Board Members
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Ginny Point – Advisor
Ginny Point has a long standing interest in agriculture and healthy food. It started years ago when working at the Ecology Action Centre, with the agriculture committee. She was fascinated by the interconnections between sustainable agriculture, healthy people and a healthy planet. That led to wanting to learn more about the specifics of nutrition, so she enrolled in the School of Nutrition at Acadia University. After graduation, for many years Ginny worked at a dietitian, until her retirement in January 2018. For numerous years she managed the Food Services Department of Kings Regional ...
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Charlie MacLean – Chair
Charlie MacLean grew up in North Sydney, and spent many hours working in the family garden. Upon completing high school, he attended Acadia University and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration. During the time at Acadia, he also worked in the Food Service Department to help make ends meet. Upon graduation he was employed with Saga Corporation as a Food Service Manager at Acadia, and later as Food Service Director at St. F. X. University, Saint John General Hospital, Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, and back to Halifax at University of ...
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Avila Coutinho – Treasurer
Avila immigrated to Canada as a teenager and was drawn to the big city of Toronto with it’s skyscrapers, transportation, theatre and multi-cultures. She began her career with Morguard Investments and after meeting her husband, moved to Halifax and continued with Morguard in a different role. She later took employment with Scotiabank after Morguard closed its office. Avila realized there is so much that is beautiful in Nova Scotia…the people, the hills and valleys, the lakes, rivers and oceans, the small friendly communities. Having recently retired from the financial industry with 35 ...
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Linda Best, Executive Director
Founding Member, Co-chair and Treasurer of FarmWorks, Chair Friends of Agriculture in NS, Medical Microbiologist Linda Best grew up on a farm in the Annapolis Valley. Since graduating from Acadia University in 1966 she has been involved with the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Halifax as a Medical Microbiologist (1966 – 1995), Medical Researcher and author of peer-reviewed Gastroenterology papers and presenter at Research Conferences (1995 – 2012) and as a Director of the Capital District Health Authority (2001 – 2005). For twelve years she operated Alderbrook apple orchard ...
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Barb Boates Sweet – Vice-chair
Barb grew up in the Annapolis Valley on a small hobby farm that grew strawberries, beans andapples. As a child, she always had an interest in food and cooking and learned to cook with hernanny, often with vegetables and fruit grown in their own garden. Summer eating was alwaysfocused around what was in season, with a particular favourite of hodge podge. After highschool, Barb moved to Halifax to attend Saint Mary’s University studying anthropology. Afteruniversity, Barb worked with her partner to help build a property management business,focusing on student housing in Halifax.After attending culinary school and ...
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Stephen Read – Director
I was raised in Sydney Nova Scotia, spending my early years both in the city and in the rural forest. Summer jobs were working in a wholesale building supply yard. I then spent five years in a forestry degree program at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. During the next five years I worked in sales for wholesale building supplies and became manager of branch operations. In 1983 I started my own forestry consulting company and quickly added silviculture and harvesting crews and a sawmill. The crews also tackled ...
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Jean Kelly – Director
I was born a farmer’s daughter and have tried to live my life being aware and honourable in my efforts and values to preserve and support nature’s gifts to mankind. My father basically lived by the word of the trees. His first job was at that age of 17 where he spent the winter in a lumber camp. He purchased his sugar woods in his early twenties, then his farm and he lived his life by the earth and her gifts for his whole life. Even in the fall each year he managed a huge ...
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Robin McAdam – Secretary
Robin McAdam has worked in business development for most of the past 20 years with a focus on renewable energy. He is currently Vice President Major Developments with Emera Inc., while previously Executive Vice-President Sustainability for Nova Scotia Power and President of Emera Brunswick Pipeline. He was a consultant with KPMG Management Consulting specializing in market and financial analysis and a Lecturer at the Wilfrid Laurier University School of Business. As a volunteer, he has chaired the Greater Halifax Partnership and the Municipal Affairs Committee of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. He is currently ...
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Hana Nelson – Director
In 2014 Hana founded Afishionado, a sustainable, transparent and Nova Scotian based company that sources and markets Ocean Wise certified NS seafood across Canada and she was the sole owner until she sold the business in 2021. Afishionado grew from a one-person seafood counter to a CFIA inspected processing company with an artisanal in-house smoking facility and multi-million annual sales across Canada and the USA. Hana’s CV includes a broad range of experiences: AcroSan, Haiti – Executive Director, for emergency sanitation systems for ...
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Hélène Branch – Director
I'm an Acadian originally from Fredericton, New Brunswick. I met my husband in Ottawa where I lived for 12 years and we moved to his hometown of Shelburne NS in 2005. I fell in love with living in a small town and the sense of community that I found here. We are currently living in Wentzell Lake and go back every summer to Shelburne. Over the years, I’ve worked for the federal government as both a public servant for the Canadian Transportation Agency and as a consultant for Shared Services Canada in the past and currently ...
