Extension Lead, Julia Freedgood
is a national expert in farmland protection, agricultural viability, and food systems who heads AFT’s efforts to support the future of farming by increasing land access and supporting next-generation farmers. She leads AFT’s efforts to train trainers and build a network of service providers to help beginners secure land and succeed in agriculture. She served on USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program Grant Review Board and the USDA-Secretary Vilsack’s Land Tenure Advisory Committee. She holds a Master of Arts in urban and environmental planning and policy from Tufts University.
Research Lead Julia Valliant is a public health researcher focused on exploring farm and food policies that support people’s ability to be well where they live. In addition to farmland access and transfer policies, her present studies focus on value chains for staple tree crops, drinking water consumption in relation to rural tap waterscapes, and medical system and policy support for food as medicine services. Valliant is a second-generation owner of a diversified farm near her hometown of Bloomington, Indiana and an Assistant Research Scientist with the Indiana University Sustainable Food Systems Science group, Ostrom Workshop, and Food Institute. She earned doctoral and masters degrees with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and its Center for a Livable Future, and an undergraduate degree in environmental science and history from the University of Virginia.
Extension Co-Lead