SAAFON - Key Persons
Alisha Johnson Perry, CFRE, traces her social justice fundraising roots to early childhood practices modeled by her parents. From putting dimes in a milk carton during her church's 40-day fast, to tithing on everything from birthday to college funds, Alisha learned that God's work always came first. Alisha pursued a dual degree in Journalism and Spanish with hopes of becoming a writer and teacher. A decade-long Louisiana Legislative Aide stint, the disruption of a federal flood, and a subsequent law degree, propelled Alisha into fundraising in 2007. Her spiritual, cultural and community traditions grounded her recovery post-Hurricane Katrina, guiding her into grant writing for immigrants' rights advocacy in Mississippi, and for equitable education, food and nutrition access for New Orleans' students. Her keen donor engagement and outreach work has resulted in millions of philanthropic dollars directed toward racial justice advancements across the U.S. Gulf South.
Alisha's self-decolonization work includes deference to the Opelousas, Biloxi, Choctaw, Chitimacha, United Houma Nation, and other indigenous people who stewarded the U.S. Gulf Coastal Plain for ancient generations. In learning of her family history as sugar cane workers on the Mississippi River Road, Alisha found that some of her ancestors from Eastern and Western Hemispheres walked with privilege through the streets of 18th century Bulbancha, or Greater New Orleans, while others were dragged through those same streets, disenfranchised and mislabeled as subhuman under slavery, Black Codes and other impacts of colonialism. Alisha's intentional and ancestral self-care regimen includes walking, family, gardening, research and writing, and learning in community.
Alisha feels honored to join her lived fundraising experience with the richness of SAAFON's collective wisdom weaving and community building, to support generations of entrepreneurs who are sustaining and returning to Black agrarianism.
alsie parks is an atlanta-native, that advocates and activates the use of food as an organizing tool for healing and liberation. as a child of the south, she is the granddaughter of educators, sharecroppers, and black land owners with ancestral land in Lincolnton, GA. as a farmer organizer, agrarian cultural worker, food systems practitioner, land steward and nurturer she serves by cultivating intimate and responsive relationships with and for the land and our people that activate remembrance, honor sacred traditions and shares in the practice of Black land-based lifeways and foodways. she currently serves as the Director of Field Organizing for SAAFON and is the former Southern Regional Organizer for the National Black Food & Justice Alliance. in addition to her work with SAAFON alsie is a founding core member of Fort Negrita Cooperative, Black Mycelium Project, and the Black Agrarian Workers of the South Collective (BAWS). she values the love, labor and intelligence of farmers, black cultural geographies, storytelling, truth telling, kitchen magic, hospitality, porch talks, sisterhood, big mama energy, being queer and being expansive.
Blain is a peasant, agroecology activist, member of the SAAFON Board, BDFC, and timber framer with Earth-Bound Building. Blain has over 12 years of lived experience in farming and land-based organizing both domestically and internationally. Deeply passionate about community, Blain is committed to strengthening the symbiotic ties between land, farmers, and community power.
A native Mississippian, is the Treasurer of the SAAFON Board. Ms. Cindy holds undergrad uate and master's degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Ph.D. from Jackson State University. The 9-11 terrorist attack was a tipping point for Ms. Cindy, and she move d back home to Mississippi. After a further epiphany in 2010, she traded in her heels for boots, although her dream of becoming a farmer didn't happen overnight. She began with a small garden and took it upon herself to visit institutions like Alcorn State University and her local United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA/NRCS) office to learn more about how to successfully manage a farm. Today, as the founder-owner of Foot Print Farms, she grows an array of natural fruits and vegetables, while also raising goats, chickens, cattle, and horses. Her vivid pink bus, a trademark symbol of Foot Print, is also used to transport goods to various farmers' markets and pop-up shops throughout the region. In 2021, Dr. Ayers- Elliot was also a Selected Farmer of the Year by the Southern Federation of Cooperatives Mississippi Association and Alcorn State University.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder, Former Board Member / Louisiana
is Professor Emeritus of the Southern University Ag Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a current SAAFON Board member, and, alongside the late "Ma" Cynthia Hayes, is one of SAAFON's co-founders. As a Professor at Southern, Baba Owusu conducted organic production workshops throughout the Southeastern U.S., the Caribbean, and Africa. In the 1990s, Baba Owusu and his wife, Efuru, established the Food For Thought Organic Farm, which was the only African American owned certified organic operation in Louisiana at the time. Dr. Bandele has also been a middle and high school teacher in Baltimore City; served on the National Organic Standards Board; founded the 27-year old Black History Quiz Bowl at Southern University; and with colleague Dr. Gail Myers, and many others, has contributed critically to the thought and practice of Black Agrarianism. Dr. Bandele's years of work, expertise, and dedication were recently recognized in the form of the 2021 George Washington Carver Public Service Hall of Fame Award.
Jael is shy but fierce, reserved but resilient. An artist in every way with a nurturing heart. Natural highs are laughing, eating, fun, family and friends. She is always ready for an adventure and shine no matter where they go.. Jane of all trades and multi-talented, heavenly favored and highly educated! A mother and wife, and a friend for life! Jael is a sweet soul who would give you their last. Graduating from Devry University with an Associate of Applied Science in Business Management & Marketing was just a drop in the bucket for her to reach her long yet adventurous goal of assisting my family in building our farm and land base. Jael grew up centered around farming and what it entails. Jael is a third-generation agrarian with a special interest on how we work with what we grow. Jael enjoys teaching others about how we can integrate farming into our home cuisine on a daily basis.
Jason is the first generation in his family born off the farm. He found a part of himself he didn't know was missing through working the land. After graduating from college, Jason was on fire and driven to be an agent of change with a particular focus on youth development. He returned home to Pitt County with a vision of teaching in the public schools. For the next two years he taught Language Arts at his former middle school. When his first child was on the way, Jason reached back to his ancestral agrarian roots and started a garden and found that in harmony and communion with the natural elements hours passed unnoticed and uncounted. Connecting with the land birthed a vision to restore the connection of people and land. In 2013, Jason stepped out of the public school system to work on advancing his vision full-time. Jason began managing an existing community garden within a larger community garden network in Greenville, NC. Through the garden achievements and his community engagement Jason was quickly promoted to manager all eight community gardens in the network. He also registered the first urban farm in his town, selling organic vegetables to local CSA' s, juicing companies, and a mobile food market. After years of cultivating community through the community garden network. Jason developed a youth agricultural training program - Cultivating Youth Entrepreneurs (CYE) and an urban farm school curriculum. CYE graduates have gone on to establish their own production farms and enroll in university seeking agriculture-related degrees. Jason continues to be an educator, taking the practical and theoretical knowledge he has gained through his journey to reclaiming his agrarian identity and serves as a consultant to local farms and organization on best practices, certification, and operation management. With a clear calling for this work, Jason continues farming and building farmer - to - farmer relationships as a means to establish self - sustainable food systems throughout our communities.
Jesse Buie has been farming for 20 years and currently works as President/Farmer of Ole Brook Organics, Inc, out of Brookhaven, MS, which has been certified organic for five years. Mr. Buie is Vice-Chair of the SAAFON Board. He is also a member of the National Organic Standards Board. Ole Brook produces mixed vegetables and melons and has started growing ginger and turmeric to produce a private label organic tea. In addition to farming, Mr. Buie keeps himself busy as the President and CEO of Total Care Solutions, a healthcare management firm; as Owner and Chief Pilot of Airtravel South, Inc., a pilot training and aircraft rental company; and Co-Owner of Capital City Children's & Adolescent's Clinic, which provides health services for ages birth to 21 years. Mr. Buie is a Veteran of the United States Army Medical Service Corps and is a recipient of the Army Achievement Medal for Meritorious Service and the Army Commendation Medal. He holds a BS in Chemistry from Dillard University (New Orleans, LA), and a Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Operations
Kayla is a native of Southwest Atlanta whose special power is opening the lines of communication between communities and organizations to get things done. She currently serves as an Organizer of The Free Black Women's Library Atlanta and Founder of BlkGrl Bookshop, both spaces center the works and lives of Black writers and work to deconstruct barriers to literary access.
Kayla is an obsessive book lover, reader, and servant of Black women storytellers. True to form, Kayla is a Cancer to the core with three main veins as her world continues to evolve; love, protect, and build.
Kiyah Harris (Communications Assistant) Kiyah's story starts with a cobweb. When she was a little girl, her grandmother told her that wounds could be healed with a clean spider web. From then on, the outdoors became her playground. Kiyah learned all the different functionalities of plants, rocks, and animals. As she had gotten older, she participated in 4-H and many other youth events. In 2016, her family acquired a historic textile mill and opened it to the public to teach about traditional practices and ways to live. By the time college came around Kiyah had a clear path of what she wanted to do. Kiyah wanted to heal people with nature and with a concentration on self-sufficient lifestyles and sustainable harvesting practices. Kiyah spends her time in the field learning from plants. She has published several books detailing plants and plant medicine. Now, she gets to live her dream building connections with farmers here at SAAFON as the Communications Assistant.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Membership
Shelby Johnson is a farmer and forager with a passion for deeply collaborative models of community engagement based around our shared love of the land. With deep family roots in Atlanta, Georgia and Asheville, North Carolina, Shelby is dedicated to uplifting and preserving the unique culture of the South. Following completing her degree at Georgia State University, Shelby dove headfirst into learning and working in various settings related to sustainable agriculture, beginning her journey on a permaculture farm. Shelby's experiences in agriculture lead her on a journey through many different styles of land engagement, ranging from mid-scale organic production, to a 350 member CSA farm, small scale culinary production, and non-profit educational based agriculture. Each of her working experiences provided a deepening of her understanding of working with the land in a specific context, and broadened her farming expertise.
Ultimately, Shelby's experiences as a farmer have imparted to her an understanding and honor of the intimate webs that hold all of us - whether we be human, fungi, plant, insect, animal, or otherwise - together. Believing that the only future we can guarantee is the one we mutually create, Shelby is dedicated to supporting her community in meaningful ways through the lens of regenerative agriculture.
Tamara "Tammy" Harris (Engagement and Education Coordinator) Tamara comes to us from the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, where her duties included assisting local farmers to access all of the services and resources available through Agricultural Natural Resources (ANR), Family and Consumer Sciences(FACS) and 4-H programs. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Tammy moved to Georgia as a preteen. She spent most of her teenage years traveling weekly between metro Atlanta and the rural Georgia family farm. In 1994, Tammy attended the University of West Georgia and later Georgia Perimeter College where she studied Business Management. Tammy has been a long-time advocate for environmental conservation, traditional homesteading practices, and cultural heritage projects. In 2001, Tammy left an accounting career to travel across North America visiting various North American sub - cultures including the Amish, Gullah - Geechee, and Native Americans. She developed friendships with many of the residents in these communities and eventually opened a retail store that highlighted many of their arts and crafts contributions. In 2004, she published the first of three books celebrating the local history and contributions of small towns in America. In 2015, she co - founded a nonprofit historical cultural heritage museum called This Old Farmhouse, GA located in Heard County. The museum also serves as an agritourism attraction exploring the daily lives of small - scale West GA farming families during the early - mid 20th century.
Terry Hayes is a Board Member of SAAFON and the husband of SAAFON's late co-founder, Cynthia Hayes. Mr. Hayes has been an integral part of the birth and growth of SAAFON, serving as a thought partner and sounding board for Cynthia, as well as the visual documenter for the organization. Mr. Hayes originally met Cynthia at a reggae concert in San Francisco in 1986, and they shared a love for the Caribbean, especially for Jamaica. They married in 1988, and in 1991, they moved to Montego Bay where Cynthia worked with local farmers to produce value-added products and organized a summer camp for US inner-city boys to experience Black life and culture in a different part of the African Diaspora. In 2000, Mr. Hayes and Cynthia moved to Savannah, GA, where he supported Cynthia's continued work centered on land, environmental justice, and supporting African American farmers. Mr. Hayes and Cynthia were closely involved with the Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network (GAAPHN) and both became members of the Steering Committee. Often seen riding his bicycle around Savannah, Mr. Hayes continues to be a guiding force for SAAFON and is dedicated to its continued work.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director
- Director of Strategic and Programmatic Development at the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic
Whitney Jaye (she/they) is a farmer-organizer, land steward, and mother whose love for the land and sea stem back deep into her life and lineage.
As a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, Whitney Jaye sees her work through the lens of Black Southern lifeways that (re)center agrarianism, and through the ancestral memories and practices of coastal Carolinian culture. She has done a variety of food systems work and organizing, from farming and youth agricultural education, to farmers market management, and cooperative development. She has designed and implemented a variety of projects and programs with diverse partners, including with The Conservation Fund, City of Atlanta Parks and Recreation, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Morehouse School of Medicine, Ashoka Changemakers, and West Atlanta Watershed Alliance.
Whitney Jaye currently serves as the Director of Strategic and Programmatic Development at the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network (SAAFON), where she anchors the development of our programs and projects, and works to ensure that the organization's strategies, offerings, and partnerships reflect the needs of its members, and aligns with the organization's mission.
Whitney Jaye currently serves as the Director of Strategic and Programmatic Development at the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network (SAAFON), where she anchors the development of our programs and projects, and works to ensure that the organization's strategies, offerings, and partnerships reflect the needs of its members, and aligns with the organization's mission.
In addition to her work with SAAFON, Whitney Jaye is the farmer/steward of Sunbird Flowers in Lithonia, Georgia, a founding member of the Black Agrarian Workers of the South Collective (BAWS), has served on the Leadership Team of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA), and the Steering Committee of the Southwest Atlanta Growers Cooperative (SWAG). She deeply values the brilliance, spirit, and abundance of Black Southern agrarian magic, and has been a witness to its power to transform and heal.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Anchor and SAAFON Board Chair
Co-Owner of Sejah Farms of the US Virgin Islands currently serves as the Chairwoman of SAAFON's Board. Her voice along with her husband serves as an advocate for the status of agriculture and the continued development of the state of the territories and the need for change. She has received many awards and recognition for her work in her community. Sejah Farms of the US Virgin Islands, located on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, was established in 1998 and is owned and operated by Mrs. Browne and her husband, Dale Browne. Their farm consists of thirty-two acres of farmland that are used to graze sheep, goats, grow a variety of vegetables, poultry, and egg production, and a training outlet for local small farmers in their location. Sejah Farm has been committed to providing quality meats and sustainable vegetables in the U.S. Virgin Islands to meet the local market demand. Their farm is also home to educational workshops including seminars, training, and consultations for farmers and the broader community. Mr. & Mrs. Browne were the founders of the Virgin Islands Farmers' Cooperative, Inc., developed for the revival of the Virgin Islands agricultural industry. They are also founders of Island Food Security Network; a small growers group developed to meet large-scale wholesale demand from small farmers. Their Farm is home to the local annual event Bush Cook / Chef Cook known across the region as a showcase of their local agricultural arena. They are also members of the Federation of Southern Cooperative based in Atlanta Georgia. She serves as Executive Director for Slow Food VI and has represented the Virgin Islands in Italy at the Slow Food International Conferences.
Zel Taylor ( they/ them ) is a Black queer non binary farmer in the deep South. Their people are from Atlanta, Waynesboro, Calhoun and Augusta Georgia area. As the descendant of sharecroppers, enslaved landworkers, farmers and herbalists, they are deeply committed to a relationship with the land through growing food, foraging, and spending time with community on the land. Zel has spent time as a farm and nutrition educator , operated a small plant-based business, built two tiny living spaces to sustain needs around farming, and traveled , worked on and co managed small production farms across the country. Their land practice includes growing vegetables, flowers, and herbs at their farm Down by the River Farm and Art Collective. They are an artist of many sorts, builder, crochet/ basket weaving enthusiast, painter, seamstress in training , and enjoy cooking all the wonderful produce grown. Zel is inspired by the work and words of Fannie Lou Hammer and by their ancestors that tended to this land. They deeply believe that liberation is rooted in the ability to access land to feed oneself and community and with a relationship that honors the land as kin. As a dreamer these seeds are deeply woven into their vision.