Author

Jonah Fertig-Burd is a Cooperative Development Specialist with the Cooperative Development Institute in the Cooperative Food Systems programs.  He works with farmers, food producers, cooks, distributors, and community members to develop democratic businesses. He is a co-founder and board member of the Maine Farm and Sea Cooperative and has served as a development coordinator for the nation’s first farm & sea-to-institution cooperative.  He also works with New American farmers, assisting them in developing cooperatives and helped Somali Bantu Farmers in Lewiston form New Roots Cooperative, the first New American owned cooperative and farm in Maine.  Previously, he co-founded Local Sprouts Cooperative in Portland, Maine and helped develop it into a successful worker-owned cafe. 

Crystal Byrd Farmer is an engineer turned educator. She is the organizer of Charlotte Cohousing, supporting three forming communities. She is passionate about encouraging people to change their perspectives on diversity, relationships, and the world. She loves organizing meetups, teaching, and playing with her six-year-old daughter. As the owner of Big Sister Team Building, she leads team-building exercises and creates mobile escape room experiences.

Michaela Fisher is a recent graduate of Wesleyan University and a 2017-2018 Thomas J. Watson Fellow studying worker cooperative and the greater solidarity econmy abroad.  Over the course of a year, she will travel to Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Nepal, and Canada to explore their cooperative economies.

Miki Kashtan is an international teacher, creator of Convergent Facilitation, and author of three books, the latest being Reweaving Our Human Fabric: Working Together to Create a Nonviolent Future.

NCBA CLUSA has been promoting, protecting and advancing the cooperative way of doing business in all areas of the economy since 1916. Our members include co-ops in food, farming, insurance, utilities, and service co-ops.

Stephanie Van Hook wrote this article for YES! Magazine. Stephanie is the executive director of the Metta Center for Nonviolence, author of Gandhi Searches for Truth: A Practical Biography for Children, and host of Nonviolence Radio.  Find all this at www.mettacenter.org.