Meet the Candidates

Organization Learning Consultant specializing in food systems & cooperative economies

What interests you about serving on the Co-op’s Board of Directors?

Meeting the needs of the Upper Valley community: This Co-op serves the needs of the Upper Valley community in so many ways, we could talk about it all day. Local food is available; folks buy over $17M of local products a year, creating a market for over 400 local producers. Food is made financially accessible through programs like Food for All and Double Up Bucks and partners like Willing Hands. The Co-op also partners with LISTEN Community Services to offset car expenses for folks in need, and it directly makes interest-free loans available to employees for urgent car repairs so their car can run safely without causing major financial strain.

Collaboratively bringing to life a thriving regional food system with neighboring food co-ops: As significant and striking as our Co-op’s impact numbers are, they tell a bigger and even more powerful story when considered along with those of food co-ops in New England and NY state. Among the 31 member co-ops of the Neighboring Food Co-op Association (NFCA) in 2023, over a quarter of all sales were local products. These co-ops are owned by more than 180,000 people and create over 2,500 jobs. Wow!

Being stronger together: Just as our Co-op makes it possible for us, as individuals and families, to get things we want and need, when our Co-op is a member-owner of federated co-ops–like at the regional level with NFCA or the national level–it enables the Co-op and its peers to better source local food and support local producers, or to complete in the marketplace with Whole Foods (which is Amazon under the hood—one of the wealthiest companies in the world).

Our Co-op’s membership as a co-owner of National Cooperative Grocers (NCG) not only makes popular natural foods more affordable for our Co-op and its shoppers, it can make the difference for smaller co-ops being able to stay in business in a big box universe. Through NCG, 165 food co-ops band together to show up as a united front in their supply chain, while helping ensure the viability of 240 local storefronts that are grounded in their communities in a way no Whole Foods, with its distant Amazon shareholders, could ever be.

Playing a small part in a global effort to build a better world: When I managed the U.S. program for the 2012 International Year of Cooperatives (IYC), we talked about it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to raise awareness of how cooperatives are uniquely structured to improve people’s lives and steward the environment while being viable businesses. So why would the UN decide to declare a second IYC in 2025? This decision is easier to understand when you consider what their goals are for 2030: The UN recognizes the vital role of co-ops in advancing sustainable development, eradicating poverty, and fostering inclusive economic growth. And co-ops are everywhere! More than 1 billion people are members of 3 million co-operatives in every nation of the world, employing 100 million people worldwide.

As easy as it is to feel alone and isolated in our technologically mediated world, I find it heartening to recognize that all the ways our Co-op takes action to meet the needs of our community are mirrored in countless other ways by co-ops in communities all around the world, across the country, and throughout our region. Like us, those co-ops are guided by their member-owners to meet the needs of their communities—often in collaboration with other co-ops who recognize needs in common–and are grounded in a set of Principles and Values shared everywhere on earth. As the saying goes, Co-operatives Build a Better World.

In what ways can you contribute to the Co-op Board?

I can contribute to the board in day-to-day, strategic, and collaborative ways.

Having significant experience on food co-op—and other kinds of—boards, I understand the roles and responsibilities of a board member and how to do the work. I also specialize in strategy development, so I’m well positioned to contribute to big-picture thinking. That way opportunities, risks, and trade-offs can be recognized and proactively addressed. With a background in collaborative leadership, I can adjust my approaches to reinforce the strengths and priorities of my Board colleagues. At the end of the day, the Board is a team and I’ve greatly enjoyed the positive working relationships I’ve been able to build over the last three years with so many fellow Board members, and folks in the Co-op, through rolling up our sleeves together on your behalf.

I have served, in my first year, on the Governance Committee, which wordsmiths Board policies informed by the needs of the member-owners and the operational leadership of the GM. In this role, I learned directly how our Co-op works with the Policy Governance process used by many food co-ops around the country.

For the last two years, I’ve chaired the Board’s Bylaws Committee. In this role, I’ve designed and implemented two annual work plans with input from the committee—which includes a person from the operational leadership team, and regular communication with the full Board. The committee brought forward Board-approved proposed amendments in 2024 that were adopted by you and intended to make the Co-op more nimble in the face of both opportunities and risks, and also to reinforce the fact that our members own the Co-op. This Board year, the Board recently voted to support the Committee’s informed recommendation to propose amendment of the Bylaws, through the 2025 ballot, to create a pathway to member-ownership for folks in the community for whom the cost is a substantial barrier. Operational leadership is equally passionate about this initiative.

An integral part of board work is reviewing, assessing, and potentially implementing policy change based upon member-owner feedback. As a board member, how will you listen to and integrate feedback from diverse viewpoints of the membership in determining the future of the Co-op?

My professional background in dialogue and collective intelligence grounds me in a range of tools and, vitally, a perspective that emphasizes listening as well as recognizing patterns and core themes that enable representative leaders to develop broad input into cogent strategy and policy.

For example, one of the core takeaways from the extensive listening process the Ends Committee conducted between 2019 and 2022 was: All employees and their families can thrive.

This finding is reflected in the Co-op Value centering employees. In December 2023, the Bylaws Committee hosted a panel exploring informed perspectives on how to lean in on this Value. Four experienced and knowledgeable panelists from the Upper Valley, the Midwest, and West Coast responded to facilitated prompts from me, as well as questions from Board members and operational leaders. One insight that proved a common theme was the structural intersections between listening to the voices of employees, improvements to how the co-op operates as a business, and ways employees are compensated.

Which Co-op Value is the highest Priority for yourself? Which Co-op Value do you think should be the highest priority for the Co-op? They may be the same.

I think Local is a window into the full set of Values our Co-op has articulated to reflect those of our member-owners. In my view, the work of the Board is to understand the balance and interdependencies across these Values. Each decision has multiple impacts—sometimes unintended, beyond the primary focus. By testing ideas, proposals, decisions, and policies across our Co-op’s Values, the Board is more likely to both better serve the Values in the long run and have more of a positive impact on the community—including on employees and local vendors—while respecting and stewarding the natural resources that make eating, breathing, and life itself possible. In current governance practice, as policies are monitored throughout the year, they are routinely assessed in terms of whether they align with the Co-op’s Values.

As such, I think the Co-op’s priority should be to discern how these Values complement each other and can synergistically inform Co-op strategy and policy moving forward. Perspective on how to do that can be gained through recognizing that our Co-op’s Values sit within a framework of Values and Principles that co-ops share across the world.

Please compose your candidate statement and anything else you’d like us to know. (350 words or fewer):

With this election, I am asking for your support in beginning my second term on the Board. In my first years on your governance team, I have learned how our leadership community makes sense of its role in relation to the Co-op, and the Co-op’s role in relation to the Upper Valley community. I have led some focused efforts to better understand our Values and how they can most effectively be implemented. I have supported the Vice President’s initiative to strengthen the Board’s onboarding, training, and calendar planning for Board members. I have championed learning opportunities for Board members to be well-informed about the food co-op sector and its market. I have aspired to build strong, appreciative, reciprocal, and respectful relationships with the rest of the Board and the GM.

As the Board embarks on a strategic planning process—to provide medium-term strategic insight that can inform the GM’s business planning and complement the longer-term Ends Policies instantiated in 2023—this is a great time for the Board team to have continuity, include experienced strategic thinkers, and emphasize collegial, engaged relationships. I bring both know-how and collaborative engagement to this task, with your needs at heart.