Don Guerra

Guerra began his career 32 years ago in Flagstaff where he was hired as a bread-baker. He opened his first bakery there in 1995, and another in Oregon two years later. He eventually returned to Tucson and became a teacher but was also experimenting with bread baking, starting Barrio Bread in his garage in 2009. He chose the name because Barrio is Spanish for neighborhood, and the name emphasizes his commitment to his community. When Guerra founded Barrio Bread, he had a vision to revive native and heritage varieties of grains in order to build a sustainable grain economy in Southern Arizona. Today, his bakery is a model for the future as Guerra unites regional farmers and millers in bringing healthy whole grains, flours, and breads to consumers, expanding the meaning of Tucson’s gastronomy. Guerra has won numerous awards, including the 2022 James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker, a 2022 MOCA Local Genius Award, was named one of the Top Ten Bakers in America by Dessert Professional magazine, and more. He shares his knowledge through interactive workshops and in the classroom with school children, at Tucson Village Farm, the University of Arizona and collaborations with brewers, restaurateurs, and retailers to bring new foods and drinks to life. Recently, Guerra opened a Barrio Bread location in Gilbert in partnership with Hayden Flour Mills.

Edward Beltran

Ed has been a Community Outreach Assistant II with Cooperative Extension, The Garden Kitchen for three years. He believes self and cultural identity are vital in building belonging and influencing strong beliefs of good nutrition and mental health in early childhood settings. Ed currently supports and collaborates with the Pasqua Yaqui Head Start in sustaining healthy habits through gardening.

David Jaimez

David has worked with the Ili Uusim Mahtawa’apo Head Start for 21 years. He believes preserving the Yaqui language and culture is a vital part of early childhood education. David is a strong believer that educating children while they are young builds the foundational and social skills needed to gain success in life and places them on the pathway to higher education.

Jasmine Sanchez

MBA

Jasmine Sanchez is an active member in her community. She is a proud parent of 4 children and a Summer Food Ambassador. Jasmine enjoys being an advocate by sharing her knowledge on resources available to families.

Gladys Cabrera

Gladys Cabrera served as a Summer Food Ambassador in the Summer of 2023. Determined to bring information about the Summer Food Service Program to every corner in her local community of Buckeye, AZ, Gladys helped to spread the word by sharing posters with businesses, engaging families at farmers markets and food banks and informing everyone she could about free meals served for all youth 0-18.

Marina Gallardo

MS

Marina Gallardo is a Community Supervisor and Food Access Lead for the AZ Health Zone at the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Maricopa County. For the past three years, she has collaborated with the Summer Food Workgroup to facilitate the Summer Food Parent Advisory Committee and the Summer Food Ambassador pilot aimed at involving parents and caregivers in the promotion of the Summer Food Service Program. The Summer Food Ambassador pilot alone has reached over 5,500 families and a planned expansion of the pilot hopes to reach even for families across Arizona in 2024.

Kaylee Haddad

Kaylee graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics and always knew she wanted to work in the community to promote nutrition and overall health. Having worked for AZ Health Zone as a student in college, Kaylee has now been a Program Coordinator with them (AZ Health Zone) for over 2 years. Being on the Childhood Systems team, and working in the Sunnyside community, Kaylee met her co-presenter, Nova Kline who has been an outstanding partner to work with, helping implement the goals of AZ Health Zone in her district and sharing her own amazing ideas that align with our program’s values to further improve our work in schools.

Nova Kline

M.Ed.

Nova Kline is an active teacher within the Sunnyside Unified School District for the last ten years and possesses a Master's degree in early childhood education. She has bridged community partnerships for the last 5 years to help students understand the role food plays in their lives. Her work includes several garden projects across two school campuses to help students realize the benefits of gardening beyond classroom walls.

Kara Haberstock Tanoue

M.A.

Kara Haberstock Tanoue, M.A., is a data scientist with the Community Research, Evaluation, & Development (CRED) team at the University of Arizona. She has over a decade of experience acquiring, analyzing, mapping, and visualizing data for needs assessments in the domains of public health and early childhood systems. Kara is the creator of the UArizona SNAP-Ed Interactive Maps, a collection of web applications that map key sociodemographic and community resources data related to SNAP-Ed, which provided data for the 2023 AZ Health Zone Needs Assessment.

Dr. Madeleine deBlois

MEd, ScD

Dr. Madeleine deBlois, a social epidemiologist by training, is a Research Scientist with the Community Research, Evaluation & Development (CRED) Team at the University of Arizona. CRED's mission is to generate accessible, actionable information that our community partners can use to support their program and policy decision-making. To that end, in 2023, the CRED team conducted a needs assessment for AZ Health Zone focusing on nutrition, active living, and other inter-related social determinants of health in communities across Arizona and will be presenting findings during our session.

Rachel Gildersleeve

MPH

Rachel Gildersleeve, MPH, is a research professional on the Community Research, Evaluation, and Development (CRED) Team at the University of Arizona. On CRED, Rachel supports community partners’ program and policy decision-making with community engagement, strategic planning, and qualitative, quantitative, and geospatial analysis efforts. In summer 2023, Rachel helped lead a needs assessment for AZ Health Zone focusing on nutrition, active living, and other interrelated social determinants of health. Take-aways from this assessment will be covered in the CRED presentation.

Rachel Leih

MPH

Rachel Leih is a Research Scientist with the Community Research, Evaluation & Development (CRED) Team at the University of Arizona. Rachel has a background in education and public health, with a particular focus on community engagement and capacity building. CRED's mission is to generate accessible, actionable information that our community partners can use to support their program and policy decision-making. To that end, in 2023, the CRED team conducted a needs assessment for AZ Health Zone focusing on nutrition, active living, and other inter-related social determinants of health in communities across Arizona and will be presenting findings during our session.

Rachel Leih contributed to the AZ Health Zone (SNAP-Ed) 2023 Needs Assessment, but could not be present for the AZ Health Zone annual conference.

Terrace Ewinghill

M.Ed.

Terrace Ewinghill is a scientific analyst with the Community Research, Evaluation, & Development (CRED) team, which supports program evaluation and capacity building to promote the thriving of Arizona families. In 2023, the CRED team conducted a needs assessment for AZ Health Zone focusing on nutrition, active living, and other inter-related social determinants of health in communities across Arizona and will be presenting findings during our session.

Terrace Ewinghill contributed to the AZ Health Zone (SNAP-Ed) 2023 Needs Assessment, but could not be present for the AZ Health Zone annual conference.