Board of Directors
President: Josh Smee (he/him)
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Food First NL
Joshua is a connector, advocate, and community-builder working to build stronger food systems in Newfoundland and Labrador.Joshua is the CEO of Food First NL, a provincial non-profit organization that works with communities in Newfoundland and Labrador to ensure everyone has access to affordable, healthy, and culturally appropriate food.Passionate about systems change and the power of collective action, Joshua has taken a lead role in many coalitions and campaigns.
Joshua co-chairs the provincial Food Security Working group with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and sat as a member of the province’s Health Accord Task Force, tasked with a fundamental redesign of Newfoundland and Labrador’s health system.Outside of work, Joshua is deeply engaged in work around civic engagement, local food, and the arts. As Chair of the St. John’s Farmer’s Market Cooperative, he helped lead the work to establish the city’s thriving, permanent community market.Joshua lives in the heart of downtown St. John’s with his partner, violinist Lauren, and their young daughter Tamsin. He spends just about every spare moment he has outdoors and has hiked every inch of the East Coast Trail, most of it many times over.
Secretary: Gillian Kerr
Gillian Kerr has worked within Canada’s environment community for almost 30 years as an ecological economist and environmental policy expert. She is also an active researcher, teacher, supervisor, and champion of understanding the value of nature. Currently Gillian works at the Smart Prosperity Institute as a Senior Researcher and teaches at RRU.Before that, she worked for Alberta Environment for 12 years and has worked as an academic, consultant and within several areas of the environmental non-profit sector.
JILL VAN HORNE (she/her)
Network Director | Food for all New Brunswick
Jill Van Horne is the Director of Food For All NB, where she has been engaged in food systems and food security work since 2017. In this role, and through her previous work with Our Food Southeast NB, she’s focused on building resilient food systems and addressing food security challenges across New Brunswick. She brings expertise in national and provincial school food initiatives, Atlantic regional food systems collaboration, food and climate-related projects, and community food action initiatives – bridging grassroots efforts with policy-level impact. Jill lives on unceded Mi’kmaq lands in Moncton, N.B.
JUSTIN CANTAFIO (he/him)
Executive Director | Farmers Markets of Nova Scotia
Justin Cantafio is anchored by a steadfast belief in the power of small-scale, community-based businesses to build truly sustainable social and economic development. It’s what drove him to spend his master’s degree living and working on ten organic farms from Quebec to the Pacific Coast.He’s since helped with managing Atlantic Canada’s first sustainable seafood subscription program through Off the Hook Community Supported Fishery, worked with the Ecology Action Centre to spearhead a Canada-wide program to promote locally-sourced food in schools, universities, and hospitals, and connected small-scale fishers and aquaculturalists with high-value markets across Nova Scotia and beyond with Halifax’s Afishionado Fishmongers.When he’s not crafting up ideas to re-localize our economy and promote local businesses, you might find Justin running in the woods, cooking up big hearty meals with friends, or relaxing in his tiny cabin by the sea.
ROBERT CERVELLI (he/him)
Senior Advisor/Consultant | Centre for Local Prosperity
For the past 35 years, Robert Cervelli has worked passionately to build community at the local, small and rural levels. His particular area of interest is in projects implementing innovative new tools for rebuilding economic resilience. With an entrepreneurial spirit and history, Robert understands the issues related to new business creation and the health of vibrant local economies.Robert is co-founder and senior advisor of the Centre for Local Prosperity, an organization working to re-localize rural economies and building climate readiness. The Centre is dedicated to promoting and inspiring practical blueprints for prosperous and healthy local economies. The Centre initiates conversations intended to encourage communities to begin a shift toward an economy that is properly scaled for the place, resulting in real action for change by creating a new climate for change. The Centre works alongside community groups, businesses and governments to identify opportunities and assess the risks in making the shift to a new economy, through the use of workshops, conferences, and targeted discussions.Robert is a co-founder and Chair of Transition Bay St. Margarets Bay, one of the first Transition Initiatives in the Maritimes. He has been a member of the E.F. Schumacher Society for over 25 years, has corresponded internationally and attended key international events on alternative economics.
Dr. Monika Korzun (she/her)
Assistant Professor | St. Thomas University
Dr. Monika Korzun is an Assistant Professor in the Environment and Society program at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Monika has been working in the food systems space since 2010. She completed her PhD at the University of Guelph and completed two postdoctoral fellowships – one at Dalhousie University and one at Saint Paul University. More recently her research has focused on food systems governance and social sustainability in food systems. Although her research interests are diverse, Monika’s research aims to bring to light the experiences and voices of those who are often ignored in food systems decision-making processes. In addition to working in academia, Dr. Korzun has several years of experience working in the private and not-for-profit sectors. Favourite vegetable: Kohlrabi