Meet your Slow Food Philadelphia’s Board of Directors
We are volunteers dedicated to good, clean and fair food for all throughout the Philadelphia region. The community consists of farmers, butchers, brewers, bakers, chefs, foragers, home cooks, students, gardeners, food artisans, vintners – all united in our support and activism for good, clean, fair food that is equitable, just, and inclusive.
Jennifer Dolan
Co-Chairs
Jennifer Dolan, MS, RDN, CNSC is an Advanced Dietitian Specialist on the Nutrition Support Service at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and is a faculty member in the PENN School of Nursing where she teaches Principles of Human Nutrition and Case Studies in Clinical Nutrition.
She has more than twenty five years of experience in clinical nutrition and nutrition support and has conducted research in pulmonary and lung transplantation nutrition. She has presented locally and nationally on a variety of clinical nutrition topics and has provided professional leadership on a local and national level. She has a podcast entitled “Jennifer’s Twist” connecting farmers, food makers, and chefs that promote healthy food and/or slow food.
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Karen Stark
Co-Chairs
Karen, a self proclaimed locavore who grew up on a dairy farm in Minnesota, moved to Philadelphia in August 2010 from Illinois, where she co-founded and was the President of the Geneva Green Market for 5 years. The group supported small, local, sustainable farmers within 200 miles of Geneva Illinois. She hosted and organized an educational kid’s corner and coordinated the Chef demo events every market day.
Karen also promoted the benefits of local food to various organizations within the Fox River Valley in Kane County. She served as a member of the Fit for Kane Coalition, a group that was formed to study and apply for a grant to fight childhood obesity.
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Rachel Alfiero
Newsletter Editor
Rachel Alfiero is an alumna of West Chester University of Pennsylvania. While there, she studied communication, Latin American Studies and Spanish and graduated in May 2017. Rachel was introduced to Slow Food at WCU when she interviewed the student board members during her freshman year for the university newspaper. She currently works at a publishing company in Philadelphia. In her free time, she loves to cook, read, go on walks with friends and annoy the three cats that she shares with her boyfriend.
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Ross Namroff
Event Coordinator
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Eils Lotozo
Blog Contributor
Eils Lotozo writes about food, farms, gardens, and sustainability. She was a staff writer at The Philadelphia Inquirer, serving variously as a general assignment features reporter, as arts and culture writer, and finally as the paper’s home and design writer. Before moving to the Inquirer, she was senior writer at Philadelphia Weekly. As an adjunct professor of creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, she taught classes in feature journalism and long-form non-fiction writing. Currently, Eils is the editor of Haverford magazine, the alumni magazine of Haverford College.
Lindsay Troyer
Policy Coordinator/Blog Contributor
Lindsay (she/her) currently serves as a member and the Policy Coordinator for the Food and Farm Policy Community Action Team at Slow Food USA. Lindsay has worked in the intersections of food production, food service, food education, and food policy throughout her professional career. She spent her undergraduate years running CSA programs and community gardens while completing a B.S. in Food Policy and Sustainable Agriculture. Before, during, and after owning/operating a sustainable-focused, locally sourced cafe, she consulted for food makers, food growers, and food markets up until beginning a graduate degree in Food and Agriculture Policy in Bucks County, PA in 2019. For the last 5 years, she has worked in free-food production and nonprofit Hunger Relief in the Philadelphia region, running a Community Food Program that supported multiple food pantries and a community garden education program, and starting this season, managing the gleaning operations and community outreach for a multi-county fresh food distributor for charitable food assistance programs. She ultimately hopes to influence regional and federal policy to decrease the immense inequity in food and farmland access and to protect federal programs that feed our nation’s hungry.
Board Members at Large
Sally Eisenberg
Secretary
Sally K. Eisenberg is a Health Coach certified by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and Columbia University. In 2007, she founded Nourish Ur Life, a nutrition and healthy lifestyle practice located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
As a mixed media artist, Sally has always been passionate about food, healthy living and integrating both in to her artistic vision. She has been offering healthy cooking classes – empowering others to cook healthfully in their own kitchens. Sally also exhibits her art in and around Philadelphia.
Joe Brandolo
Treasurer
For over two decades, I have been an active member of the Slow Food Movement. When I originally assumed the role of chapter leader several years ago, it gave me an opportunity to promote local farmers, work with food justice and hunger organizations, and support sustainable causes. After a couple of years hiatus, I have resumed that role.
My professional career started in the restaurant business, mostly working in the front of the house, and eventually progressed to sales & marketing in wine and spirits. My culinary travels have taken me around the world, particularly participating in Slow Food events in Italy, Australia, and in California. In our leisure time, my wife and I manage a three-season culinary garden, keep bees, bike and hike at our primitive mountain retreat, and raise our four rescue dogs. I also serve on the Board at Impact Services, Inc. in the Kensington neighborhood, a community support organization.
Melissa Schultz
Melissa joined our organization in 2016. She was first introduced to the Slow Food movement while traveling in Piedmont, Italy in 2008. After learning the story behind it and dining in restaurants that supported it, she was on board.
She is an avid gardener and cook. She grows over 50 different varieties of vegetables, herbs and fruits, all propagated from seed. The seeds are selectively sourced to be open pollinating and preserve bio diversity. All produce is maintained organically.
Professionally, Melissa has spent her time divided between the microbrewery industry, restaurants and a long career in the wine industry.
Michèle Haines
Chef Michèle Haines, founder of Spring Mill Café, devotes her life to promoting peace through food. She has been a member of Slow Food Philadelphia for over 20 years. After giving her restaurant to her son Ezra, Michèle has travelled all over the world, cooking and sharing meals with all kinds of people.
Being a chef is just one of many things that Michele identifies as – she is a raconteur, freelance journalist, photographer, interpreter, and teacher. All of which allow her to create programs that spread peace and initiate discussions about various topics such as religious freedom, literature, and music as they relate to a number of cultures.
Emily Bell
As a seventeen year veteran of the wine industry, Emily has worked at the wholesale and producer levels, in both control states and free markets. Her passion for wine and gastronomy was learned in her Italian American grandparents’ kitchen and garden, and was the genesis of her education at the School of Hotel/Restaurant Management at Penn State and the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, where she did additional coursework at CIA’s Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies. Following her time at CIA she lived and worked in Napa Valley for five years. While working in sales and marketing for a small Napa winery, she was able to deepen her understanding of viticulture, winemaking, and terroir through close observation of viticultural and winemaking practices, and by working a section of a biodynamic St. Helena estate vineyard throughout an entire growing season. During this time she was the tasting panel columnist for the St. Helena Star. A Certified Specialist of Wine as designated by the Society of Wine Educators, Emily has also studied with the Court of Master Sommeliers.