Our Board
onika ABRAHAM
Onika Abraham, Executive Director of Blue Sky Funders Forum, is a farmer and educator with more than 15 years of experience as a senior nonprofit manager and an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurship from City University of New York’s Zicklin School of Business. Previously she served as the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Safe Horizon in 2010. She is one of the co-founders of Black Urban Growers and has helped organize three national Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conferences since 2010. Her commitment to this work continues in her efforts to recruit Farm School NYC students that reflect the diversity of New York City, especially those from low resource and socially disadvantaged communities, and help them achieve their professional farming goals.
KAREN WASHINGTON
Karen is a farmer and activist. She is Co-Owner/Farmer at Rise & Root Farm in Chester New York. An activist, food advocate; in 2010, co-founded Black Urban Growers (BUGS) an organization supporting growers in both urban and rural settings.
In 2012, Ebony magazine voted her one of their 100 most influential African Americans in the country and in 2014 was the recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award. In 2020, Essence magazine name Karen one of their Essential Heroes recipients, in 2021 Forbes magazine named Karen one of their 50 over 50 impact list of women making a difference and in 2023 was just named the co-recipient of the James Beard Humanitarian Award.
Karen serves on the boards of the New York Botanical Gardens, Soul Fire Farm, the Mary Mitchell Center, and Green Workers Cooperative.
Karen, or “Mama K” as she’s known in the community is a Co-Founder of Black Farmer Fund.
Rhyston mayS
Rhyston Mays is a Hudson Valley transplant from Chicago, and graduate of Vassar College in Sociology.
They aim to build upon their experiences in agriculture to engage with issues of land access and food sovereignty in Black communities.
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 over fifteen 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 $75M 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 national impact organizations, like 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.