Maureen loves food -- thinking about food, growing food, eating food, cooking food, and, of course, buying local food at LEAP's famers markets. Maureen has been working with food, agriculture, and community since the early 2000s. Her work and professional experience is wide-ranging and includes teaching high school agriculture in Raleigh, NC, working with migrant farmworkers in eastern North Carolina and in the Colorado plains, doing food safety inspections in Boulder, CO, and studying the economic viability of the local food system in Northern Colorado. Maureen has an MA in Anthropology from Colorado State University and undergraduate degrees in Agriculture Education, Spanish, and Anthropology from North Carolina State University. Maureen is a Bloomberg Fellow at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health where she studies the intersection of food systems, community, and health. Maureen, her spouse, two young kids, and pup all love Roanoke and are happy to call Southwestern Virginia home.

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Jeff Bland, known as Chef Jeff around Roanoke, has been involved in the food industry for over 40 years. As a graduate of Johnson & Wales University, he gained a solid foundation of culinary fundamentals. After finishing school in 1987, his real education began, in Providence, Orlando, Williamsburg and, most recently, Roanoke, where he served 13 years as a corporate chef for a national food distributor. He has helped many people open restaurants and knows the challenges they face. Jeff is a passionate educator and advocate for the culinary arts and local food.

Elizabeth Borst has been a leader in food access programs and food system partnerships in Virginia for 14 years. As one of the state’s early nutrition incentive practitioners, Elizabeth helped develop Virginia Fresh Match, Virginia’s statewide Nutrition Incentive Network, working alongside Maureen McNamara Best at LEAP. She is also founder of Virginia Community Food Connections (VCFC), a Fredericksburg-based local food nonprofit that connects people, producers, and communities to increase consumption of healthy, Virginia-Grown fruits and vegetables. Elizabeth has started and managed farmers markets, piloted innovative food access programs and partnerships, and is passionate about connecting vulnerable people and available local produce to improve community food security and support family farms. Elizabeth has a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives in Spotsylvania, VA, with her husband, and enjoys occasional visits with her 2 adult daughters. In her free time, Elizabeth likes to cook, repurpose old things, and travel, especially to the NC coast.

Originally from Charleston, SC, Kyra grew up in a large southern and Greek family, where food was a way of life. Kyra first moved to Virginia in 2008 to attend Virginia Tech, from which she earned a B.S. in Wood Science and Forest Products. She has called Roanoke home since 2014. Kyra has most recently worked as a hardware design engineer, but also has experience in technical sales, and customer service. As someone interested in and passionate about sustainability, Kyra has been working on a personal level to break away from conventional agriculture. Her research into local, regional, and sustainable food systems lead her to LEAP. Kyra’s hobbies include experimenting with new recipes, spending time outside with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs, and helping as many people as she can access quality, locally sourced food.

When Sam graduated college, he didn’t know how to cook a pot of rice. He was an adult by the time he realized that an onion is a root. In the decade following his formal education, he has learned a lot about food. Sam has worked as a baker, line cook, commercial farmer, market manager, farm volunteer, food writer, and as a board member and director of an Arkansas-based local foods nonprofit. He loves food for its tangible nature and believes in it as the ultimate unifier in polarizing times. He loves hearing about people’s personal histories with food and agriculture and is interested in the long tradition of agriculture in Virginia. When he isn’t trying to discover a new way to eat eggplant, Sam enjoys camping with his wife and dog and watching movies at The Grandin Theatre.

Connie grew up in Bedford County and has lived in the Roanoke Valley for 35 years. Connie now lives in Botetourt County with her lovely family. Her daughter has many food sensitivities and Connie’s search for solutions brought her to the local food market. Soon, this search turned in to a love and appreciation for local food suppliers and market outlets in the Roanoke and surrounding areas. She is a proud promoter of the benefits of local and healthy food. After many years of buying local food, Connie started working for Good Food Good People, a Floyd-based former LEAP vendor and distributor of local products. She now serves as the smiling face of LEAP's Grandin Village and West End farmers markets, as well as coodinating and supporting LEAP's Mobile Market.

Kelly grew up in northern Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.S. in Rural Sociology. Her main passions are travel, food, and farming. After graduating, she backpacked through Europe for three months. Upon returning, she worked in restaurants until being accepted as an intern on an educational farm run by Heifer International in Massachusetts. There she fell in love with farming, teaching, and her now husband, Daniel. After two years of apprenticing on a farm in California, Kelly and Daniel moved back to Daniel’s hometown of Roanoke to figure out their next move and never left! When Kelly isn’t at work, she is typically working on her small farm, lovingly called Truffula Farm, in SE Roanoke, with her husband and daughter.

Maureen (Mo) McGonagle was born in Arlington, VA, and spent 13 years living and working in the New River Valley. Through her combined experiences working on a small-scale vegetable farm, working with local food access initiatives through the Blacksburg Farmers Market, and working with community gardens through the New River Health District, Maureen has cultivated a deep passion for alternative food systems as a mechanism for environmental and social sustainability. As a graduate from Virginia Tech with both a B.A. in Humanities, Science, and the Environment, and a M.S. in Agriculture, Leadership, and Community Education, Maureen is excited to harness her academic understanding of global food systems, and apply it in a local and regional context. In her free time, Maureen enjoys gardening, cooking, hiking with her dog, running, meditation, and playing music.

Christina has worked as a journalist and food writer in North Carolina, Atlanta, and Boston. She landed in Roanoke in 2006, where her need to feed her growing family in a nutritious and sustainable way sparked a love of local food that has not waned. Christina, her husband, and their three kids sold lettuce and herbs at the Grandin Village Farmers Market during the market’s first summer. She served on LEAP’s Board from 2018-2020. Since 2021, she has enjoyed sharing the story of LEAP as widely as possible.

Hannah grew up in the Shenandoah Valley and attended the University of Virginia. After graduating, she embarked on an agricultural education by working and volunteering at a variety of nonprofits and farms in Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, and Illinois. She missed the Blue Ridge Mountains and came to Roanoke to start her farm operation, Luddite Farmer, in 2021. She is inspired by low-tech methods of farming and living and sees urban agriculture as an essential part of the movement to address resource use, climate change, community health, and resilient food systems.

Theresa Rawz was raised up and down the roads between Richmond, Roanoke, and Catawba. Born to hearty country stock, she was raised with people who grew and put up their own food, and gardening became a practice as soon as she had space for her own. From big land-set layouts in Floyd to bag gardens in the back yard of a rental property in the Grandin neighborhood to her current raised-beds setup, she spends all year either growing in or planning her garden. It was when she met her now-wife, a long-time local foods fan, that her dreams of homesteading combined with her ethics of leaving the world a little better than she found it. These days, she also raises Silver Fox rabbits for meat while her adult kids carry on the family traditions through their own gardening, fishing, and cooking.

Ned Savage grew up in the Roanoke Valley and, since receiving a Bachelor’s degree in History, has lived and worked all over the country and the world, as a teacher, political organizer, travel writer, whitewater rafting guide, fine artist and muralist, bartender, cook, tour guide, event coordinator, and farmer. Since returning to Appalachia more than a decade ago, he has managed various programs in the nonprofit sector, working in grassroots neighborhood development, heritage tourism, and has held various roles within LEAP since 2016. Ned dedicates much of his time to restoring his family’s 200-year-old log cabin and regenerating the surrounding farmland. His farm, Savage Acres, is also a campground and event space, and specializes in maple syrup, medicinal herbs and teas, mushrooms, produce, and various value-added food and health products. He’s a volunteer firefighter, officer of elections, and board member of the public library, and lives and farms with his partner Alexis and their dog Abita.

Aaron is originally from Colorado, but has fallen in love with life in southwest Virginia. He was happily surprised by the region’s vibrant outdoors and local food scene, and tries his best to get involved in both as much as possible. An electrician by trade, when Aaron is not outside slack lining, farming, meditating, playing basketball, or camping, he’s almost certainly listening to dance music (House, Trance, Dubstep) or attending a music festival or concert. Aaron is thankful for this opportunity with LEAP, and is beyond excited for our community's future.

Andrea grew up on a small farm in Connecticut, where her father and his seven brothers raised vegetables for their families and to sell at farm stands and a farmers market. Andrea’s work background is in university administration and teaching English as a second language to adults in the Northern Virginia area. After moving to Salem in 2020, Andrea volunteered for several community groups, including the Roanoke Local Office on Aging where she became a Certified Medicare Counselor. She holds a BS in Spanish from Georgetown University, an MA in English Linguistics from George Mason University, a doctorate in Education from George Washington University, and most recently, a Graduate Certificate in Data Analytics and Revenue Management.

Although she received her degree in agronomy, Frances spent the bulk of her career in graphic design and advertising where she worked as a project manager. She first took an interest in LEAP as a member of the Roanoke Women’s Foundation back in 2014 when LEAP was raising money to build the LEAP Kitchen. A few years ago Frances started a microbusiness making mobiles (Fulcrum Mobiles) and now applies her balancing skills to LEAP’s books.