Panel: Advocacy & Food Policy

Dr. Wendi Gosliner is a Senior Researcher and Policy Advisor at the Nutrition Policy Institute, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Her interests focus at the nexus of research, public policy and community-based efforts to improve health. Her work aims to understand and improve policies and programs that affect population health and nutrition, with a focus on eliminating health disparities, improving food security, and addressing food system equity and sustainability. Dr. Gosliner earned a Bachelor’s degree in Nutritional Sciences from Cornell University, and master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from UC Berkeley. In 2013-14, she served as a health policy advisor to the Democratic Leader, Honorable Nancy Pelosi.

Nicole Negowetti is the Senior Director of Policy at the Plant Based Foods Association. She is an attorney, educator, and scholar whose work focuses on the laws and policies shaping the U.S. agriculture and food system. Prior to joining PBFA, Nicole served as a Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where she worked at the Animal Law & Policy Clinic and the Food Law & Policy Clinic in the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. Nicole was the first Policy Director of the Good Food Institute, and she also served as an Associate Professor of Law at the Valparaiso University School of Law. Nicole is an advisor to the Food & Nutrition Innovation Institute at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, where she teaches Food Law.

Sparsha Saha is a Lecturer at Harvard University. She teaches a course on animal agriculture and politics, which explores the ethical, environmental, and health costs of animal agriculture. Her current research, the first of its kind in academia, considers how policymakers are constrained by voters when they bring up issues involving animals and what they can do to best frame their message if they want to "start talking about meat." There is not much time left for our species to address and reverse climate change. Our attitudes toward animals, how we expand our moral circle to include them, is central to this challenge in still unrecognized ways, addressing some of the root causes of our environmental dilemmas, including anthropocentrism.