2026 Summit Program & Guide

Jessie LaRose is the General Manager of the Potsdam Food Co-op, a member-owned food cooperative serving the North Country since 1973. Jessie has worked for her Co-op for 18 years, gaining experience across the organization before stepping into her current leadership role. As General Manager, she provides leadership across the Co-op’s operations, financial management, human resources, governance, member relations, and strategic development.

In her current role, Jessie has helped guide the Co-op through significant organizational and financial challenges while advancing the development of a new facility designed to expand its retail capacity and strengthen its long-term sustainability. Her work includes financial and operational planning, grant development, capital planning, organizational governance, and navigating the complex considerations involved in growing a community-owned business.

With nearly two decades of experience within a food cooperative, Jessie brings a perspective grounded in both the day-to-day realities of cooperative operations and the long-term work of building resilient organizations. She is particularly interested in the evolving role of food cooperatives and the opportunities for a new generation of leaders to strengthen the cooperative model while remaining responsive to the needs of their members, employees, producers, and communities.

Lucy has served as General Manager of the High Falls Food Co-op since November 2020. Prior to this, she spent ten years at the Springfield Food Co-op (Springfield, VT), first as the bookkeeper, and then as the finance and human resource manager. She came to food co-ops after several years working on diversified livestock farms. In both fields, she has seen the holistic results of local ownership of food systems, and she believes cooperative structure is fundamental for healthy communities and people. From 2023-2026, Lucy served on the board of the Neighboring Food Co-op Association, a regional association of food cooperatives throughout the Northeastern US. She is passionate about developing staff, joy in the workplace and in life, and increasing access to good food.

Vince is the General Manager of the Abundance Food Co-op in Rochester NY. He has been in his current position for the past year and been with the co-op for four years serving as Front End Manager and grant-writer for Abundance previously. He has a background in leadership with arts organizations including ten years as artistic director of a science fiction-focused theater company in Boston, Massachusetts.

Tyliyah Warren is communications lead of Food for the Spirit and is based in Buffalo. She uses her creativity and communication skills online and offline to build her brand called Sun Will Rise. Tyliyah understands the importance of collaboration to achieve her goals while working toward a shared vision of growing stronger systems in Buffalo created by the community and for the community.

Monti Lawson (he/him), Infrastructure and Ecosystem Partnership Manager at WILDSEED community Farm and Healing Village, leverages his urban farming expertise from NYC to enrich WILDSEED’s farming ecosystem. He is a Black, gay farmer and an advocate for community-driven agriculture who founded Catalyst Collaborative Farm. Monti graduated from Farm School NYC and is an active member of the FSNYC alumni community.

He is also a member of Black Farmers United of NYS, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, NYS BIPOC Grower Support Network, and a member of the Leadership Advisory Committee for the Equity Fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. In 2023, he was honored to serve as the inaugural representative for Manhattan and Staten Island on the USDA Farm Service Urban County Committee for NYC. Monti’s role involves promoting agricultural diversity and innovation, aligning with WILDSEED’s nature-harmonious farming practices and food forest cultivation. Monti’s commitment to providing access to land for BIPOC farmers supports our liberatory economics and ecological guidance.

Monti loves working at WILDSEED tending to the land with care, building community rooted in justice, and stewarding a vision for Black and queer liberation. He cultivates deep relationships—with the soil, with people, and towards a more liberated future.

Rebekah Williams (she/her), is a community activist and organizer, and organizational development & strategy lead of Food for the Spirit, based in Western New York. Born and raised in Buffalo, she has spent more than two decades working in nonprofits whose missions align with her values, building collective power, advancing food systems change, and working alongside frontline communities for food justice. She is also a co-founder of the Buffalo Food Equity Network, the Good Food Buffalo Coalition, and Black Farmers United New York State. Rebekah has co-authored published work on reparations and food justice, racial justice in institutional food procurement, and youth climate justice activism. Rebekah is a recipient of the Community Food Funders Seeding Power Fellowship and the Rockwood/Oishei Leaders of Color Fellowship, she is an alumni of the HEAL Food Alliance School of Political Leadership, and in 2022, she led Food for the Spirit to receive the Community Food Funders Champions Award. In May 2026, Rebekah was awarded a SUNY Honorary Doctorate of Science from Buffalo State University, the highest honor offered by the State University of New York, and she delivered the commencement address at the university’s 154th graduation ceremony. Rebekah lives with her partner, Peter, in the Finger Lakes region, and remains deeply rooted in and committed to Buffalo and the communities that shaped her.

Sajo is a Cooperative Business Developer in CDI’s Cooperative Business Services Program. At CDI, Sajo guides groups exploring cooperative ownership through the development process, providing technical assistance, training, and facilitation. Sajo’s work to build and sustain cooperative entities reflects their commitment to the expansion of the cooperative ecosystem and transformation towards a democratic and sustainable economy.

Originally from the Connecticut River Valley, Sajo developed a deep appreciation for farming in their youth. Sajo’s commitment to economic and social justice was cemented by their participation in agroecological exchange in the US and abroad, studying Black self-determination in the food system, and working on the land at farms and food sovereignty organizations.

Sajo comes to CDI after a decade of work building business management skills, facilitating strategic planning, organizing community partnerships, and cultivating shared governance practices. Through this work, Sajo developed a deep appreciation for cooperative ownership and ecosystems. Their experience spans cooperative development, agricultural education, food sovereignty and community organizing.

Saduf has worked for over two decades within various membership-based organizations throughout New York City as a community organizer, direct service provider, cooperative developer, among other roles. At the NYC Network for Worker Cooperative (NYC NOWC), she has supported efforts to build a strong local network and movement for worker cooperatives through member-led advocacy, leadership development, and educational programming that fosters cooperation amongst cooperatives and builds connection to movements for solidarity economy and social justice. Prior to NYC NOWC, she has worked with immigrant and BIPOC communities in the areas of workforce development, cooperative development, workers’ rights, housing and environmental organizing, and youth services.

Elizabeth, originally from the Dominican Republic, is a passionate advocate for cooperatives and their potential to foster a more just and equitable society. Her journey in the cooperative world began as a co-founder of NannyBee, instilling a deep commitment to cooperative values such as democratic decision-making, equitable resource distribution, and amplifying the voices of underrepresented individuals. Elizabeth has honed her communication and presentation skills as a workshop trainer, specializing in creating inclusive learning environments that empower participants to shape their professional trajectories. Her extensive experience in bookkeeping has provided her with a strong foundation in financial management, and she currently contributes to Sunlight Collective’s mission in her role as a bookkeeper. Elizabeth has been a member of NYC NOWC’s Advocacy Council since 2021 where she has worked to bring the voices of worker-owners to important policy spaces and campaigns.

Catherine “Cat” is a worker-owner and yoga therapist at Samamkaya Yoga Back Care & Scoliosis Collective which provides in-studio and online therapeutic yoga classes for people of all ages and body types (www.samamkayabackcare.com). She is also a worker-member of the Oasis Solidarity Collective which provides training and accompaniment services for worker-owners and meeting facilitation services with an anti-oppression lens. (www.oasissolidarity.com) In addition, she is honored to have served on the Advocacy Council coordinated by NYC NOWC since 2018 and she recently completed a J.D. at CUNY School of Law with the goal of providing legal support for the cooperative movement. In her rare free time, she loves to travel, spend time with friends and family, and do modern and improvisational dance.

A migrant from the Philippines, Rodrigo Ricxu (Ex) Bacus is a graduate of Fordham Law School and has been practicing transactional law since 2016. Ricxu or “Ex” works with worker owned cooperatives, community based nonprofits, and other community based and grassroots organizations.

Todd Arena is Visiting Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Community Economic Development Clinic at Albany Law School. He joined the clinic as a staff attorney in 2019 and provides pro bono representation to people and groups in low-income Capital Region communities forming cooperatives, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations and navigating financing and community-development work.

My name is Ruth Lopez Martinez. I am an immigrant woman and community leader for 14 years in New York City, supporting the Queens community and especially the immigrant community through non-profit organizations. During all those years I have been constantly learning to grow in my knowledge of social justice movements and to understand the services that can be offered to our community. I am also a working owner of Pa’lante Cooperative, convinced that cooperatives are the future of a fair and equitable economy. Supported by NYC NOWC, I am part of the Advocacy Council to bring the voice of cooperatives to community leaders, politicians and organizations that help cooperatives grow. Lastly, I work with the Teatre of The Oppressed, bringing knowledge through art to the community so that they know the importance of immigrants in this country.

Patrick Harris Jr. is the founder and President of Collectiveffort, a Troy-based creative agency and cooperative enterprise, and the operator of Kickback Studios, a downtown creative venue. For fifteen years his work has centered on the Capital Region’s creative economy, from directing campaigns for clients like the New York State Education Department and Skidmore College to co-founding the Renaissance Black Film Festival in downtown Albany and the Unspoken Word Poetry Festival in Troy. He writes the monthly Made By Many column for Metroland Now on culture as civic infrastructure, serves as Vice Treasurer of the Cooperative Development Institute, and previously served on the City of Troy’s Zoning and Planning Committee. A Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute graduate, he has been named to the Albany Business Review’s 40 Under 40 and Power 50.

Dan Lyles, Ph.D., is Vice President of Operations and Research at Collectiveffort and a lecturer in the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Trained in Science and Technology Studies and sociology, his work focuses on how people build organizations, make decisions, share knowledge, and navigate complex systems. At RPI he teaches professional development to engineering students, emphasizing organizational dynamics, ethics, and systems thinking. At Collectiveffort he leads organizational strategy, cooperative governance, research, and operations, helping translate shared values into structures that can actually function.