Welcome back to The Marian Flaxman Network Podcast. On today's episode, a conversation with chef, innovator, and food as medicine advocate, Kendra Nicole Stephens. Kendra has been a chef for more than 20 years, following her passion for experimenting in the kitchen as a child, to running her own cookie business after college. She rose in the ranks of the pastry world, before pivoting to focus on her passion for local, sustainable, health-promoting food. Now, she is the Director of Culinary Operations and Innovation at Christ House, a respite for unhoused men in Washington, DC. There, she uses local, seasonal, fresh ingredients to creatively craft healing meals for their residents. In this role, Kendra exemplifies the importance of chefs in the food as medicine movement. In this conversation, we disucss how her experience and identity as a chef, and her passion for fresh ingredients, impact her operations, and why it is important to her that the food be just as delicious as it is healthy.

To learn more about Kendra and her work, or to connect with her, find her on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendra-nicole-stephens-431630152/

For more information on Kendra's work at Christ House, please visit https://christhouse.org/

Connect with Marian on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/marian-flaxman/

Learn more about our sponsor- www.informedsolutionsconsulting.com

Learn more about Marian- www.marianflaxman.com

Welcome back to The Marian Flaxman Network Podcast. On today's episode, a conversation with public health policy consultant, Melissa Maitin-Shepard. Melissa has worked in the health, public health, and nutrition policy space for nearly two decades, first joining large organizations to support their work, and now working as an independent consultant. Through her firm, MMS Health Strategies, Melissa builds impactful teams, supports complex projects with many stakeholders, and works to create health-promoting policies that aim to make the healthier choice the easier choice.

To learn more about Melissa and her work, or to connect with her, find her on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmaitinshepard/

For more information on Melissa's work with the GW Global Food Institute- https://globalfoodinstitute.gwu.edu/melissa-maitin-shepard

Email Melissa- mmshealthstrategies@gmail.com

Connect with Marian on Linked In- https://www.linkedin.com/in/marian-flaxman/

Learn more about our sponsor- www.informedsolutionsconsulting.com

Learn more about Marian- www.marianflaxman.com

Welcome back to The Marian Flaxman Network Podcast. On today's episode, Marian sits down with author, scientist, fermenter, advocate, and chef, Rich Shih. They discuss Rich's path to the kitchen, how and why he first learned to cook, and how he came to discover that fermentation could be harnessed to make food more delicious, more nutritious, and more sustainable.

Marian and Rich met at The Georgetown University Food as Medicine and the Microbiome Conference, where Rich spoke about the power of koji to transform food scraps into delicious condiments and more. Since then, they have found a shared calling for promoting the use of fermentation to improve human health, and prevent food waste.

Rich is the co-author of the book Koji Alchemy, which can be found here.

Rich is the co-organizer of an event that teaches about fermentation- KojiKon.

You can find tickets to this event, and learn more, here.

Follow Rich on Instagram - @ourcookquest

For more about Marian, please visit www.marianflaxman.com

Follow Marian on Instagram- @marianff

Connect with Marian on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marian-flaxman/

Learn more about our sponsor - www.informedsolutionsconsulting.com