National Office Staff

Richard McCarthy
Executive Director

Richard McCarthy embodies the phrase “think globally; act locally.” He joined Slow Food USA as Executive Director in January 2013, having previously served as Executive Director of Market Umbrella, an internationally recognized non-profit mentor organization for farmers markets, community building and sustainable economic development. After Hurricane Katrina, Richard played a key role in restarting the local agricultural economy in the New Orleans area, aiming to help provide returning residents with a sense of normalcy and resilience through the revival of farmers markets.

From 2005 – 2007, Richard served as a founding President for the Farmers Market Coalition, the national voice for farmers markets, which contributed to the development of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers Market Promotion Program, yielding $32 million over seven years to farmers market innovation and professionalism.

Richard was named a “Hero of the New South” in 2012 by Southern Living Magazine and a “Public Health Champion” in 2004 by the Tulane University School of Public Health. He earned his master’s degree at the London School of Economics and is a graduate of The American University of London. When he’s not dreaming up new projects, he enjoys playing racquetball, gardening and cooking vegetarian meals with his family at home.

Kate Krauss
Managing Director

Kate joined Slow Food in 2009 as Director of Development and then spent seven months as Interim Executive Director before assuming her current role. Kate has more than 10 years of experience in the non-profit sector. Prior to Slow Food, she worked for The Nature Conservancy, where she served as a fundraiser for the Conservancy’s China program and its climate change initiative, and where she helped initiate a board development program to share best practices among the Conservancy’s 55 Trustee boards. Kate began her career in television journalism, working in production for the ABC News programs World News Tonight and Nightline. She is a graduate of Columbia University. 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, the smell of newly-cut grass and fresh-picked Ohio sweet corn.

Jenny Best
Director of External Affairs & International Relations

Jenny joined Slow Food USA in 2010; inspired by a vision of a world where people grow, cook and eat food together, and where environmentally friendly food production flourishes. She has 10 years of strategic communications and public relations experience and oversees national gatherings, media relations and international relations for the U.S. national office. Prior to Slow Food, she served the City of New York for eight years, as a member of Mayor Bloomberg’s City Hall staff and later as Chief of Staff at the city agency charged with regulating buildings and construction. Before her time in government, she was a member of the corps de ballet at the New York City Ballet. Jenny graduated from New York University where she studied politics and communications at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She spends most of her free time tending to her edible garden in Brooklyn, where she grows heirloom vegetables and herbs, her favorite being heirloom red carrots.

Isabel Eljaiek
Network Engagement Coordinator

Isabel joined Slow Food USA in May 2013 after working on and writing programs for a nonprofit urban farm in Richmond, VA. She loves connecting people within her community to their local food system and is especially nerdy about compost. Coming from a family that did NOT garden, farm or cook, she experienced a sharp learning curve when she embarked to learn these things as a young adult. Originally from the Washington DC area, Isabel received her Masters degree in Social Work Administration, Planning and Policy Practice with a concentration in Food Justice from Virginia Commonwealth University. She also completed a graduate certificate in nonprofit management and was a scholarship recipient for Growing Power’s Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative in 2011. Her work is underwritten by her strong commitment to food sovereignty, and she especially enjoys writing programs and defining outcomes for food justice initiatives. Isabel believes that growing and sharing food is a powerful way to combat larger issues of poverty as well as a means to create sustainable communities. An avid naturalist, she’s looking forward to discovering a whole new portion of the Appalachian Trail in New York State with her two dogs Norma & Chloe.

Monika V.I. Kunz
Director of Development

Monika joined Slow Food USA in 2010 and oversees the organization’s fundraising portfolio, after spending the last decade in development offices at a variety of arts organizations. Prior to Slow Food, Monika directed the development effort at High 5 Tickets to the Arts, managed donor relations at the Brooklyn Museum, and oversaw the annual fund, alumni and parent programs at The Boston Conservatory. A long-time lover of delicious meals, one day she realized she not only cared about how the flavors came together on her plate, but also wanted to know the story behind her food. After meeting real live farmers, she’s hooked on local, sustainable food and is thrilled to help promote it daily in her work. As a native Californian, she sometimes has to break her attempts at local eating when the perfect avocado presents itself.

Megan Larmer
Manager of Biodiversity Programs

Megan comes to Slow Food USA via Chicago, where she has been a chapter leader for three years. Under her guidance, Slow Food Chicago has incorporated biodiversity into much of its programming through canning workshops, farm to table dinners, and the urban preSERVE garden. She is a founding board member of the Chicago Rarities Orchard project, where she has worked with city officials, elected leaders, funders and the media, in addition to grafting dozens of endangered fruit tree varietals. As Manager of the Logan Square Farmers Market, one of the largest and most respected markets in the region, she oversees all the logistics involved in executing a weekly public event and actively works to engage community volunteers, as well as support small scale farmers and food artisans. During a decade as a restaurant professional, she has roasted coffee on the side of a volcano, baked pies, poured wine older than her parents, planted radishes on rooftops, and much more. Megan is an experienced theater artist and marks her apprenticeship at the Bread and Puppet Theater Farm in Glover, VT as the catalytic time when she realized that her passion for storytelling, community building, and beautiful food were interconnected — and would form her life’s work.

Nathan Leamy
Associate Director of Operations and Chief Financial Officer

Nathan joined Slow Food USA in 2008 after working for Slow Food Nation in San Francisco. Nathan grew up in Portland, Oregon and attended Deep Springs College in California where he studied politics and managed 152 acres of organically grown alfalfa. He graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. 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. In addition to managing Slow Food USA’s finances, he teaches sourdough bread baking courses in and around New York City.

Brenna McHugh
Development Officer

Brenna joined Slow Food USA in May 2012 after completing her Masters in Gastronomy through the University of Adelaide and Le Cordon Bleu. Raised in Santa Barbara, Brenna has worked as a competitive equestrian and professional horse trainer since adolescence. After graduating from UCLA with a Bachelor’s in English, she was recruited to join an equestrian circus, Cavalia, to train horses and perform in Europe. Throughout her time on tour, Brenna was passionate about absorbing each country and region’s culture through their cuisine. This passion for food as a language through which people of varied backgrounds commune led her to pursue her Masters degree, with a focus on Gastronomic Tourism and regional culinary heritage. Brenna’s thesis explores the positive potential for a sustainable future of tourism in Baja California through increased utilization on Baja-Californian organic farming. She has worked in hotels and restaurants both in New York and Los Angeles and continues training competition horses and riders in Brooklyn, NY.

Andrew Nowak
Manager of School Garden Programs

Andrew Nowak was the Project Director for Slow Food Denver’s Seed to Table (STT) School Food Program from 2001-2012. He had been involved in the growth of the STT program from four school gardens to more than 50 school sites. Andrew helped to develop a Youth Farmers’ Market (YFM) program that appeared in 32 school sites last year and received funding from the CO Department of Agriculture to implement the YFM model in food deserts in Denver. In addition, Andrew developed the food safety protocols and procedures for the Garden to Cafeteria program that allows students to grow produce for the school lunch program and is a model for similar programs around the country. For the past five years, Andrew has been the community partner for Denver Public School’s School Food Learning Lab (School Food FOCUS), helping the District source local foods for the cafeteria, to train the school kitchen staff how to scratch cook and to implement salad bars throughout the district’s cafeterias. In 2010, the governor appointed Andrew to the Colorado Farm to School Task Force. In 2011, Andrew became the Executive Director of Real Food Colorado to promote the development of Farm to School programs throughout Colorado. On the National level, Andrew is a Hall of Fame Chef with Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters program and was one of 6 chefs invited to the White House in 2010 to help develop the Chefs Move to Schools Program. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Iowa and has been a culinary professional for over 30 years. Andrew is supported by his wife Lisa of 27 years and his activities are tolerated by his two children, Nick (21) and Sarah (18).

Jovan Sage
Associate Director of Network Engagement

Jovan joined Slow Food USA in October 2012 and is a community organizer with over 10 years of experience grassroots organizing at national and community-based organizations. Learning to cook seasonally and working as an urban chicken-keeping apprentice pushed her to learn more about food justice. Since March 2011, Jovan has served as a board member and facilitator for Flip The Table: Youth Food Council, which is working to develop high school leaders for the sustainable food movement. Her work focuses on enhancing the political education, self-knowledge and leadership skills of staff and volunteers, fostering a greater sense of community and fueling campaign-specific successes along the intersections of race, class, ability, gender and sexual orientation.

Aimee Thunberg
Associate Director of Communications

Aimee is passionate about quality, fresh foods and the social experiences surrounding growing, cooking and sharing a good meal with others. She joined the staff in 2011, after more than a decade in marketing and fundraising for public broadcasting, among other community-based, non-profit organizations. A firm believer in the power of media to connect people and foster support for the greater good, she completed a BA in public relations and an MBA in media management to augment her fundraising experience. She credits Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” for teaching her to think locally and enjoy eating seasonally.

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