Leadership

Current 2025-26 Board of Directors

Sarah Assefa
Board Member

Sarah has gardened in a victory garden in Worcester MA, and served as a Co-Director at Worcester Roots Project supporting youth entrepreneurs to develop various cooperative businesses, including gardening and toxic soil remediation. Sarah worked with ex-prisoners to establish the Empower Energy Cooperative in Worcester, making biodiesel fuel from waste vegetable oil from restaurants. She lived a while in Ethiopia with her Ethiopian side of the family, where she was involved in an agreocology network, advocating for different aspects of sustainable food systems, including food and seed sovereignty and soil health, and stronger agricultural cooperatives. Now she lives in Dorchester at Columbia Point, and organizes with the Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power (COWOP).

Sonia Carter, MS, LDN
Board Member

Sonia is the Director of Quality Improvement and Community Nutrition at the Boston Public Health Commission, provides leadership and management for the Division of Chronic Disease Prevention & Control nutrition education and policy/practice change to support healthy eating in diverse sectors. The primary focus is on obesity and chronic disease prevention, prioritizing racial, ethnic, and other inequities in health outcomes through policy and environmental approaches. She leads the division Boston Child Care Initiative Learning Collaborative and Healthy Eating Professional Development Opportunities for Center Based Child Care Centers, Family Day Care, and Out of School Time Educators. She is currently a faculty member at the Urban College of Boston.

Roudnie Célestin
Board President

Roudnie [rood-nee] was born and raised in Pétion-Ville, Haiti. A proud quadrilingual leader, singer, and writer, Roudnie has built a career at the intersection of education, arts & culture, equity, and public service. She earned a degree in Ethics, Social, and Political Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Boston (“Just Mercy” Book Award Winner in the Philosophy & Law Program) and one in Communications at MassBay Community College. From a legacy of resilience and Afro-Caribbean flavor, her maternal family brought coffee-farming from Cuba to Jérémie, Haiti. After a 60-lbs. weight loss journey, her relationship with food transformed into one of healing and empowerment: from cooking engagements at the public library, urban farming, and helping food businesses thrive in marginalized communities.

Appointed initially by Mayor Martin J. Walsh as a Mayoral Liaison for Dorchester, Mattapan, and Haitians Citywide, she led the Mattapan Boston Public Health pantry building dedication to rename it “Shirley’s Pantry”. She served under three Boston mayors as Mayoral Liaison. She was the inaugural Equity Officer for Boston Public Library, serving 400+ staff across 25+ locations; there, her impact included the first-ever cooking conversations for BPL and city department staff at the BPL Roxbury Branch Library’s Nutrition Lab.

Robin Saunders
Board Member

Robin brings her executive assistance background in business administration to the Board. She has 30+ years in marketing, A/V and media experience with corporate and non-profit organizations. Robin was a community producer for BNN-TV, and a radio host/producer at WRBB-FM, where she focused on disseminating culturally relevant information to families in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan communities.

Robin loves cooking for family and friends with garden grown produce, herbs and vegetables.

Alyssa Melendez, MS
Board Clerk

Alyssa works as the Operations and Supply Chain Manager for a single origin spice company, called Burlap & Barrel. After earning a B.S. in Environmental Policy, she spent a year in Hood River, Oregon with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, working on food access and outreach programs in collaboration with community leaders, migrant workers, and farmers. From this experience she developed a passion for food sovereignty and ecological justice. This work inspired her to pursue a M.S. in Agriculture, Food, and Environment (AFE) at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, where she gained a deeper understanding of the food system and the injustices that occur across supply chains.

Since graduating, she has worked on an organic vegetable farm, as an avocado supply chain manager, and is now excited to continue to create equitable and sustainable supply chains, both locally and internationally.

Jenny Silverman
Founder & Board Treasurer

Jenny has been involved in the Cooperative movement for more than 35 years, and was one of the founders of the Dorchester Community Food Co-op.  For more than two decades, Jenny was the Sales Manager of Red Sun Press, a printing and design worker co-op in Boston. Jenny has been active with regional and national cooperative associations, and was an apprentice in the Democracy at Work Network (DAWN) Peer Advisor Training Program of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives.  A resident of Dorchester, Jenny has served on the Board of the Dorchester YMCA, and currently works as the Education Director at Boston Workmen’s Circle.