Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is responsible for the vision, strategic plans and policies that guide Food Alliance. This includes ultimate responsibility for standards, criteria, policies and procedures governing the Food Alliance certification program. The board also has fiscal responsibility for the organization and reviews and approves all budgets and financial reports.

Board Members:

Peter Bloome, Ph.D. (Vice Chair)
Emeritus Professor of Biological and Ecological Engineering,
Oregon State University

Alison Dennis
Director, Center for Global Leadership in Sustainability,
Portland State University

Anne Glazer (Treasurer)
Stoel Rives, LLP

Tom Grace
Principal, New Territories

Maisie Greenawalt
Vice President, Bon Appétit Management Company

Rick Jacobson (Secretary)
Retired President and CEO, NORPAC Foods, Inc.

Karen Karp
President, Karp Resources

Jennifer Maxwell-Muir
Founder and President, Maxwell PR

Jeffrey J. Picarello (Chair)
Senior Vice President, Edelman

Richard Pirog
Associate Director, C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University

Peter Bloome, Ph.D. (Vice Chair)

Peter is Emeritus Professor of Biological and Ecological Engineering at Oregon State University.  His has served in the positions of Extension Agricultural Engineer at Oklahoma State University, Assistant Director of Extension and Agriculture Program Leader at the University of Illinois, and Associate Director of Extension at Oregon State University.  He has international work experience in Australia, New Zealand, and Pakistan.  Since retirement in 2002, Peter has provided leadership and organizational development training to leaders of non-profit organizations.  Client organizations have included member societies of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology and the agricultural client base of the Institute for Conservation Leadership.  He has served on the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, the Board of Directors of the Oregon Environmental Council, and as project leader of two Oregon Solutions projects serving agriculture.  Peter holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Agricultural Engineering awarded by the University of Illinois.

Alison Dennis

Alison Dennis serves as Executive Director of the Center for Global Leadership in Sustainability at Portland State University. The Center works at the nexus of scholarship and practice, forging partnerships and advancing the role of business in solving the persistent social and ecological challenges of our time. She is recognized regionally and nationally as a sustainable business thought leader and practitioner on issues ranging from food systems to triple-bottom-line business to corporate culture development. Prior to joining Portland State, Alison served as Director of Sustainability for Burgerville, a Pacific Northwest restaurant company, where she oversaw the company's supply chain, sustainable programs and corporate social responsibility efforts. In 2007, Alison launched a money-saving composting, recycling and sustainable packaging system that is now the most comprehensive of its kind, nationally, in the fast food industry. Prior to this, Alison served as Purchasing Director for Oregon Health and Science University leading large-scale supply chain development and improvement efforts in an innovative environment. In 2005, Alison traveled the world for a year, eating local food across 27 countries and six continents in 365 days. She holds a liberal arts degree from Bennington College.

Anne Glazer (Treasurer)

Anne Glazer is an intellectual property partner with the western regional law firm of Stoel Rives LLP.  She has nearly 20 years of experience assisting consumer-oriented companies of all sizes with trademarks, copyrights, licensing, e-commerce, information privacy and security, advertising, labeling, FDA/USDA compliance, and other issues related to product development, marketing and distribution. Anne is a frequent and engaging presenter on trademark, marketing and labeling in the food and beverage industries.  She is a highly respected attorney in her field, recognized as one of “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” (Oregon) by Chambers USA, and for several years as an Oregon Super Lawyer and in Best Lawyers in America.  Anne was named by Best Lawyers as the Trademark Lawyer of the Year for Portland (2012).  Anne serves on the Board of Free Geek, a nonprofit that reuses and recycles e-waste while providing job skills and education to hundreds of volunteers.  Previously, she served on the Board of Directors of Oregon Business Association and chaired its Good Government committee. She has been an active member of the International Trademark Association for many years.  Anne received her J.D. and B.A. from the University of Washington, and now lives near her childhood home in Portland, Oregon.

Tom Grace

Tom Grace, a digital marketer,  works with startups, social enterprises, and Fortune 500 organizations to craft better experiences. He currently advises Legacy Connect, a NYC startup building a next-generation philanthropy network. Previously, Tom was Vice President of Programs at FarmsReach, an early-stage startup focused connecting farmers and B2B customers. He began his career at AMR Research as a high-tech industry analyst where he worked with Fortune 500 enterprises and software ventures on new technology adoption. During a stint in Portland, Oregon, he co-founded with his wife Christina a non-profit farmers' market that in time became Portland's Buckman Farmers' Market. He and Christina now live in Brooklyn, NY with their two daughters, Emelia and Maeve.  He holds a Bachelor's Degree from Stanford  University in Public Policy. 

Maisie Greenawalt

Maisie Greenawalt joined Bon Appétit Management Company in 1994 and has since been instrumental in shaping the company’s overall strategic direction. Maisie oversees Bon Appétit’s culinary development and purchasing policy efforts, and leads Bon Appétit’s marketing and communications initiatives. Additionally, Maisie is president of the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation, whose mission is to educate people about how their food choices affect the global environment and local economies.  In 1999, Maisie helped to develop the Farm to Fork program, a groundbreaking company-wide initiative to buy locally. Maisie works with chefs around the country to create positive changes in the local food economy by sourcing and using seasonal and regional ingredients from within a 150-mile radius of each café. Since the program’s inception, Bon Appétit has spent tens of millions of dollars on local food, thereby supporting local farmers and their surrounding communities. Over the last decade, she has continued to be the primary architect of a number of Bon Appétit’s equally progressive sustainable initiatives.  Maisie graduated from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. In previous roles, she worked on behalf of a number of national food brands and ran a hospitality training company.

Rick Jacobson (Secretary)

Rick is a retired President and CEO of NORPAC Foods, Inc.and has served cooperatives in a leadership capacity for over 30 years. He has Chaired the Board of the American Frozen Food Institute and served on the Boards of the Agricultural Cooperative Council Of Oregon and the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. Rick was also a founding member of Farmers Ending Hunger, a farmer organization that brings food industry partners together to grow process and package food to be donated to the Oregon Food Bank. A 1967 Graduate of Eastern Oregon University, Rick continues to serve the interests of Agriculture as a board member on the Oregon Business Council, Oregonians for Food and Shelter, as a member of Northwest Food Processors Association’s Government affairs Council and he continues as a member of the Board of Farmers Ending Hunger. Rick recently served on the search committee for the Dean of the Oregon State University College of Agriculture. In 2009 Rick received the Jerry Tippens Advocacy Award for his work with the Oregon Food Bank both as a contributor and member of the Board. He was inducted into the Oregon Cooperative Hall of Fame in 2006 for his contributions to the successful building and operation of Oregon Agricultural Cooperatives. In 2007 he proudly received the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Distinguished Service Award for his individual contributions to the agricultural industry. Rick and his wife Gayle currently reside in Bend, Oregon. They have one daughter, Kirstan, who resides with her husband Mark in Snohomish, Washington.

Karen Karp

Karen Karp, a respected entrepreneur, project manager and food business consultant, founded Karp Resources in 1990. As President of the company, she brings over 25 years of specialty food retail, agriculture, and restaurant experience to Karp Resources. Karen began her career as General Manager for a highly innovative restaurant group in NYC. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design (1982) and a Masters Degree from the University of Bath School of Management’s Responsibility and Business Practice program (2001), winning honors for her thesis How Does Food Sustain Us? Karen co-wrote the curriculum in Culinary Entrepreneurship for Mississippi University for Women (MUW), now a minor degree at the university, as well as the book, Gourmet to Go: A Guide to Owning and Operating a Specialty Food Store. She also provides an annual scholarship for a promising MUW culinary student. Ms. Karp was the winner of the 2008 Enterprising Woman Award, is a member of Women President’s Organization. Karen farms oysters near her home in Southold, New York, USA.

Jennifer Maxwell-Muir

Jennifer is the founder and President of Maxwell PR. Jennifer oversees operations, and provides strategic counsel and mentorship for staff and clients.  She also spearheads the agency’s public awareness efforts for a variety of Oregon’s sustainable industry efforts, from the Office of Sustainable Development recycling programs and ENERGY STAR Homes, to ShoreBank Pacific’s community banking commitment and Kettle Foods all-natural food products. Among her career achievements include award-winning work for Washington Mutual, U.S. Bancorp, Nextel Partners, Astoria-Warrenton Chamber of Commerce, the Oregon Tourism Commission, and One Economy Corporation. Throughout her career, Jennifer has led a number of effective state, regional and national communications programs for technology companies such as Nextel and HP, and consumer product companies such as Flowerbud and Stahlbush Island Farms. She is a board member of New Avenues for Youth, a nonprofit dedicated to helping Portland homeless youth permanently exit street life.  She received Portland Monthly’s Light of Fire community involvement award in 2005 for her pro bono commitment to New Avenues for Youth’s Ben & Jerry’s Partnershop.  In 2002 she was named to The (Portland) Business Journal’s “40 under 40” list of community leaders and Oregon Business Magazine’s “50 Leaders to Follow.”

Jeffrey J. Picarello (Chair)

Jeff Picarello joined Edelman in 2006 and specializes in strategic communications on behalf of clients in the healthcare, food, pharmaceutical, education and non-profit sectors.  He has vast experience in crisis communications, corporate and public relations, donor and alumni relations, government relations, and stakeholder and grassroots engagement.  Picarello also leads the Corporate and Public Affairs offering in Food and Nutrition, designed to bring together stakeholders and clients in food, nutrition and healthcare areas to drive meaningful partnerships and public health benefits.  Prior to joining Edelman, Picarello spent more than a decade directing public relations, media relations, and community and public affairs for various non-profit entities.  As Director of Public Affairs for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, one of the world’s leading biomedical research institutions, he improved media coverage by more than 314% in less than one year; as a lead administrator at the Laboratory, he also served as the institution’s sole liaison with nearly 50 grassroots organizations which fund medical research.  Picarello began his career in the field of public relations at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University.  He received both his bachelor of arts magna cum laude (English) and Master's of Business Administration cum laude (Marketing) from Long Island University, and serves on the board for several disease-based charitable organizations.

Richard Pirog

Rich Pirog joined the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in 1990. He is the Program Leader for the Center's Marketing and Food Systems Initiative, and became associate director in February 2007. Pirog also directs the Value Chain Partnerships (VCP) project, an Iowa-based network of food and agriculture working groups that provides technical assistance to farmer-led food businesses in Iowa. Through VCP, Pirog leads the Regional Food Systems Working Group, which focuses on making the case for investment in local and regional food businesses and networks. Pirog's research and collaborations on local and place-based foods, building food networks, food value chains, and ecolabels has been publicized in magazines and media outlets across the globe, used by local food practitioners, and are often cited in books and college courses. In 2003, he received the Iowa Sustainable Agriculture Achievement Award from Practical Farmers of Iowa, and in 2004, he received the Iowa State University College of Agriculture Award for Outstanding Achievement and Service.