA BROWN’S PLACES TO LOVE (2018-present). She has also produced more than fifteen independent features including the Harvey Keitel WWII film, CHOSEN, and THE DELI, BLUE MOON, LOVE N’ DANCING, GRACE and BREAKING POINT. Her production company, DolGer Films, is actively developing several projects for Sylvia to direct including a screenplay based on the U.K. sci-fi time travel novel, AND THEN SHE VANISHED, which is Book 1 of a 7 book series.

Matt is a commercial editor and filmmaker passionate about telling meaningful stories. Throughout his 20 years in the industry, he's worked for brands such as Vail Resorts, Gatorade, Timberland, The North Face, Uber, and more. His films have played in theaters internationally and garnered awards from film festivals across the country. The stories span a range of topics from inclusivity in the ski industry, to regenerative agriculture, drug addiction, fly fishing, competitive "e-sports" (video games) and beyond. He's a father to 3 young kids, a husband, a dog walker, cat sitter, cyclist, and outdoor enthusiast.

Duffy Higgins is an international, award-winning director, producer, cinematographer and photographer, splitting his time between his hometown of Miami, FL and NYC. Between commercials, brand films, music videos, documentaries and narrative short films, his approach to storytelling is an intimate and visual affair. Whether from behind a monitor or clutching the camera himself, he crafts storylines so an audience can connect to a sentiment and ultimately evoke an option. He started A76 Productions in '06, a full service independent production company and has gone on to produce & direct over 100 commercial pieces. Non-commercial credits include La Prochaine Fois, Brooklyn Basketball, Mow Crew, and most recently Sunday Shots. He travels the seasons in a vintage Ford Bronco with his dog T.

Sari Kamin is the Manager of Public Programs and Events for the James Beard Foundation at Pier 57, where she curates dinners, classes, demonstrations, and talks with the leading chefs, cookbook authors, and culinary experts in the United States. Previously, she was the Director of Public Programs at MOFAD, The Museum of Food and Drink. Before joining MOFAD, she was the Senior Publicity Manager of Culinary and Lifestyle at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and was the co-host of the food and beverage podcast “The Morning After” and the creator and host of “Food Without Borders” on Heritage Radio Network. Her writing has appeared in Saveur, Food52, Plate, Extra Crispy, Tasting Table, AFAR, Food & Wine, The Huffington Post, Edible Manhattan, NBC News, and more. She was the co-leader of TENT: Food NYC, a week of immersive Jewish food programming in New York City, and was a researcher and writer for the USA Pavilion at Expo Milano 2015. Sari holds a master’s degree in food studies from New York University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Patrick, their 2-year-old son, Noah, and their grumpy dog, Max.

Born in Tehran 1981. Gelareh is a Canadian-Iranian based between NYC and Toronto who has worked in Iran’s film and documentary industry for 12years as well as covering stories in Afghanistan Turkey. In 2016, she became Iran’s first female DoP for a fiction feature film, post 79 revolution. Initially beginning her career as a photographer, she also held exhibitions and had her photos for Kiarostami’s film Shirin published internationally as well as being exhibited in Arles Photography Festival.

In the past decade her freelance career as DoP/ Director / Doc Producer took shape. Her works include two feature documentaries directed and filmed for ARTE Germany : A GOAL FOR FREEDOM (KABUL) / DEATH OF DAPHNE (MALTA, four feature films filmed across Iran, Germany and China: PADIDEH / “VAHSHI” / TALE OF POMEGRANATES / KREUZBERG with many documentaries produced and filmed for VICE that brought in 2 News Emmys for her last work in Afghanistan in 2021.

In 2019 her Canadian production company SEETO PRODUCTIONS INC. was founded bringing in other clients such as the History channel, PBS, Al Jazeera and HBO.

Bettina Luescher has been serving as WFP’s Chief Spokesperson in Berlin since 2018, after having worked for 3 years in Geneva, 9 years in New York, and more than 2 years in Berlin for the World Food Programme. She is retiring from WFP at the end of October. Before joining the UN, Luescher worked for 15 years as a TV anchor, reporter and field producer for CNN and CNN International based in Atlanta, Frankfurt and Berlin.

David Joslyn, now retired, had a 45-year career in international development with USAID, Peace Corps, The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, The World Food Program, and private sector consulting firms. He was the US government liaison with the World Food Program in Rome, and subsequently the Director of Food For Peace. He now divides his time between his homes in Virginia and Chile. Since 2010, David has been writing about Chile and Chileans, often based upon his experience with the Peace Corps in Chile and his many travels throughout that country.

Retired UN Director, adjunct professor and now consulting. Over 30 years with the World Food Programme - the largest UN humanitarian organization - of which 12 years in a Director position and over 15 years in Africa leading large and multi-skilled teams to save and change lives. Experienced in ethics, negotiation, conflict resolution, risk, humanitarian programme design, strategic planning, team management and facilitation. Field focused, community and culturally sensitive, a listener, a mentor, a campaigner for safe programming to shut out harassment, sexual exploitation, abuse and retaliation. I also taught for 10 years at university level conflict resolution and negotiation. From mid 2021 to mid 2023 I came out of retirement to return to WFP as acting Ethics Director - an experience that opened my eyes to the importance of embedding into any programme or organization a culture of ethics, trust, reputation risk and organizational conflicts of interest.

Carlo Scaramella is a Senior International Strategy and Policy Adviser working on hunger and food security, climate, peace, humanitarian and development issues.

He is a former Director and Representative of the UN World Food Programme with over 30 years of experience working at global level as well as in different countries and regions in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. During his career, Carlo was engaged in responding to some of the most challenging humanitarian crises of our times, including Sudan, Angola, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Ukraine, Colombia. At corporate level, he was entrusted with the responsibility of strengthening WFP’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Services as well as, more recently, he was called to establish and lead WFP’s Office for Climate Change, Environment and Risk Reduction.

During the last five years, as WFP Representative in Colombia, he had the privilege of also working with indigenous and Afro-descendent communities, launching innovative food security, climate adaptation and livelihoods strengthening initiatives in the Amazon region of Colombia.