Our Board

Rhyston mayS

Rhyston Mays (they/them) is Hudson Valley transplant from Chicago, and graduate of Vassar College in Sociology.

Their relationship to land and food deepened between 2014 and 2018 as they supported educational programming and cultivating vegetables on small-scale CSA and education farms. They are motivated by cherished memories of digging up carrots with grade school students, and offering them their first taste of nourishing food from its source. They recall the moments in their own youth when they first encountered the plant friends who they lean on today for wellness and vitality! Rooted in the healing and joyful experiences brought on by tending to soil, they are driven to broaden opportunities for Black people to gather skills, experiences, and agency with relation to land and our foodways.

Rhyston became involved with Black Farmer Fund in 2020, serving as a committee member of the predecessor to BFF's Investment Committee. Today, Rhyston co-leads vegetable production at Sweet Freedom Farm in Germantown, NY - a Black-led farm that grows culturally relevant, nutrient dense foods for communities impacted by food apartheid and the prison industrial complex.

Rhyston is eager to find out what kinds of futures we can manifest from the seeds that we sow!

Mekaelia Davis

Mekaelia Davis is the Director of Black Family Economic Mobility at the Ballmer Group, where she leads national work and advises on regional strategies to remove barriers and expand pathways to economic mobility for Black families. For twenty years, Mekaelia has worked at the intersection of public and private systems to improve economic opportunity and racial equity in the United States, directing over $100M to these efforts.

Prior to Ballmer Group, Mekaelia was the Director of Inclusive Economies at the Surdna Foundation, Director of Corporate Giving at Prudential Financial, Program Manager at the Aspen Institute, and has completed fellowships at several prominent impact organizations, including a National Urban Fellowship at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Mekaelia is a Senior Fellow for Racial Equity with the Atlantic Institute, a Global Impact Leader with the Sorenson Impact Institute, serves on the board of the Black Farmer Fund, and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

tori van amson

Tori spent the first five years of her career at Morgan Stanley, beginning in 2015 as an Analyst in the Global Capital Markets division. In her first role on the Private Placements team Tori helped late-stage technology startups raise pre-IPO capital. In 2016 Tori joined the Financial Institutions coverage group within Equity Capital Markets, where she structured and executed IPOs and follow-ons for Banks and Asset Managers. In 2018 Tori joined the Multicultural Client Strategy Group, where she worked to scale a small business loan fund (Capital Access Fund) and corporate accelerator targeting entrepreneurs of color (Multicultural Innovation Lab).

In September 2022 Tori will join BCG where she will focus on strategy consulting for financial institutions. Tori is a co-founder of ACE Women's Collective, an organization providing professional development resources, community events and peer mentorship for women in the finance industry. Tori holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Sociology and Business Management from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

CHINWE ONYEKERE

Chinwe is an experienced leader with over 20 years of expertise advancing equity and leveraging philanthropic investments to build resilient and thriving communities locally, nationally, and globally. In her current role as Program Officer for Strong Start for Kids™ at Vanguard, Chinwe oversees two program portfolios, Effective Programs and Connected Communities, that strives to create a robust and equitable early childhood system. Through strategic investments and community-based partnerships, Strong Start for Kids invests in tomorrow by supporting the development, learning, and joy of young children today starting before birth and continuing to age 5.

Chinwe is also the co-founder and President Emerita of Together for West Philadelphia, an organization which aims to facilitate collaboration within West Philadelphia among community, public, and private sector stakeholders to foster shared projects in order to maximize impact in the areas of health, education, food access and opportunity. She also has the pleasure of serving on faculty for the Master in Public Health (MPH) program at the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout her career, Chinwe has been committed to transforming the way health care is delivered locally and nationally to improve the health outcomes of all underserved and marginalized communities.

Chinwe received her Master of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, a Certificate in Business Essentials from Wharton School of Business at University of Pennsylvania, and her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College. Chinwe was awarded the 2015 Forum Award for Emerging Women Leaders by The Forum of Executive Women, accepted into the 2019 Class of Leadership Main Line, and named as Main Line Today Power Women 2021.

Ribka Getachew

Ribka is a dedicated community organizer, policy advocate, and community chef. As the Director of the NY Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) Campaign at Community Food Advocates (an organization that utilizes high-impact public policy that ensures all New Yorkers have access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate foods within an equity-centered food system), Ribka leads, mobilizes and supports the NY-GFPP Coalition in all activities related to advancing the adoption and implementation of the GFPP in New York City and State.

Ribka’s career has been guided by her strong quest for racial equity and justice. Previously, Ribka utilized her food-systems knowledge to protect threatened green-spaces and to support the envisioning and building up of local food infrastructures in New York City. She also worked at the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, managing the Human Justice Community Council, where she harnessed community power as a way of informing and sparking policy transformation.

Throughout this time, Ribka served as a community chef and integrative nutrition health coach, organizing with Black and Brown people in community settings around issues of food sovereignty all while exploring our cultural foodways and teaching community members to cook foods reflective of our cultural backgrounds.

DR. REverend Heber Brown

Reverend Dr. Heber M. Brown, III, is a nationally recognized faith leader, organizer, and social entrepreneur whose work has advanced food justice, food sovereignty, and community-led economic transformation for more than twenty years.

After serving nearly fourteen years as Senior Pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore, Rev. Dr. Brown witnessed firsthand the impacts of food apartheid—an experience that helped inspire the launch of the Black Church Food Security Network. Today, the Network partners with nearly 300 Black congregations and Black farmers across the country to co-create resilient, community-anchored Black food ecosystems.

His leadership has earned numerous national honors, and he is the author of the forthcoming book Nothing More Sacred: Radical Stories of Black Church Faith, Food, and Freedom.