Andrea joined the Farmshare team as executive director in January 2017 but her hands have been in the soil and her heart in food and agriculture for most her life. Throughout Andrea’s career, she has focused on creating community sustainability in a variety of nonprofit and government positions. Farmshare unites Andrea’s passions for ensuring that food is a human right by implementing community-driven, collaborative problem-solving and leveraging the collective strength and knowledge of community, government and academia. In addition to her role at Farmshare, Andrea currently is an appointee to the Austin Travis County Food Policy Board and has been deeply involved in the first City-County Food System Plan. 

 

Prior to Farmshare, Andrea served in a variety of roles, including communications director at Texas Association of Community Health Centers. She spearheaded a health center voter registration project and received the Betsey K. Cooke Grassroots MVP Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers. In her role at the National Wildlife Federation, Andrea was appointed by EPA Administrator Carol Browner to the National Advisory Committee on Trade and Environment and she advocated for civil society participation in the implementation of the NAFTA environmental side agreements. 

 

For nearly four years, Andrea served as the program administrator for U.S.-Mexico Board Affairs under Governor Ann Richards. Her work focused largely on coordinating funding and services to the Texas-Mexico border region, especially infrastructure to Texas colonias. At the Texas Department of Agriculture, she implemented the bilingual Farm Worker Texas Right to Know program, the first state program of its kind requiring farm operators to provide workers with specific information about chemicals to which workers may be exposed. For nearly a decade, Andrea worked as a freelance journalist covering food, agriculture, travel and wildlife.

 

Andrea earned a BA in Spanish Literature from Carleton College and a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School at the University of Texas with a focus on food and agricultural policy. Her professional report was titled "The Definition and Regulation of Organic Foods."