Board of Directors

Chair

Shannon Berry
Shannon Berry is an investment analyst at American Century. Her journey as a food advocate started with the community garden plot in Boston. After tasting fresh vegetables, she started to research why everything tasted so much better fresh from the ground. She quickly realized that through food, she could address multiple challenges in her community, including health, community development, and civil rights. Since moving to Kansas City, she has been involved with Cultivate KC as a CSA member, volunteer, committee member, Treasurer, and now Board Chair. She is honored to work on empowering this city through Cultivate’s work.

Vice Chair

Pete Malone
Pete is in market research at DEMDACO. He was attracted to Cultivate KC because of an illness which motivated him to want to eat healthier foods — primarily locally grown, organic greens! He wants to help promote a healthier food system to more people in the KC area.

Secretary

Bill Davison
Bill works in strategic planning and transactions for Lendlease, an Australian company with operations in the United States. He got to know Cultivate Kansas CIty by attending the Dig In event (from its inception), through friendships with past and current Cultivate community members and, most importantly, as a regular purchaser of healthy, organic food at the Brookside Farmers Market.

Treasurer

Emily Lecuyer

Emily Lecuyer is passionate about food systems because she believes that how we eat determines the kind of world we live in. She was introduced to Cultivate in 2010 while the organization was spearheading an effort to update KC’s urban ag codes, which subsequently legalized her backyard chickens!  Emily continued to engage with the organization as an apprentice in the Growing Growers program, while starting a community garden with funding from a Get Growing Mini Grant, and while managing New Roots for Refugees. Emily serves on the Executive Committee of the KC Food Policy Coalition and Missouri Confluence Waterkeeper. She has an MBA in Finance from UMKC and works as an analyst at Chess Ag Full Harvest Partners.

Laura Adams
Laura Adams is the practice lead for Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Planning at Black & Veatch. She is driven to co-create innovative solutions with the goal to revitalize communities, restore natural resources, and address climate resiliency. Inspired by Cultivate KC, Laura schemes in the garden with her son, Grey, who chooses vegetables with great names and with her husband, Jensen, to harvest honey and raise rabbits.

Jordan Baehr
Jordan is an attorney at Shook, Hardy & Bacon. Like many in KC, food and farming are centerpieces both of his own family history and of what it means to him to be a Kansas Citian. He has served as a volunteer and committee member with Cultivate KC, and is ever encouraged and excited to take part in Cultivate’s work toward a healthy, practical, and equitable food system and future in Kansas City.

Keith Harris
Keith is an Assistant Professor Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University. He has experienced 30 years in food and agriculture as an industry practitioner and academic. Cultivate Kansas City’s work represents his values of economic viability and environmental sustainability for the food system.

Corey Hampton
Corey Hampton is a marketing professional with more than 20 years of marketing, brand strategy and business development experience. He is the Vice President of Business & Strategic Development at VanTrust Real Estate. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. In addition to his involvement with Cultivate KC, Corey is active in the community and volunteers his time to the Kansas City, Missouri Committee of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the board of directors of Revolve Community Bike Shop

John Sharp
Former Councilman
City of Kansas City, MO

Andrea Shores
Andrea works in corporate communications for Sprint, the telecommunications company headquartered in Overland Park, Kan. Introduced to Cultivate Kansas City in 2010 through her work with the Missouri Department of Agriculture, Andrea has since served the organization as a volunteer, Communications Committee member and chair, and supporter. As an advocate for sustainable, local agriculture, Andrea is often found shopping at the Brookside Farmers’ Market or eating at area locally-owned restaurants.

Nathan Young
Nathan has worked for Black & Veatch for 5 years and has responsibility for Organization Effectiveness, Talent Development, and HR Strategy. He serves as a key advisor to the business on Organization Effectiveness and Talent Strategy. He is responsible for leading and performing the role of change agent for Corporate HR and provides big picture thinking and counsel to leaders in the organization. Nathan and his team partner with business leaders to drive critical global strategies through business consulting, client partnering, organization alignment/design, talent development, and change management solutions to support global company growth plans.   Nathan is known for his extensive knowledge of strategy and business model development, organization effectiveness, change management and performance management.