Kimberley Hodgson, MURP, MS, AICP, RD | Founder and Principal Consultant

Kimberley Hodgson, MURP, MS, AICP, RD is the founder and principal of Cultivating Healthy Places, an international consulting business specializing in community health, social equity and resilient food systems planning. As a certified planner and health professional, her work focuses on conducting policy-relevant research and providing technical assistance to the public and private sectors related to the design and development of healthy, sustainable places. 

Since founding Cultivating Healthy Places in 2012, Hodgson has provided guidance to the City of Lawrence and Douglas County, Kansas and the City of Vancouver, British Columbia on the development and implementation of local level policies to support and enhance the local food system; co-developed a community agriculture plan for an area in Delta, British Columbia; researched the management and productive reuse of vacant properties in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Cleveland for the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech; and conducted a healthy aging and built environment policy scan in Vancouver for the Centre for Hip Health & Mobility at the University of British Columbia.

Hodgson is currently a co-investigator of a $3.96 million grant awarded to the University at Buffalo by the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Food Systems Program. The project, Growing Food Connections, will generate knowledge about the effectiveness of local and regional government policies in improving food security in underserved communities, strengthening the resilience of rural communities, and/or supporting the economic viability of food production, and will build the capacity of local and regional governments to adopt and implement these policies.

As the former Senior Research Associate and Manager of the Planning and Community Health Research Center at the American Planning Association, Ms. Hodgson managed several national research projects and engaged in multiple outreach and education activities, which focused on the integration of community health issues into contemporary urban and regional planning practice. She was the principal investigator of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research Program grant to identify and analyze municipal comprehensive and sustainability plans from across the United States that explicitly address food access and other food systems issues; and the lead investigator of a Centers for Disease Prevention and Control funded national survey to identify comprehensive plans that explicitly address public health. She is the author of Planning for Food Access and Community-Based Food Systems, co-author of Urban Agriculture: Growing Healthy Sustainable Places and co-author of the Principles of a Healthy, Sustainable Food System. She also served on multiple national advisory committees related to health and the built environment and provided expertise to the First Lady’s Childhood Obesity Prevention Task Force on food systems and food access.

Prior to her work with APA, she assisted in the development of the City of Alexandria’s sustainability vision and plan, providing the City with expertise in community health, active living and food systems. She has also worked extensively in the research, development and implementation of a variety of food policy and nutrition programs targeting youth and young adults in New York City, Boston and Southwest Virginia—farm to school, school wellness policy, nutrition education, nutrition communication, and health promotion.

Ms. Hodgson is the Chair of the American Planning Association’s Food Systems Planning Interest Group, a member of the American Planning Association’s Healthy Communities Interest Group, and member of the Vancouver Food Policy Council.

She holds an undergraduate degree from New York University in pre-medicine, a Master of Science in food policy and applied nutrition from Tufts University, and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning with a specialization in community health and sustainability from Virginia Tech. She is also a certified planner and registered dietitian.

For a list of current and past projects, presentations, and publications, and a copy of her resume, click here.

Tara Moreau, PhD | Collaborator

Dr. Moreau is a sustainable agriculture scientist. Over the past decade, her research has focused on the science, planning, and policy of sustainable food systems. As the sole proprietor of Grow Moreau, her expertise around climate change, urban agriculture and integrated pest management give her a diverse background into the implementation of sustainable agriculture and food systems. Dr. Moreau recently completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions where she developed a guide to address climate change for urban and peri-urban agriculture, led instructional workshops for small-scale producers, and published scientific papers on greenhouse gas mitigation within British Columbia’s agriculture sector. Dr. Moreau currently sits on the Vancouver Food Policy Council and works as a consultant with the United Nations – Food and Agriculture Organization. She completed a PhD in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia where she evaluated alternative pest controls for whiteflies in collaboration with the BC Greenhouse Growers’ Association. She obtained a Master of Science from Dalhousie University and the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada.

Wendy Mendes, PhD | Collaborator

Dr. Mendes is an academic and urban planner with over 10 years experience building healthy and sustainable communities. She holds a PhD in urban geography from Simon Fraser University. From 2006-2008, Dr. Mendes held the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Urban Health Initiatives (CUHI). Her research and planning expertise focuses on urban sustainability, healthy cities, local governance, public policy, and sustainable food systems.Dr. Mendes is currently Adjunct Professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia; Research Associate at Ryerson University’s Centre for Studies in Food Security; Instructor in Ryerson University’s Certificate in Food Security, and urban planner for the City of Vancouver.With a unique combination of experience in public, academic and non-profit sectors, Dr. Mendes has honed an exceptional ability to build bridges between diverse stakeholders, increase community capacity, create partnerships, and embed sustainability thinking in municipal planning and policy. She has a solid record of peer-reviewed academic research and university teaching, coupled with front line urban planning expertise including strategic policy development, public engagement, facilitation, and project management. The result is an ability to combine cutting edge research with innovative planning practices to yield collaborative solutions to complex sustainability challenges. Her work has taken her across Canada, the U.S. and Brazil where she has worked with organizations including:

• The National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (Montréal)
• The Wellesley Institute (Toronto)
• Jane’s Walk (Toronto)
• International Development Research Centre (Ottawa)
• The Regional Vancouver Urban Observatory (Vancouver)
• MOSAIC (Vancouver)
• Resource Centres for Urban Agriculture and Food Security
• Local governments and NGOs in the Brazilian cities of Belo Horizonte and Fortaleza

Dr. Mendes is a member of the Canadian Association of Food Studies; and past member of the American Planning Association Food Systems Planning Group; the Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Reference Group on the Healthy Food for All initiative; and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Urban Agriculture Advisory Committee for UN-HABITAT World Urban Forum III.

Kara Martin, AICP | Collaborator

Kara is the Principal Consultant and Owner of Healthy Communities Planning. Kara collaborates with local governments, community organizations, and education institutions throughout Washington State and across the country. Her partnerships have included the American Farmland Trust, King County Food & Fitness Initiative (KCFFI), King County Ag Programs, Ohio State University Center for Farmland Policy Innovation, Northwest Harvest, Pinchot University, Public Health—Seattle & King County, SeaTac–Tukwila Food Innovation Network, and Washington State University–King County Extension and numerous local jurisdictions. Kara has also served as an adjunct lecturer at University of Washington’s Department of Urban Design and Planning.

Working to advance community health and food systems efforts in the broader planning field, Kara is active in local and national conversations. She currently leads the Washington APA chapter’s Sustainable Agriculture and Healthy Food Systems working group and serves on the national APA’s Food Interest Group Leadership Committee along with the Washington State Food System Roundtable and Seattle Planning Commission. Kara often presents and offers trainings on the role of food systems within the planning field. Recently she provided Community Food System Planning trainings for APA and APA’s Minnesota state chapter.

Kara earned her master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Washington and her bachelor’s degree in sociology from University of Colorado.

Andrea Procyk Cornborough, MA | Collaborator

Zsuzsi Fodor, MA | Collaborator