The Learning Farm Staff Bios
Christa Núñez
Christa Núñez is an African American entrepreneur, researcher, agriculture educator, social justice practitioner, and storyteller. She focuses her work on creating cooperative land governance models and equitable food systems with African diaspora communities. As a facilitator for change in the realm of narrative building, education, and food justice, she collaborates with stakeholders across multicultural, multigenerational, and interdisciplinary lines, cooperating primarily on projects with children and families.
Pete Núñez
Pete Núñez was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Harlem, NY. He developed a love for the outdoors while living in the beautiful Redwood Forest of Northern California and enjoys working the land and producing good food for the community. As a behaviorist, he loves working with young people in all phases of their development and enjoys supporting pathways to healthy communication and relationship-building.
Jay Smith
For more than 25 years, Jay Smith has been a food justice advocate, working in and with organizations challenging food apartheid. As a community activist, he helped to start and steward community gardens in Brooklyn, NYC to promote urban agriculture, beekeeping, and ecological awareness both in NYC and Ithaca, NY. As part of the work of preparing for the inevitable ecological changes occurring in the world today, Jay also contributes his time and energy to supporting the cultivation of knowledge among people of color about farming and growing food independently of the ecologically destructive, food apartheid agricultural system. He works with Christa and Pete Nunez to help promote the Quarter Acre for the People project of enabling the building of intentional communities for historically marginalized people of color.
Anibel LebrÓn
Born in Puerto Rico, Nayda moved to Los Angeles as a teen to study Cinema-Television Production and Theatre at the University of Southern California. Nayda has enjoyed a long career in the Arts. She has worked in numerous capacities in film production, commercials, and online media as a Producer, Editor, Screenwriter, and Actor, excelling as a Director. What connects her multiple roles is her eye and love for beauty. Her peers describe her style as poetic and beautiful yet powerful. She has participated in international film festivals and has received awards in the Feel Good Film Festival and the Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood as a Director/Producer. She has also been a professional photographer for over 20 years specializing in portrait photography for entertainers and models. As a creative director, she has established various companies’ visual identities bringing to life the client's purpose and vision. Her attention to order and detail, creativity, and extensive network in film and other media have her working on projects on both coasts. Nayda hopes to produce soon a documentary based on her experiences as a multicultural and bilingual American showcasing what unites the human spirit. Her motto is: "If someone can't see its beauty, I'll show it to them!" - Nayda Lebron
Davi Mozie
Davi Mozie has been a noteworthy leader in the world of organizational leadership and development and community organizing and engagement for over thirty years. You may know her from her work as an international military and youth lead trainer and facilitator with the national violence prevention organization A Call To Men but she can also be credited with contributions to program development and advocacy for incarcerated youth and adults at the Delaware Center for Justice Inc. She enthusiastically provided leadership to the Creating Healthy Places to Live, Work, and Play project at the Human Service Coalition of Tompkins County, funded by New York State’s Department of Health. In this role, she focused on training workplaces and communities on best practice strategies for increasing access to healthy food, physical activity, and ergonomically optimized workstations.
Other contributions and distinctions include serving as the first appointed Chair of the City of Ithaca’s Public Safety and Information Commission, a recipient of Cornell University’s Public Service Centers’ Civic Leader Fellow award, and Executive Director at the Southside Community Center and Program Coordinator at the Village at Ithaca.
Mozie coordinates Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives and is an integral member of the leadership team at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County; She plays a major role in positioning the organization for long-term success as an equitable and inclusive workplace. Mozie leads with compassion and has increased the organization’s capacity to recruit, hire, and retain a diverse staff. She works closely with the Board of Directors to maximize their potential and increase opportunities to cultivate a workplace culture of acceptance, respect, and well-being.
Mozie’s vigor for leading with compassion can be traced back to her time as a combat medic in the US Army where she played a significant role, in supporting fellow soldiers to overcome physical and emotional workplace trauma. Mozie uses that experience in Nairobi, Kenya where she collaborates with justice organizations, individuals, indigenous tribes, and non-government organizations in Africa’s largest informal settlement and villages. Mozie earned a Master of Science in Administration of Justice from Wilmington University and is passionate about cultivating healthy, safe, and strong communities and workplaces.
Click below to learn more about the International Jumper’s United Mentoring Program (I-JUMP) and Mozie’s Involvement
Cintia Orsi
Cintia serves and supports people's personal and professional development as a Life and Executive coach (www.cintiaorsi.com). Mother of 4 children, ranging from 3 years old to 21 years old, Cintia enjoys co-creating moments where the best of everyone's gifts, talents, and abilities can inspire and move others to a higher purpose.
Cintia holds a B.Sc. and B.Ed. combined degree in Biology from the Universidade of Campinas (UNICAMP/Brazil), an M.Sc. in Genetics and Molecular Biology from UNICAMP, Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Cornell University. Before becoming a professional coach, Cintia served the agricultural industry from scientist to leader.
Cintia is an ACE-certified coach by Accelerating Coach Excellence - Journey to Mastery with David B. Peterson and David M. Goldsmith by WBECS since 2021, an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) recognized by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) since 2019, trained and certified by ICI Integrated Coaching Institute (ICF-accredited training program), 2017; mentored by ICI and Empower World, 2017.
Yoshiko Hogg
Yoshiko loves the outdoors and farm education. She is the mother of three children and a Special Education teacher and aide. She taught kindergarten in Japan for many years and loves to share her vibrant Japanese culture with young people. She’s currently a student in Clinical Psychology at Musashi No Graduate University.
Christine Barksdale
Christine Barksdale is a local small business owner. She has served on a number of non-profit boards including the Cornell Cooperative Extension, Southside Community Center, and the Human Services Coalition. She currently volunteers at Loaves and Fishes and the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, where she is a previous board member. She currently serves on the board of the Ithaca Housing Authority.
The Learning Farm Advisor Bios
Bruno Xavier
Dr. Bruno Xavier serves as an advisor for the Juicery through his role as Senior Extension Associate in Cornell's AgriTech Food Science Department. A nationally recognized food scientist, he provides comprehensive technical expertise regarding ingredients, production, safety, regulatory requirements, and product development for Juicery products.
Roger Morse
Roger Morse is our technical advisor through his role as Pilot Plant Manager at Cornell AgriTech Food Venture Center. He is an experienced Food & Beverage Manager with a strong operations background.
Jeff Furman
Jeff Furman is the juicery’s financial and business development advisor. Jeff Furman served on Ben & Jerry’s corporate board for almost 40 years, providing in-house legal counsel and fostering many of the company’s social initiatives. He brings extensive experience in both structuring lucrative and charitable financial development projects.
Stacie Clark
Stacie has been running a graphic design studio for over 15 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her background is full of things like corporate retail advertising, hand illustration, logo design, photography, art direction, and crafting. She loves solving problems and developing creative solutions for her clients!
Brandon Wright
Co-founder/entrepreneur in Fintech, currently CEO at Payfully, bringing liquidity to commission and transaction-funded professionals. Previously co-founder and CEO at Katapult (KPLT), the category leader in online BNPL for nonprime, helping retailers sell life’s necessities to 100M nonprime consumers seamlessly through every channel, from online to in-store. - Experience in operations at Vista Equity Partners and Smith Barney, as well as founding companies in residential mortgage, multi-family real estate, and retail coffee. - Whitman College undergrad / Cornell University MBA
Cornell Dyson School of Business student advisors
Vansh Gupta
Vansh is a Cornell University undergraduate double majoring in Applied Economics & Management, and Statistics with minors in Mathematics. Passionate about using mathematical and analytical tools to solve problems in management, he seeks to pursue a career in academia - producing research in management science. He spent his summers exploring the wide applications of programming in ML and Deep Learning to optimize various situations and working to launch a Canada-based ed-tech startup in India. Apart from work and school, he enjoys adventure - from cliff diving to trekking and is fascinated by urban planning and subway systems in metropolitan cities!
Kara Mullarkey
Kara is a 2021 graduate of the Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management where she concentrated in marketing and minored in nutrition and health. She became involved with the Learning Farm in 2018 through the student organization, Cornell Marketing, where she worked to develop an initial marketing plan and website for the Learning Farm. She continues working with the learning farm as a marketing and media consultant. She is passionate about health, wellness, and conservation and aims to combine these interests with her affinity for solving business problems in her career. She currently works full-time in the life sciences space as a Strategy Insights and Planning Associate Consultant at ZS Associates in San Francisco, CA. In her free time, she loves to exercise, cook, listen to podcasts about health, spend time on the California coast, and go to live music events!