New Hires:

• Allison Parra will be working on career engagement and workforce development efforts at BFI. As the Food Systems Experiential Learning & Careers Program Fellow, she will run our Careers & Opportunities Newsletter and support our Education Programs Coordinator, Jezra Thompson, on career and educational programming. Parra is a fourth-year undergraduate studying Environmental Economics & Policy and minoring in BFI’s Food Systems Minor. Parra got into food systems by volunteering at local farms. She is interested in urban farming and gardening, food equity and outdoor equity, and outdoor youth education.
• Sarah Ricci is our new Community Engagement and Administrative Assistant. She is a fourth-year undergraduate at Rausser College of Natural Resources and former intern for the White House Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation Office supporting the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act. She has also worked with the Regeneration Field Institute teaching hands-on workshops on composting, syntropic agroforestry, land restoration, and supply chain sustainability. Ricci is currently conducting an honors thesis analyzing strategies to scale regenerative agriculture practices alongside Faculty Director Tim Bowles. In her new position at BFI, Ricci will provide support for BFI’s Community Engagement Program by helping to run BFI’s events.
• Sofia Rose Lyons is BFI’s Graduate Student Food & Farm Systems Engagement Fellow. In this position, Sofia will coordinate and conduct outreach for BFI’s two food systems diplomas: the Food Systems Minor and the Graduate Certificate in Food Systems. Lyons grew up as the daughter of two chefs, who helped show her the way that food can bring people together. Since then, she has volunteered on permaculture farms learning how nature can be a form of healing and how to implement regenerative farming techniques. Now, Lyons is an MBA student at the Haas Business School. Sofia who intends to focus her career on the social and environmental impact of food and agri-buisness.
• Sarah Sarfaty Epstein is a M.S. student in the Energy and Resources Group and BFI’s new Policy Assistant. In this role, she will conduct policy analysis research to support BFI’s Policy Program, write and edit policy briefs based on affiliated faculty research, and connect with community partners to disseminate policy updates to the public. She is interested in researching large scale projects in California’s agriculture sector to understand the practical relationships among greenhouse gas reduction targets, energy production, economic viability for producers, and the role of farmworker and labor organizing. Before coming to BFI, she worked on various food systems, rural development, and energy resource projects, including as a policy analyst for the Washington Food Policy Forum. Now at BFI, she will be returning to her home soil in the East Bay to work on local and statewide food policy issues.

Returning Hires

• Monserrat Hernandez has been working on a multidisciplinary research group evaluating the impacts of COVID-19 and heat stress on farm workers’ health alongside Project Scientist Professor Federico Castillo since her first-year at Berkeley. Now, as a third-year Undergraduate Agricultural Labor Research Fellow at BFI, she continues her work with farm labor issues, helping in the formation and organization of the first UC-México Farm Labor Research Cluster workshop in Mexico City. In the upcoming year, she plans to continue her involvement with the Research Cluster as a liaison between research clusters as well as a research assistant on a study looking at pesticide exposure amongst pregnant farmworkers in California.
• Olivia Rounsaville is a returning Communications Assistant for BFI. In the past year at BFI, she has aided in running and operating all of BFI’s social media accounts, authored several articles on the BFI blog, written and organized the News & Events Newsletter and aided in the creation of media for BFI-run events and opportunities. She also worked on BFI’s year long Pathways Project which profiled five professionals from across the food system, traveling around the Bay Area to local food centers. Rounsaville got into food systems growing up in West Marin, surrounded by ranching and food production. As a third-year undergraduate, she is studying Environmental Economics and Policy and Sustainable Agricultural Systems with the hope of one day supporting rural ranching communities like the one she grew up in.

We’re excited to welcome all of these new faces to our staff. To stay updated on future BFI careers and opportunities,  subscribe to our newsletters: