IFOAM North America

Jennifer Taylor, President

Jennifer Taylor, Board President of IFOAM North America, has extensive experience in the organic movement. She is the grand-daughter of a sharecropper and an organic small farmer in rural Georgia. She is the INOFO North America Convener of Continents.  Jennifer  is a farmer Board Member of the Organic Farmers Association (OFA), vice-president of OFA General Council and vice-chair of OFA Policy Committee.  Jennifer  serves on the Board of Directors of the Rodale Institute and as advisor to the National Organic Coalition. Jennifer Taylor served as a National Organic Standards Board Member (NOSB) for the USDA National Organic Program.

Jennifer is Associate Professor and coordinator of Small Farm Programs at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU).  There, she created and implemented the StateWide Small Farm Program, a participatory capacity building-sustainable development program that works to empower and provide relevant education and training to farmers and their communities. . The program focuses on strengthening  small farm sustainability and resilience,  agroecology-organic farming systems  climate and mitigation strategies, principles of organic agriculture,  organic agriculture, alternative market-development, and healthy living to enable thriving livelihoods, wellbeing, and quality of life in all communities.  Jennifer is CoDirector of the Lola Hampton-Frank Pinder Center for Agroecology at FAMU.

Alan Lewis, Vice-President

Alan Lewis serves as the Vice President of the IFOAM NA Board. He also oversees organic certification and compliance for Natural Grocers, a Colorado-based health food chain that operates in 20 states and boasts over 160 stores. In this capacity, he engages with federal, state, and local policymakers on a range of issues, including food, agriculture, nutrition, rural economic development, technology, biotech, cannabis, trade, and health. He also provides guidance to food, natural product, and ag-tech start-ups across the country.

In addition to his role at Natural Grocers, Alan is an active member of multiple boards and committees within the organic food and agriculture industry. He sits on the Non-GMO Project board, the Organic and Natural Health Association board, the Real Organic Project standards board, the Retail Advisory Committee of the American Grassfed Association, the Farm Policy Committee of the Organic Farmers Association, and various committees of the Council for Responsible Nutrition.

Alan’s extensive advocacy work is informed by his firsthand experience living abroad for extended periods, which has given him a nuanced understanding of agriculture in diverse social and political contexts.

Margaret Scoles, Board Member and Treasurer

Margaret Scoles currently serves as a board member and treasurer for IFOAM NA and is a long-standing member of the International Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA). She has been the IOIA Executive Director since 1999.

Margaret’s career in organic agriculture began over 30 years ago, when she started inspecting organic operations. Since then, she has become a respected leader in the organic community, leading and organizing hundreds of training courses.

Margaret’s dedication to organic agriculture and sustainable food systems has earned her numerous awards and accolades. In 2005, she was awarded the Montana Organic Association’s (MOA) Leadership in Organics Award; in 2018, the “Growing Organic Industry Award” by the Organic Trade Association; and in 2022, the MOA Lifetime of Service award. She continues to be a driving force for change in the organic community, working tirelessly to ensure rigorous organic inspection and certification processes, so organic agriculture remains a viable and sustainable option for farmers and consumers alike.

She lives and works in southeastern Montana, where she and her husband own and operate a cow/calf operation.

Nicole Dehne, she/her

IFOAM NA Board Member Nicole Dehne began working for VOF in 2003, the year after the National Organic Program regulations went into effect. Since that time, Nicole has worked to represent the views of Vermont organic producers at the National Organic Standards Board meetings and as a member of the Accredited Certifiers Association. She has served on the boards of OMRI and the Real Organic Project. Nicole has a BA from the University of Montana and a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Education from the University of Vermont. In her past life, Nicole spent less time in front of a computer and more time wrangling poultry, grading apples with seconds to spare, and teaching people how to milk cows.

Kia M. Ruiz, Board Member

Incoming board member Kia M. Ruiz is an environmental and economic resiliency consultant in the Denver area. Kia earned her B.S. in Wildlife Management from Humboldt State University. She holds certificates in Graduate Teaching from Florida International University and GIS with a focus on pedagogy. Her passion has been in conveying scientific information to non-scientific audiences. In 2014, Kia was a strategist, new media coordinator, and interim Director of the Colorado GMO Labelling effort.

Kia dedicates her time to her sankalpa of connecting people to the earth, each other, and themselves to interdependently support all of us going forward. She is a lead teacher for GirlTrek’s Gardeners, the nation’s largest health-oriented non-profit for Black women. Her love of the outdoors finds many expressions: Kia is a Sierra Club hike leader, and she is active with Latino Outdoors, with whom she earned her Wilderness First Aid certification.

Kia is Ngäble-Bugle, Black, and Seminole with more exploring to do as her family was far-flung in African and American diasporas. Kia serves on her city’s Sustainability Advisory Committee where she works with the city’s strategic plan to guide sustainability efforts and recommendations. Kia also chairs the JEDI efforts at her children’s public Waldorf charter school. Kia is also a yoga teacher, meditation teacher, herbalist, permaculturist, photographer, and conservationist who balances her brain with as much time outside as she possibly can.

Anne Ross, Board Member

Incoming 2024 board member Anne Ross is an agricultural lawyer with an advanced law degree in Agricultural & Food Law from the University of Arkansas where her thesis addressed regulations governing endocrine disrupting pesticides. As an Organic Investigator for the Cornucopia Institute, Anne’s work focused on organic grain fraud and upholding the integrity of food supply chains. Her research and travels to Eastern Europe investigating fraud in global supply chains contributed to proposals for the reform of laws governing imported organic food.

Elizabeth Whitlow, Board Member

Incoming 2024 board member Elizabeth Whitlow began her career as an advocate for shade-grown, fair-trade, and organic coffee growers in Central America. Since then, she has worked across the spectrum of elevated certifications, both in farming and ranching, earning high-level placements with organisations such as CCOF and EarthClaims.  Her greatest honour is to serve a planet that is in tremendous need of each and every one of us. She resides in Northern California with her dog Hazel, growing food and community. She is Founder and Senior Advisor to the Regenerative Organic Alliance.