OUR TEAM

PETER COHEN joined the Center for Good Food Purchasing in 2021 as an Analyst. He works with institutions to collect and analyze purchasing data, track progress towards Program goals, and shift sourcing to increase Program performance. His previous food system experience includes an AmeriCorps term in Oregon focused on rural broadband access for family farmers, supporting disruptive startups for a food incubator in the Bay Area, and conducting research for a local food policy council in Orange County, NC. He is passionate about the intersection of sustainable food systems and local economic development. Peter is a 2020 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he majored in Public Policy and Food Studies with a minor in Environmental Science.

PAULA DANIELS is Co-founder and Chair of the Center for Good Food Purchasing, a social enterprise non-profit founded in July of 2015 as a national spin-off from the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, which Paula founded in 2011. The Center for Good Food Purchasing uses the power of procurement to create a transparent and equitable food system that prioritizes the health and well-being of people, animals, and the environment, through the nationally-networked adoption and implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Program by large institutions. There are numerous institutions in cities across the US enrolled in this Program.

She is a lawyer and public policy leader in environmental food and water policy, with extensive experience in developing and leading local, state and national environmental initiatives that include government, civil society, and private sector partners. Her most notable work is in urban forestry, green infrastructure (for stormwater management) and food system policy (all award-winning initiatives); she has also had key roles in other aspects of public policy and municipal infrastructure.

Paula has extensive experience in government: she served as Senior Advisor on Food Policy to Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles; as a Los Angeles Public Works Commissioner (a full-time executive position overseeing a large city department); a commissioner with the California Coastal Commission; appointed board member of the California Bay-Delta Authority (overseeing the California State Water Project); and as a commissioner with the California Water Commission.

She has received recognition through academic appointments and other awards, including: the Ashoka Fellowship (2018); the Resident Fellowship at the Bellagio Center of the Rockefeller Foundation (2016); the Stanton Fellowship of the Durfee Foundation (2012-2013); the Pritzker Environment and Sustainability Education Fellow at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (2015); the Lee Chair in Real Estate Law and Urban Planning at UC Berkeley (2013); Top Ten People Making LA a Better Place (LA Weekly, 2012); 2012 Honoree, Green LA Coalition; Water Quality Leadership Award (LA Regional Water Quality Control Board, 2007); Environmental Leadership Award (California League of Conservation Voters, 2005); Super Healer Award (Heal the Bay, 2005).

Paula is a registered Native Hawai’ian.

LAM LE is an Analyst at the Center for Good Food Purchasing. Her work involves collecting and analyzing data, working with local partners and assisting institutions in meeting and complying with the Good Food Purchasing Standards, and supporting the Center’s current and future initiatives. Previously, Lam worked with the Green Team at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley to support and implement green-building projects. She was also part of the Zero Waste Team at Haas, where she focused on outreach and the education of zero-waste practices. Lam is a member and volunteer at the Berkeley Student Food Collective. She holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

MICHAEL LOPER joined the Center for Good Food Purchasing as an Analyst in 2021. He is responsible for analyzing procurement data and sharing evaluation results with institutional partners to facilitate actionable and measurable food sourcing improvements. Previously, Michael worked as a Health Program Analyst with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health where he was responsible for data management and analysis related to the County’s COVID-19 pandemic response. He holds a Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP), and Food Studies Graduate Certificate from UCLA and is dedicated to promoting just and equitable food systems as reflected through his internship experience with the Los Angeles Food Policy Council and Los Angeles County Sodium Reduction Initiative.

COLLEEN MCKINNEY is the Director of Engagement for the Center for Good Food Purchasing, where her focus is on the successful expansion and implementation of the Good Food Purchasing Program. She enhances program processes and infrastructure, facilitates individual and group technical assistance, oversees supply chain monitoring and verification, and contributes to strategic direction of the Center, including expansion, coordination with Governing Board and national campaign committee, resource development, branding and website development, and administration. Previously, she contributed to the Good Food Purchasing Program as a Policy & Program Associate at the Los Angeles Food Policy Council. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Southern California.

Allison lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three kids. She is an avid runner, skier, and fair weather biker, who enjoys chasing her children with kale and strawberries from her garden.

JOANN LO is a union organizer with an entertainment industry union. She was the Co-Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance for 10 years, until October 2019, and was the first staff member of the Alliance when she began in November 2009. The daughter of immigrants from Taiwan, she graduated from Yale University with a degree in Environmental Biology and has organized with both unions and a worker center. In 2000 Joann was one of two staff who started the Garment Worker Center, and she organized with garment workers in Los Angeles who led a successful campaign against retailer Forever 21, memorialized in the Emmy-winning documentary “Made in L.A.” In 2005 Joann joined Enlace, an alliance of worker centers and unions and a year later became Co-Director. Joann is a member of the Leadership Circle of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Domestic Fair Trade Association, the City of Los Angeles’ Sweatfree Advisory Committee, and the Enlace Institute Advisory Board.

ELIZABETH REYNOSO is an Associate Director at Living Cities where she is a senior leader responsible for managing the resources and results of a collaborative of the world’s leading foundations and financial institutions. Since 2015 she has been working with mayors and their staff in the development of public sector strategies, including equitable contracting and inclusive procurement, to close racial income and wealth gaps.

With a background in social justice, economic development, and farming, Elizabeth developed policies and programs to increase food security for residents when she served as the first Food Policy Director for the City of Newark, NJ under then-Mayor Cory Booker. During her tenure she created a citywide umbrella campaign that increased SNAP redemption and farmer revenue by 125%. She also established NJ’s largest urban farm on public land, at that time, which provided training and jobs for formerly incarcerated. She continued to serve the city as the Acting Sustainability Director in the Baraka administration.

Elizabeth began her career in international human rights with Human Rights Watch and lived abroad for several years before focusing domestically on criminal justice issues through her media and advocacy work.  In the Frontline series, The Drug Wars, her team won a Peabody for its 30-year history of US drug policy and its effect on the world economy and US foreign policy.  With the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Elizabeth’s on-the-ground work led to a package of prisoner reentry bills passed by the NJ State Legislature in 2010 that was hailed by the New York Times as “a model for the nation”.  Elizabeth managed a Department of Labor Pathways Out of Poverty grant for Goodwill Industries International to provide green jobs training in the solar, construction, and energy-efficiency industries to low-income individuals in six major cities around the country.

Wood brings over 20 years of experience in corporate sustainability, environmental management, and consumer engagement. Most recently, he was on the executive team at organic yogurt pioneer Stonyfield Farm as the company’s VP Sustainability Innovation. Prior to that, he was founding executive director of Climate Counts, an international NGO focused on measuring and scoring the world’s largest consumer companies on their concrete, enterprise-level responses to climate change. Wood has consulted to brands, elected officials, and public agencies on mobilizing the public around ideas that improve the environment and build community, including the start-up of a groundbreaking curbside food waste recovery program, the expansion of carshare program access to underrepresented communities in the Puget Sound area and Los Angeles, development of an early shuttle program for Bay Area biotech workers, and a citizen engagement program that nearly resulted in innovative fixed-rail for Seattle. Early in his career, he worked with the plastics industry in the policy and product stewardship arenas and was later instrumental in developing Urban Ecology’s “Blueprint for a Sustainable Bay Area.” He worked for many years on the alignment of economic and recreation demands with wetland, riparian, and wildlife corridor conservation in the Pacific Northwest.

Karen E. Watson is a strategic marketing and communications consultant whose  practice centers on using consumer market research, advertising techniques, and stakeholder coalition building to create greater public demand for healthier behaviors and the adoption of new cultural norms.

Watson established a business vertical at Nielsen to sell data, analytics and solutions to the government and public sector in order to match the interests of public policy entities, domestic and global, to Nielsen’s broad array of information and services. She was the primary driver behind the innovative “Drink Up” project, a national public health campaign to encourage Americans to drink more water. Before that role, she was Chief Communications Officer at Nielsen.

Watson has more than 30 years of experience in policy, public affairs, government relations, media and marketing. As head of the public policy office for Echostar, during the introduction of satellite TV, she advocated for competitive choice for consumers.  As chief communications officer for the FCC during the mid 90’s, she translated complicated communications policies during the revision of the 1930 Telecommunications Act, Watson’s early career was as a journalist for PBS, National Public Radio and The MacNeil/Lehrer Report.

Watson also currently holds a title as visiting researcher at Imperial College Business School in London, where she works at The Centre for Health Economics and Policy Innovation. She has lectured graduate students at McGill University, Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Columbia University.

She is an investor in Farmer’s Fridge and a board member of the Gold Foundation and an advisory board member of several food and tech startups. She also advises Esther Dyson’s Wellville initiatve and the Obama Foundation’s effort on Civic engagement.