About the team - Page being updated, thank you for your patience!
KRISTIN REYNOLDS,,
PH.D., Founding Director, Food and Social Justice Action Research Lab; Chair and Associate Professor, Food Studies, The New School
Kristin Reynolds (she/her) is a critical food geographer based in New York City, with research focus in the US and France. Her scholarship and activism focus on informing the creation of socially just food systems in urban and rural spaces.
Her first book Beyond the Kale: Urban Agriculture and Social Justice Activism in New York City, (2016; University of Georgia Press, with co-author N. Cohen), examines and highlights the work of people of color and women to create more socially just systems, and the possibilities for scholarship to support such initiatives. Her second book Radical Food Geographies: Power, Knowledge, and Resistance (2024; Bristol University Press, with co-editors Colleen Hammelman and Charles Z. Levkoe) presents critical and action-oriented approaches to addressing food systems inequities across places, spaces, and scales.
As Chair and Associate Professor of Food Studies at The New School, Kristin teaches about global food systems, social justice, urban agriculture, and food policy. From 2013-2022, she taught on social justice in the global food system at Yale School of the Environment, where she is now an Affiliated Faculty at the Yale Center for Environmental Justice. She is also an associate research fellow at the European School of Political and Social Sciences in Lille, France.
Kristin has worked with many community-based nonprofit organizations and small-scale farms through her research, teaching, and consulting, which have informed her founding and directing the Food and Social Justice Action Research Lab (FJAR Lab) at The New School. These include the New York City-wide Farm School NYC; Corbin Hill Food Project; Brooklyn Grange rooftop farms in Queens and Manhattan; La Finca del Sur in the South Bronx; EcoStation:NY, BK Farmyards, and Hattie Carthan Community Garden in Brooklyn; and Harlem Grown in Manhattan; as well as Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York, where she served on the founding Board of Directors from 2015-2020; the national Food Chain Workers Alliance and HEAL Food Alliance. She has led and collaborated on curriculum design at several institutions of higher education, including for a first-of-its-kind associate in science degree program in Food Studies at Hostos Community College (a part of the City University of New York and located in the South Bronx). She has served on the Board of Directors of the Levitt Foundation since 2014, and is currently Board President.
Kristin holds a Ph.D. in Geography and M.S. in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis, and bachelor’s degrees in International Soil and Crop Sciences and French Language and Literature from Colorado State University. She has lived and worked on numerous farms in the United States and Europe.
MONIKA GOLAKOTI, M.A., Lab Manager, FJAR Lab, STL, The New School; Adjunct Lecturer
Sree Sushma 'Monika' Golakoti is the Lab Manager for the Food and Social Justice Action Research Lab (FJAR Lab). With a Master of Arts in General Psychology and a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science, Monika combines technical expertise and passion for equity with advancing social justice and community-driven initiatives. Monika also manages research and operations at The New School’s SexTech Lab, and serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at CCNY and BMCC, bridging disciplines, fostering inclusive spaces and addressing societal challenges through research, and education.
KYNDAL COLEMAN, M.S. Candidate, Public Engagement Fellow, FJAR Lab, The New School
Kyndal Coleman is scholar-activist from Villa Rica, Georgia. She is pursuing her master’s in Environmental Policy and Management and is a part of the 2024-2026 cohort of Public Engagement Fellows at The New School. As a graduate of the University of Georgia, she studied Environmental Economics and Management with minors in Political Science and Environmental Law. Kyndal is committed to environmental justice and is committed to doing work that bridges the gap between community, policy and academia.
AGOSSÈ NADÈGE DEGBELO, M.A., Doctoral Candidate, Institut National de Recherche sur l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Agossè Nadège Degbelo is a doctoral candidate in Sociology of the Environment at the Institut National de Recherche sur l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE) in France. Affiliated with the research unit on Environment, Territories in Transition, Infrastructures, and Societies at the University of Bordeaux, her doctoral research (under the direction of Dr. Jacqueline Candau and Dr. Valérie Deldrève) examines issues of environmental justice and farmworker exposure to pesticides. Nadège also has an M.A. in Sociology from University of Bordeaux, and is working with the FJAR Lab on a project addressing inequities experienced by immigrant and racialized farmworkers in France.
CÉDRIC GOTTFRIED, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate, Public and Urban Policy; Research Assistant, Food and Social Justice Action Research Lab, FJAR Lab, The New School
Cédric Gottfried is a Ph.D. candidate in Public and Urban Policy at The New School, with degrees in Cultural Heritage Management and Urban and Regional Planning. He has worked as a project manager and consultant in heritage preservation and planning. His research focuses on urban-rural interfaces, rural development, natural resources management, land use conflicts, and social equity in urban agriculture.
MIKE HARRINGTON, M.S., Sustainability Engagement Director, Tishman Environment and Design Center; Ph.D. Student, Public and Urban Policy, The New School
Mike Harrington is responsible for supporting the work of the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School by liaising with offices and departments throughout the university and implementing projects that advance the university’s commitment to sustainability and environmental justice. Before joining the TEDC team, Mike worked at Elevate Energy, organizing around creating equity in the energy efficiency market. He obtained his Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management from The New School and has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He is currently a Ph.D. student at The New School studying urban design from an environmental justice perspective. Mike is co-founder and collaborator on the “Understanding Food and Environmental Justice through Music” project.
MAJANDRA RODRIGUEZ ACHA, M.S. Candidate, Public Engagement Fellow, FJAR Lab, The New School
Majandra (Maria Alejandra) Rodriguez Acha is from Lima, Peru. She is a Public Engagement Fellow at The New School in the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management MS. Recently, she has worked with the Youth Climate Justice Fund, the Funder’s Learning and Action Co-Laboratory on Gender and the Environment, and FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund, as well as being a researcher on Just Transition in Peru with the World Resources Institute. Majandra is interested in interrogating and countering false solutions to the climate crisis, in exploring community-based alternatives to hegemonic paradigms, and in exploring notions of the “end of the world” and navigating hopelessness/sources of hope in the context of polycrisis, centering decolonial, anti-racist and queer ecological perspectives.
TAMARRA THOMAS, M.A., Adjunct Professor; and Research Assistant, FJAR Lab, The New School
A graduate of NYU’s Food Studies (MA) program and The New Schools bachelor’s in Food Studies program, Tamarra Thomas has had an extensive career in food. Thomas has used her knowledge and experience to help her students and community build a stronger connection to food through historical and cultural references. These days, Thomas is an adjunct professor at The New School, New York City College of Technology and NYU.
PAST TEAM MEMBERS
Constance L. Smith, M.S., worked as a key research assistant in the FJAR Lab from 2022-2024 while a Master of Science candidate at The New School majoring in Environmental Policy and minoring in Capitalism Studies.
Bénédicte Callec, M.S., was a research assistant with Dr. Reynolds from 2021-2023, as part of a project on heritage grains and food sovereignty led by the French organic agriculture organization Bio en Grand Est.
Claudia Urdanivia, M.A., started as an intern and then worked as a key project assistant. In 2017 she became a staff member with New York City’s GreenThumb community garden progam.
Eben Fenton, was a project assistant. In 2018 he became a staff member at New York Restoration Project.
Michelle Olivero, worked as a graduate student research assistant. In 2018 she joined New York’s Empire State Development Corporation.
Michaela Doughty, graduate research assistant.
Katherine Nehring, graduate research assistant.
Pauline Zaldonis, graduate research assistant.
Summer Xiu Gong, intern.
Steven McCutcheon-Rubio, graduate research assistant and volunteer.