The SAFSF Policy Working Group partners with staff to mobilize SAFSF members around a shared vision for policy change that centers and responds to calls to action and policy priorities of frontline communities, movement building, and coalition advocacy groups. Working Group members also help identify trends, gaps, and opportunities to increase funding for policy change and share insights with SAFSF staff on emerging policy developments.
For information about joining the Policy Working Group, contact Public Policy Manager Maggie Mascarenhas.
Objectives
- Offer Expert Insights and Feedback: Policy Working Group members share their diverse perspectives and expert insights with each other, staff, and SAFSF members, including sharing contextual analysis, and what they are hearing from grantees and partners.
- Influence Field: The Policy Working Group is a place for SAFSF members to provide policy expertise, peer learning, and leadership to influence the broader funding field around policy change.
- Promote Collaboration: The Policy Working Group advises on emerging issues in the field and seeks opportunities for increased collaboration among funders and community partners.
- Support Programming: The Policy Working Group provides input that augments and informs SAFSF programming, such as speaker recommendations and resources, aligning policy initiatives with member priorities and sector needs.
2025 Working Group Members
Josh Ewing
Rural Climate Partnership
Josh Ewing leads the Rural Climate Partnership, a collaborative fund supporting working people, small businesses, and family farmers to implement rural-led climate solutions. RCP works to ensure rural communities have the tools and opportunities to benefit from all the economic and community benefits that flow from the transition to clean energy and regenerative agriculture.
Born and raised in western Nebraska where the Ewing family runs a grass-fed cattle ranch, Josh has lived and worked in rural America most of his life. With his wife Kirsten, Josh lives on the border of the Navajo Nation in the 150-person town of Bluff, Utah, where he serves as a volunteer firefighter and EMT.
Ethan Gallegos
First Nations Development Institute
Ethan Gallegos is a Lead Program Officer on First Nations Development Institute’s NAFSI program. In this role, he assists in the administration and implementation of First Nations’ Native agriculture and food systems projects. He served multiple roles as a lab technician in the Porter Microbiology lab and the CSEJ’s Food System Justice Action Research project while earning his BS in Environmental Science with a minor in American Indian Studies.
In addition to his work at First Nations, Ethan currently serves on the Regenerative Agriculture Foundations’ Restorying Regenerative Agriculture Selection Committee and the Better Food Policy Fund’s Independent Advisory Committee.
Ann Mills
Agua Fund
Ann Mills is Executive Director of the Agua Fund, a Washington DC-based foundation that supports work to protect the environment, boost civic engagement and help the disadvantaged and underserved. She previously served as the U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment from 2009 to January 20, 2017 where she had responsibility for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. She co-chaired of the federal National Drought Resilience Partnership and represented USDA on the Obama Administration’s ecosystem restoration initiatives including those in the Chesapeake Bay Basin, Great Lakes, Mississippi River Basin, and California Bay-Delta. She also served as Secretary Tom Vilsack’s designee to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council and the Natural Resources Damage Assessment Trustee Council for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
Ann also has held senior positions at American Rivers, and served as chief of staff to Senator Tom Daschle, legislative assistant to then-Representative Richard Durbin and chief of staff to California Lt. Governor Leo McCarthy. She earned a BA in Political Science from Tufts University and a Master of Public Administration from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin.
Julia McCarthy
NYHealth
As Senior Program Officer, Julia McCarthy helps lead NYHealth’s Healthy Food, Healthy Lives priority area, the goal of which is to create a more equitable food system that connects all New Yorkers with the food they need to thrive.
Prior to joining NYHealth, Julia served as the deputy director of the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy at Teachers College of Columbia University, where she oversaw operations, strategy, and project execution. Julia also held policy roles at the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Julia holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern scholar.
Mark Muller
Regenerative Agriculture Foundation
Mark Muller serves as the executive director at the Regenerative Agriculture Foundation. He came to RAF in March 2020 after spending over 20 years working on related issues including agricultural conservation, Midwest water quality, racial equity in the food system, and effective federal food and agricultural policy.
Mark served as director of the Mississippi River program at the McKnight Foundation, and prior to that he directed the Food & Community Fellows program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He also spent two years teaching high school in New York City and 18 months volunteering in Honduras and Guatemala. He and his spouse and three children live in south Minneapolis.
Edna Rodriguez
RAFI-USA
Edna Rodriguez became RAFI’s Executive Director in 2017 following six years as Come to the Table program Director, Development Director, and Director of Operations. Edna has grown the organization’s capacity by overhauling financial systems, diversifying income, and organizing cross-programmatic teams for greater collaboration and impact. In her current role, Edna led RAFI through a strategic planning process centered around equity, launched and grew the Farmers of Color Network, and extended programs to the U.S. Caribbean territories.
Edna is a strategic thinker with the consistent goal of funding the movement more equitably, a value which most recently resulted — in partnership with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) — in a pool of granting funds devoted specifically to BIPOC-led organizations for climate and equity-centered policy work. In addition to serving on NSAC’s Organizational Council, Edna serves as Treasurer of the National Family Farm Coalition’s Executive Committee. Born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents, Edna was raised between The Hague, Netherlands, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Before RAFI, Edna served as Senior Program Officer at the Atlanta Women’s Foundation and Director of Educational and Career Services at the Latin American Association in Atlanta, GA.
Edna holds a B.A. in Economics with a concentration in Latin American Studies from Haverford College. Edna lives in Chapel Hill, NC, with her husband, three children, and their growing puppy.
Tenzin Dolkar
McKnight Foundation
Tenzin Dolkar (Dolkar) is a program officer with the McKnight Foundation’s Midwest Climate & Energy program, where she works to shape and guide the trajectory of the Foundation’s climate initiatives, aligning McKnight’s equity goals. Prior to McKnight, Dolkar served as a climate advisor to the City of Minneapolis through a Natural Resources Defense Council partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies American Cities Climate Challenge. From 2016 to 2018, Dolkar served as a senior policy advisor to Governor Mark Dayton on transportation and agriculture.
Dolkar holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in international studies with a minor in social work from the University of St. Thomas.