Heim receives Emerging Leader Award
Stephanie Heim (ICP '06 ) has worked at the intersection of
public health and food systems at the University of Minnesota Extension since January 2010. She is deeply committed to Extension’s mission to leverage community knowledge with University resources to create a more healthy, equitable food system. Stephanie works to ensure more systems work for more people and believes authentic relationships are transformational. Stephanie leads with a racial equity lens and has found it powerful to normalize discomfort, remain vulnerable, assume positive intent and manage her ego in her work. She provides leadership to food networks across Minnesota, including the Minnesota Food Charter Network and is most proud of the Action Learning Seed Fund. This approach integrates learning, networking, and funding in a unique and powerful way, where participants act as agents of change and not merely recipients of aid or expertise.
Stephanie also serves as the Minnesota Core Partner for the National Farm to School Network and coordinates Minnesota’s Farm to School Leadership team. In 2012, she co-produced a 30-minute farm to school documentary and in 2014 convened a group of stakeholders to explore state policy. Stephanie served as a content expert and facilitator, helping the group make evidence-informed decisions as a policy platform was developed. Today, a bipartisan farm to school bill (HF 811, SF 1346) is advancing through the Minnesota legislature.
Stephanie is also proud of her work to develop Systems Approaches for Healthy Communities, a web-based professional development program that helps participants learn how to integrate direct education efforts with policy systems and environmental strategies to create community-driven solutions to public health problems. She and her partner, Adam, live in Rochester and have two vibrant daughters, Luella and Alice, who use words like ‘savor’ when eating a family meal.
Connect with Stephanie on
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