Sydney Daigle
Food Equity Council Director
Contact Sydney at sydney@juliag6.sg-host.com
Sydney is a Senior Program Manager at the Institute for Public Health Innovation where she directs the work of the FEC and provides Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Training to state and local-level public health-focused coalitions. Sydney helped launch the FEC nine years ago and has worked closely with its members to advance a myriad of county and state-level food and agriculture policies and programs.
Sydney is passionate about strengthening local food systems and improving under-resourced communities’ access to healthy foods. She has over a decade of experience working on systems-level public health interventions and local food and farm advocacy. Prior to working with IPHI, she served as the South Carolina Department of Education’s Farm to School & Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program Coordinator and as the Sustainability Coordinator at St. Francis Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina. She has worked successfully with diverse audiences ranging from school cafeteria staff to policymakers to affect change at the institutional, municipal, county, and state levels. Sydney serves on multiple advisory and steering committees in Prince George’s County including the Health Department Health Care Action Coalition’s HEAL Workgroup, Prince George’s County Healthy Corner Store Steering Committee, the Greater Riverdale Cares Coalition, and the Maryland Food System Resilience Council.
Evelyn B. Kelly, MPH
Institute for Public Health Innovation Program Director
Contact Evelyn at ekelly@institutephi.org
Evelyn is a Program Director at the Institute for Public Health Innovation. Evelyn has more than twenty years of experience as a public health practitioner and researcher and has engaged in a variety of public health efforts ranging from community planning and capacity building to health policy development and advocacy.
Evelyn works with a variety of sectors and stakeholders including: executive-level leadership, elected officials, health departments, planning agencies, police departments, funders and community-based organizations to implement policy, systems, and environmental changes aimed at improving the quality of life of the community. Her professional interests include community development, community engagement, health equity, community organizing and advocacy, food justice and the promotion of physical activity.
Evelyn is a lifelong resident of Prince George’s County and currently resides in Hyattsville, MD. She is a founding member of the Prince George’s County Food Equity Council and is a Board member of the Montgomery County Food Council. She has been recognized as “Fifty under 50: #Food Hero”, a Forty under 40 honoree for Prince George's County, Maryland and named as a Leading Women by the Daily Record. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion from American University and a Master of Public Health from the University of South Carolina.
Julia Groenfeldt
Program Manager
Contact Julia at julia@juliag6.sg-host.com
Julia is a Program Manager with the Institute for Public Health Innovation where she helps coordinate the FEC. Julia administers many of the FEC’s operations, including coordinating the FEC’s food assistance resources and networks and overseeing communications and outreach among FEC members and partners. Julia is committed to addressing food equity through policies and environmental changes that improve access to healthy and affordable foods.
Julia has worked with the Institute for Public Health Innovation since 2017. Julia has experience working on food systems and policy initiatives throughout Maryland and Virginia, including the Healthy Eating & Active Living Cities & Towns Campaign and the Healthy Montgomery Transforming Communities Initiative. Julia has worked as a nutrition and food systems educator where she developed and implemented garden-based curriculum and programs for elementary and middle school students. Julia holds a B.A. in Global Environmental Studies & Food Systems and M.A. in Community Development and Planning from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Scarleth Castro
Program Assistant
Contact Scarleth at scarleth@juliag6.sg-host.com
Scarleth is a Program Assistant and Health Navigator for Prince George’s Fresh, a food as medicine program in Prince George’s County. She serves as a liaison between participants and program partners. Scarleth works directly with the Prince George’s Fresh participants by connecting them to resources and guiding them through the six-month wellness program.
During the past five years, Scarleth has spent her time working and leading different projects in the field of health, working alongside different organizations, such as Cancer CAREpoint, Virginia Department of Health and Fairfax County Health Department, both in an individual and community setting. In her most recent role, as a nutrition educator and graduate research assistant, Scarleth worked with the Vidas Activas Familias Saludables (VALE) program, a multidisciplinary family-based pediatric weight management program, which is culturally adapted for Latinos. Her role expanded from creating and delivering nutrition lessons to participants and family members, recipes, and educational content creations with the goal to strengthen members' nutritional knowledge and empower them to make positive and important health decisions, during and after the program.
Scarleth is passionate about her line of work, which includes nutrition, kinesiology, research, public health, academics and working with underrepresented, low-income and minority populations, with a new interest in food policy. Scarleth is committed to improving the quality of life of the communities she works with. She considers herself a life learner and is currently working towards becoming a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.
Heaven Jordano
Program Associate
Contact Heaven at heaven@juliag6.sg-host.com
Heaven Jordan is the Program Associate for the Prince George’s Food Equity Council. Heaven supports communications and outreach, including sharing resources and information about the FEC’s work through social media and community newsletters. Heaven helps coordinate FEC’s committees, including organizing and facilitating volunteer committee meetings. Heaven also coordinates Prince George’s County Food Rescue, a program to reduce food waste and food insecurity by rescuing surplus food from local businesses and distributing it to social service agencies and nonprofit organizations.
She formerly was a Family and Consumer Science high school teacher, teaching Nutrition and Culinary. She also has experience working for the Baltimore City WIC program providing nutrition education and applying federal and state policies to enroll participants into the program. In 2020, she provided virtual nutrition education and support to schools and pantries to promote health and wellness through the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that role she helped support and launch the Prince William Food Rescue program in Virginia by establishing relationships with grocery stores, restaurants, non-profits, and other key community members.
She is excited to continue working towards creating healthier food environments for all.
