Staff Bios
Josh Viertel, President
, 718-260- 8000
Josh Viertel is working to make a good, clean, and fair food system. Josh was named Slow Food USA’s first President at age 30. Previously he had worked as a shepherd, a teacher, a vegetable farmer, an activist, a fisherman, and a baker. Before coming to Slow Food, he co-founded and co-directed the Yale Sustainable Food Project which brought local and sustainable food into Yale’s dining halls, created a farm on campus, and built programs in and out of the classroom on sustainability, food and agriculture. His work has been written about in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly and numerous other publications, and he has presented at, or worked on projects with the American Academy in Rome, The Guggenheim, The Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, and the 2008 Venice Biennale. Josh lives in Brooklyn, New York in an ex-chair factory, with his partner, Juliana Sabinson, who is an artist, and their cat Louis, who is a pain.
Erika Lesser, Executive Director
, 718-260-8103
Erika has worked for Slow Food USA since its founding in 2000, and also spent a year working at Slow Food’s international headquarters in Italy for the University of Gastronomic Sciences, before returning to New York in 2004 to take on her current position. A native of Boston, Erika graduated from Brown University with a BA in Italian Studies and Art History, and worked in the food and nonprofit sectors while earning a MA in Food Studies from New York University. Erika also serves on the boards of Community Food Security Coalition and Slow Food International.
Yuri Asano, New Chapter Coordinator
, 718-260- 8000 ext 151
Yuri has been with Slow Food USA since 2002, and volunteers two days a week to help develop new chapters. One of the founders of Harvest Time in Harlem, a taste education program, Yuri is an active NYC chapter member. She holds a BA in Economics with a minor in Business Administration from Boston University, and received her Master’s Degree from New York University’s Food Studies and Food Management program. During her studies at NYU, her research on the culture of Fast Food led her to the exciting world of Slow Food. Yuri is also a chef. She is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute’s Classic Pastry Arts program and the La Technique program. She enjoys teaching and cooking with friends and family.
Deena Goldman, Program Manager, Leadership
, 718-260-8065
A Midwest native, Deena’s earliest memories are in the kitchen baking desserts and spending hours re-creating her Grandma’s fluffy matzo balls. Her food horizons were broadened tenfold as an undergraduate student at Tulane University in New Orleans and during a year abroad in Perugia, Italy. Deena finished college well-versed in English Literature and History, shrimp po-boys, beignets, Parmigano Reggiano and Pizza Napoletana. She then fast-tracked to New York City working in educational publishing for two years, before making her way to Slow Food headquarters in November 2005 through a food writing class. Deena has coordinated several meetings and events including Governors Forums, the Slow Food Nation book tour, and most recently the National Congress held in conjunction with Slow Food Nation. Her ongoing work will be focused on developing a leadership program for the grassroots chapter leaders of Slow Food USA.
Gordon Jenkins, Time for Lunch Campaign Coordinator
Gordon joined Slow Food USA in 2009 to help organize the Time for Lunch campaign. He grew up in Berkeley, CA, eating happy meals and boneless skinless chicken breasts. In college, he worked as a student farmer at the Yale Farm, where he began to see food activism as a very local, personal solution to the world’s many crises. He has worked in Alice Waters’ Office at Chez Panisse and as Content Coordinator for Slow Food Nation, the big event that took place over Labor Day 2008 in San Francisco. He also manages http://eat-ins.org.
Sheila Karaszewki, Membership Assistant
Sheila holds a Bachelors of Science in Marketing with a minor in international business. Prior to working for Slow Food USA, she had been immersed in the world of restaurants, where she spent her time cultivating her wine knowledge and pestering the chefs for cooking advice. An avid reader, taster, and lover of all things food related, her driving goal is to bring the opportunity to enjoy fresh, delicious food into everyone’s lives. She recently learned how to make the best pierogies ever, courtesy of her grandma’s recipe and her mom’s adaptation.
Patrick Keeler, Development Assistant
, 718-260-8107
Patrick came to the sustainable food movement through a rather circuitous route after majoring in French and European Studies. While it’s true that as a child he enjoyed baking holiday cookies with his mother and pastries in French class, his organic epiphany didn’t strike him until his first semester in the Environmental Policy Masters program at Clark University. Patrick has worked throughout upstate New York on organic farm CSAs in Poughkeepsie and the Finger Lakes region, and in Rochester as the urban School Garden and Farm Manager for a non-profit. In 2007 he helped launch Rochester’s South Wedge Farmers’ Market. Although his mother no longer bakes, Patrick carries on the cookie tradition with valor. He dreams of retiring on the coast of Greece where he’ll dine solely on feta, tomatoes, olives and wine for the rest of his days.
Jerusha Klemperer, Program Manager, Networks and Partnerships
, 718-260-8000
Jerusha holds an undergraduate degree in Religion and Women’s Studies from Swarthmore College and an MFA from Columbia University. She spent five years in the Grants and Contracts Department at Population Council, an international non-profit that performs reproductive health research and implementation around the globe. Also a writer and teacher, she has taught English, Writing and Acting, as well as authored plays, book reviews and essays. Her father endowed her at a young age with a love of fresh produce and an appreciation for artisanal crusty bread, and she credits Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation with first opening her eyes to some of the dark underbelly of our nation’s food system. At Slow Food USA she previously served as Assistant to the Executive Director, and is the editor of the blog (http://slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/blog/).
Kate Krauss, Director of Development
Kate Krauss joined Slow Food USA in 2009 after working in major gift fundraising at The Nature Conservancy, with primary responsibility for the organization’s China program and climate change initiative. Kate began her career in television journalism, working in production for the ABC News programs World News Tonight and Nightline. A native of southern Ohio, Kate has loved having the opportunity to live on the east coast and in California, but she still has a soft spot for Midwestern summer thunderstorms and fresh-picked sweet corn.
Nathan Leamy, Operations Manager
, 718-260-8000
Nathan came to Slow Food USA via his work at Slow Food Nation in San Francisco. Nathan’s agricultural education truly began when he attended Deep Springs College where he studied politics and managed 152 acres of organically grown alfalfa. After Deep Springs, he attended Oberlin College. There he spent time working with the student cooperative association, eventually developing a housing and dining cooperative which focused on educating students to eat well. Nathan has spent time working for the government and various non-profits. Post college, Nathan completed a Watson Fellowship studying how global changes in agricultural and economic policy have altered the consumption of traditional breads in Mexico, India, France, Italy, and Egypt.
Julia Middleton, Slow Food in Schools Program Assistant
, 718-260-8000 ext. 153
Chicago born and bred, Julia credits her parents for her initial interest in food, her father ground up the eclectic family meals into bite sized pieces to nurture her young palate, while her mother was responsible for the foreign food adventures. After establishing that indiscriminate palate, Julia headed off to Southern California to soak up the sun and study environmental sustainability, with a particular focus on agriculture. She has also spent time in Australia eating from community gardens, frequenting farmers markets and honing her interest in, and passion for, the youth food movement.
Kehinde Raji, Finance Manager
, 718-260-8000
Kehinde oversees the day-to-day financial activity of the organization. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Accounting from SUNY Old Westbury, and an MBA in Management from Long Island University. She is also a Youth Leader in her church and works with teenage girls on self-esteem issues. Originally from Nigeria, Kehinde grew up in a community where everything was grown locally and eaten seasonally. There was no name for Slow Food there, it was just food.
Brian Sinderson, Director of Communications
With more than 20 years of marketing and public relations agency experience, Brian manages the branding, marketing and communications efforts for Slow Food USA. He is a self-proclaimed foodie and a restaurant junkie, who seeks out chefs preparing meals with locally-grown, sustainable ingredients. He previously owned his own consultancy focused on corporate social responsibility and sustainability where he educated corporations on the need to tread lightly on the planet. When he isn’t writing, blogging or twittering about food, sustainability or the environment, you can usually find him behind the lens of his camera.
Jenny Trotter, Associate Director, Biodiversity Programs
, 718-260-8000 ext. 132
Jenny directs Slow Food USA’s biodiversity programs, including Ark of Taste and Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT) alliance. Prior to Slow Food, Jenny worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for foundations focused on international health, community development and human rights. After getting married in 2006, Jenny and her husband decided to make a big change. They took off in their small pick-up truck on a two-month, 8,000-mile cross-country adventure from San Francisco to New York City, which included many detours to family farm stands, artisanal food producers, and a constant quest for local flavor. Since arriving in NYC, Jenny has been having a blast exploring the bounty of the city’s farmers’ markets, helping coordinate her neighborhood CSA in Brooklyn, and experimenting with pickling and preserving.
Cecily Upton, Slow Food In Schools Coordinator
, 718-260-8077
Cecily has worked with youth programs at Slow Food USA since 2005. Before coming to Brooklyn, Cecily split her time between community arts organizations in Portland, Maine and farms in Italy and India. Her interest in good, clean and fair food began when, as a student herself, she helped start an organic garden at her high school. Besides food, Cecily is an avid cyclist and photographer.
Sharleen Villagra, Executive Programs Manager
, 718-260-8000
Before joining the Slow Food USA national office Sharleen, a native Californian, served on the leadership board of Slow Food Orange County. Growing up, homegrown fruits and vegetables were a mainstay in family meals where the kitchen table was always the centerpiece of home and tradition. Spending much of her time with relatives in Argentina, Sharleen also cultivated an appreciation for rural living and farming. Prior to joining Slow Food, she worked as a management consultant, advising leading developers and financial institutions on a variety of urban and rural land-use and development issues, both in the domestic U.S. and Latin America. Sharleen holds a B.A. from Stanford University.
