Our Team
The Common Ground Network includes a Governance Team and a Project Team.
Governance Team includes the Coordinating Team and Team Leaders.
Project Team includes both academic and community research positions.
Team Leaders
Name
Project Role(s)
.
Annette Desmarais
Pillar Lead, People and Land
University of Manitoba
Ryan Katz-Rosene
Pillar Lead, People and Land
University of Ottawa
Jennifer Jarman
Pillar Lead, Rural and Urban Canada
Lakehead University
Karen Foster
Project Director
Pillar Lead – Rural and Urban Canada
Dalhousie University
Gregory Cameron
Pillar Lead – Canada and the World
Dalhousie University
Monika Korzun
Pillar Lead – Canada and the World
Lead – Evaluation Team
St. Thomas University
Charles Levkoe
Pillar Lead – People in/and The Food System
Lakehead University
Kathleen Kevany
Pillar Lead – People in/and The Food System
Dalhousie University
Sherry Pictou
Lead – Atlantic Indigenous Circle
Mi’kmaq First Nation
Dalhousie University
Brian Noble
Supporting Role – Atlantic Indigenous Circle
Dalhousie University
Constance MacIntosh
Supporting Role – Atlantic Indigenous Circle
Indigenous Circle Facilitator & Policy Analyst
Project Team
Name
Project Role(s)
.
Alicia Martin
Postdoctoral Fellow
Lead on Roundtables
Dalhousie University
Christy Kelly-Bisson
Research Assistant, People and Land
Dalhousie University
Eric Schofield
Research Assistant, People in/and the Food System
Lakehead University
Dhruv Manish
Research Assistant, Canada and the World
St. Thomas University
Jacob Kearey-Moreland
Research Assistant, Rural and Urban Canada
Lakehead University
Coordinating Team
Project Director
Karen Foster
View Bio
Dr. Karen Foster is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Dalhousie University and holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Sustainable Rural Futures for Atlantic Canada. She is the Associate Dean of Research in Dalhousie’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her current research focus is an Insight-funded study of occupational succession in rural Atlantic Canada, which includes many farms, fishers and food businesses. She is also a co-investigator on the Work-Life in Canada project and leads the rural families component of the national Reimagining Care/Work partnership grant.
Partnership Coordinator
Moe Garahan
View Bio
Moe Garahan has been working on food and farming issues since 1995. Focused on community development and community economic development approaches, she has facilitated the establishment of many ongoing community and regional food initiatives, (including Just Food) while supporting provincial and coast-to-coast-to-coast food systems change (presently includes Sustain Ontario, Food Communities Network and Common Ground Network). Since 2004, she has been the Executive Director of Just Food, working with teams to integrate food access and food localism within the mixed urban and rural settings of the Algonquin/Ottawa region.
Financials Coordinator
Dani Salas González
View Bio
Daniel Salas is a project manager supporting social research initiatives at Dalhousie University. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from Dalhousie University, where his dissertation explored the politics of value in agricultural communities in contemporary rural Cuba. He has also earned an MA in Cuban cultural processes from the University of the Arts of Cuba and a BA in Journalism from the University of Havana. Daniel lives in Kjipuktuk / Halifax, NS.
Team Leaders
Annette Desmarais
Project Role(s):
Pillar Lead, People and Land
University of Manitoba
View Bio
Annette Aurélie Desmarais (former farmer and PhD in Geography) was Canada Research Chair in Human Rights, Social Justice and Food Sovereignty (2013-2023) at the University of Manitoba where she is currently Professor Emerita. She gained international recognition for her work on food sovereignty and the politics of the transnational agrarian movement, Vía Campesina. Desmarais has co-edited three books on food sovereignty, edited a book on the National Farmers Union of Canada, and co-authored various academic contributions examining the gender dimensions of agriculture and rural social movements, including a major participatory study examining women farmers’ participation in Canadian agricultural policy. Since 2014, she began addressing the ‘land question’ in Canada by leading a team of researchers to investigate changing land tenure patterns on the prairies (www.landfoodsovereignty.ca). With years of experience in participatory action research, her key areas of research are agrarian change, food systems transformation, peasant and farmers’ movements, gender rural dynamics, and the land question. She is currently president of the National Farmers Foundation.
Ryan Katz-Rosene
Project Role(s):
Pillar Lead, People and Land
University of Ottawa
View Bio
Ryan Katz-Rosene is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, based in the School of Political Studies and affiliated with the Institute of Environment. His research focuses on a range of climate policy debates, examining their political economic, ecological, and discursive dimensions. His interests in sustainable agriculture largely revolve around questions of meat, livestock, protein foods, and their interrelations with land use and climate change. His work in this area has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as World Development, Nature Communications Earth Environment, and Canadian Food Studies. He served as the principal investigator on a project examining the Future of Sustainable Protein and co-edited (with Dr. Sarah Martin) Green Meat? Sustaining Eaters, Animals, and the Planet (McGill-Queen’s, 2020). He is the former President of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada and a co-host and developer of the Ecopolitics Podcast.
Jennifer Jarman
Project Role(s):
Pillar Lead, Rural and Urban Canada
Lakehead University
View Bio
Jennifer Jarman is a Full Professor, Assistant Dean of Lakehead University’s Social Sciences and Humanities Faculty, and Chair of Lakehead’s Interdisciplinary Department. A sociologist with a deep interest in problems and issues arising from social inequality, she writes, teaches, and researches in the areas of work, economy, poverty, and their intersections with law. She has written and edited numerous books and articles, the latest of which is The Right to be Rural, (co-edited with Karen Foster and published by the University of Alberta Press). She is also a Board Member of The Sharing Place, Orillia’s food bank. She holds a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University.
Karen Foster
Project Role(s):
Project Director
Pillar Lead – Rural and Urban Canada
Dalhousie University
View Bio
Dr. Karen Foster is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Dalhousie University and holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Sustainable Rural Futures for Atlantic Canada. She is the Associate Dean of Research in Dalhousie’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her current research focus is an Insight-funded study of occupational succession in rural Atlantic Canada, which includes many farms, fishers and food businesses. She is also a co-investigator on the Work-Life in Canada project and leads the rural families component of the national Reimagining Care/Work partnership grant.
Gregory Cameron
Project Role(s):
Pillar Lead – Canada and the World
Dalhousie University
View Bio
Greg Cameron received his doctorate from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London in 2002. Prior to joining Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture in 2006, he taught political science at the University of Asmara, Eritrea in northeast Africa for over 4 years, from 2002-2006. During the late 1980s and a good part of the 1990s, he worked and researched in Tanzania.
His research interests include rural policy, co-operatives, food security, the developmental state, and democratization transitions in the Global South. He is also interested in global trends in trade and governance practices, and in the Canadian context, the prospects for more localized and community controlled food systems.
Monika Korzun
Project Role(s):
Pillar Lead – Canada and the World
Lead – Evaluation Team
St. Thomas University
View Bio
Dr. Monika Korzun is an Assistant Professor in the Environment and Society program at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Before joining St. Thomas University, Dr. Korzun completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one at Dalhousie University where she focused on social sustainability in the agri-food industry and one at Saint Paul University where she explored the relationship between food security and collaborative food systems governance. Dr. Korzun holds a PhD in Rural Studies from University of Guelph, an MA in Development Studies from York University, and an Honour BA in Sociology from University of Toronto. In addition to working in academia, Dr. Korzun has several years of experience working in the private and not-for-profit sectors, including Food Secure Canada and the Food Communities Network.
Charles Levkoe
Project Role(s):
Pillar Lead – People in/and The Food System
Lakehead University
View Bio
Charles Levkoe is the Canada Research Chair in Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems, a Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada, Director of the Sustainable Food Systems Lab, and a Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Lakehead University. His community-engaged research uses a food systems lens to better understand the importance of, and connections between social justice, ecological regeneration, regional economies, and active democratic engagement. Working with scholars and practitioners across Canada, Indigenous Territories, and around the world, Dr. Levkoe studies the evolution of intersectoral networks building more equitable and sustainable futures. https://foodsystems.lakeheadu.ca/
Kathleen Kevany
Project Role(s):
Pillar Lead – People in/and The Food System
Dalhousie University
View Bio
Dr. Kathleen Kevany is a social psychologist and specializes in systems analysis for individual and shared well-being. She is a leading authority on food systems to support human, animal, and planetary health and she has co-edited the world’s definitive guide on actions for sustainable diets. As a certified Psychotherapist, for over a decade she ran her own counselling and consulting firm, the Decentralization Intelligence Agency. Kathleen is a Professor with Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture where she advances the global Sustainable Development Goals and Canada’s calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She is a geek for the creative and courageous social and applied sciences, and she leverages the most promising strategies to aid in adapting to, while focusing on reversing, global warming and accelerating the adoption of life patterns that protect well-being, prioritize equity, and position the rights of future generations at the forefront.
Sherry Pictou
Project Role(s):
Lead – Atlantic Indigenous Circle
Mi’kmaq First Nation
Dalhousie University
View Bio
Dr. Sherry Pictou is a Mi’kmaw woman from L’sɨtkuk (water cuts through high rocks) known as Bear River First Nation, Nova Scotia where she lived most of her life. She is an accomplished Associate Professor in the Faculties of Law and Management at Dalhousie University. Holding a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) position in Indigenous Governance, Dr. Pictou is highly revered in academia and beyond.
With an extensive background in community, she also served as an Assistant Professor in the Women’s Studies Department at Mount Saint Vincent University with a focus on Indigenous Feminism (2017-2020). Currently, she holds the title of Honorary District Chief for the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq (CMM). Her leadership roles also include being a former chief for her community and the former Co-Chair of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples.
Dr. Pictou’s contributions extend beyond academia; she served on the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Task Force on Indigenous and Local Knowledge. Recognized for her significant achievements, she was awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Governance (2021–2026).
Her research focus addresses the under-representation of Indigenous women in governance and decision-making processes, particularly in the context of natural resources as evidenced by “Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (2019).” By collaborating with Indigenous women, her work generates a gender-based analysis from an Indigenous perspective, contributing to Indigenous and non-Indigenous governance practices. Her research builds on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Engage Grant with KAIROS which was entitled “Building Indigenous–academic–not-for-profit relations for mobilizing research knowledge on the gendered impacts of resource extraction in Indigenous communities in Canada” and involved a digital storytelling project to be hosted on the Mother Earth and Resource Extraction Hub and a final report about a gathering of Wolastoqiyik and Mi’kmaq Grandmothers and Land Defenders and their insights on resource extraction’s impacts on gender.
Brian Noble
Project Role(s):
Supporting Role – Atlantic Indigenous Circle
Dalhousie University
View Bio
Brian Noble is an Associate Professor in Dalhousie University’s Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, located in the unsurrendered territories of the Mi’kmaw People. He has collaborated extensively with Canadian First Nations peoples and activists on practices of decolonization in settler state / Indigenous peoples’ relations for the last two decades, addressing matters ranging from Indigenous knowledges and intellectual and cultural property rights to relations with the Canadian state and international regimes of law. He has worked in partnership with Piikani Blackfoot, Secwepemc, Kwakwka’awakw, and Mi’kmaq communities. As a settler Canadian anthropologist of European descent, his aim is to engage deeply and respectfully with Indigenous peoples, in their lands, by their understandings, histories, practices, their laws and territorial authority, so as to learn, as peoples, how best to live well together, and to co-create livable futures. This demands a continual reflecting upon and reconfiguring of our own ways of relating — that is also to take up the action of decolonizing ourselves.
His current anthropological research addresses issues of our present etho-ecological moment, and the sociopolitical conditions allowing for redress of political relations between First Nations and Canada within that milieu, the rise of Indigenous law, and the processes both animating and empowering Indigenous land, resource, and knowledge rights in rapidly shifting state and global arenas, and in response to local and worldwide environmental crises. He also works in the anthropology of science and techniques, alternative economies, and on diverse practices of human/animal human/non-human relationality.
Constance MacIntosh
Project Role(s):
Supporting Role – Atlantic Indigenous Circle
Indigenous Circle Facilitator & Policy Analyst
View Bio
Constance MacIntosh is a Professor of Law at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. She has long worked in health law and policy, with a particular focus on Indigenous food and water security, and Indigenous health governance. Along with having directed Dalhousie’s Health Justice Institute and served as Acting Director for the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, she has worked on various expert policy bodies on both regional and national levels.
Gumataw Kifle Abebe
Project Role(s):
Pillar Lead, Canada and the World
Dalhousie University
View Bio
Dr. Gumataw Kifle Abebe is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture at Dalhousie University. He holds a Ph.D. in Agribusiness Management from Wageningen University and Research. Prior to joining Dalhousie University, Dr. Abebe worked at the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) and Hawassa University (Ethiopia). Dr. Abebe’s research focuses on the complex and dynamic challenges within food production, distribution, and consumption, applying interdisciplinary approaches to enhance sustainability, efficiency, and resilience in agri-food systems. His work integrates insights from economics, consumer behaviour, and supply chain management to develop innovative, data-driven solutions that support sustainable food systems.
Project Team
Alicia Martin
Project Role(s):
Postdoctoral Fellow
Lead on Roundtables
Dalhousie University
View Bio
Alicia Martin is a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University working with the Common Ground Network. She studies food systems, food security, and food literacy, promoting sustainability through an interdisciplinary lens. Alicia is interested in how a broadly conceptualized food literacy can be more holistically incorporated into education and school food programming. She has a PhD in Geography from the University of Guelph and a Master of Arts in Political Science with a Specialization in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Ottawa.
Christy Kelly-Bisson
Project Role(s):
Research Assistant, People and Land
Dalhousie University
View Bio
Dr. Christy Kelly-Bisson lives and farms along the Pijinuiskaq (LaHave) River in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia). They are a research assistant at Dalhousie University for the Common Ground Network. Christy completed their doctorate at the University of Ottawa in the School of Political Studies focusing on Canadian political economy. Their research looks at long term historical processes of settler colonialism and capitalist development to explain contemporary patterns of distribution in farmland ownership. Christy has also worked with SeedChange as a policy analyst assisting farmer-led work on local seed sovereignty. They currently operate the farm Potager Bisson, which specializes in the conservation of a diverse array of garlic varieties through agroecological techniques.
Eric Schofield
Project Role(s):
Research Assistant, People in/and the Food System
Lakehead University
View Bio
Eric Schofield (he/him) is a white settler who lives with his partner and two daughters on the territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən speaking Songhees and Esquimalt nations. He is a culinary arts educator at Stelly’s secondary on the W̱SÁNEĆ territory, where he integrates food skilling education with sustainability, food rescue, Indigenous food sovereignty, and systems thinking. He is currently working on his Master’s thesis at Lakehead university, focusing on the opportunities that food skilling has for putting climate education into practice. When not cooking or doing research, Eric can be found paddling with his family, biking through farms on the peninsula, or hiking in the rainforest with his dog Maple.
Dhruv Manish
Project Role(s):
Research Assistant, Canada and the World
St. Thomas University
View Bio
Dhruv Manish is a student majoring in International Relations and Environment and Society and minoring in Human Rights and Economics at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He works as an Environmental Education Assistant at Hayes Farm, a local non-profit educational farm and as a Legislative Page at the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick. He has keen interest in sustainable food systems and working towards a more energy efficient as well as carbon neutral world economy.
Jacob Kearey-Moreland
Project Role(s):
Research Assistant, Rural and Urban Canada
Lakehead University
View Bio
Jacob Kearey-Moreland is a PhD student in Educational Studies at Lakehead University (Orillia) researching community food literacy and teacher education. He teaches courses at LU related to democracy and social justice education, and “Sustainable Practices in Agriculture” at Georgian College in Barrie. He currently serves as VP for the Simcoe-Dufferin Local of the National Farmers Union-Ontario, board member of The Sharing Place Food Centre, chairs Orillia’s Food Working Group, and coordinates the Farm Lab – an agroecological learning commons and K-12-school outreach program. An agroecologist, community gardener and seed librarian, Jacob is passionate about food systems transformation and the joy of growing and sharing seeds and food. Contact Jacob at kearey-morelandj@lakeheadu.ca
