Leadership and Staff

HFFI Program Team

Anne Misak

Program Director, Equitable Food Systems
anne.misak@reinvestment.com

Anne Misak (she/her) is Program Director for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. She works with the HFFI grant fund and the HFFI Partnerships Program. Anne has worked in the economic development and food systems space for over ten years, including previous positions as the owner and Principal at Growing Impact Solutions where she wrote federal grants for food systems and economic development clients, the Healthy Food Program Manager/Loan Officer for Colorado Enterprise Fund, and a member and co-chair of the Denver Sustainable Food Policy Council. She is currently on the board of the Food Co-op Initiative. Anne has a Master of City Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Oberlin College.

Kahfii King

Program Manager, Equitable Food Systems
kahfii.king@reinvestment.com

Kahfii King (she/her) is Program Manager for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. She works with the HFFI grant fund and technical assistance programs. Prior to the Reinvestment Fund, Kahfii worked for eight years across the food access sector, including previous positions as a farmers market manager, a project manager at The Food Trust, advocating for and implementing the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative (PA FFFI), Massachusetts Food Trust Program, and the GusNIP “Food Bucks” program. Most recently, Kahfii worked as a manager at Compass Working Capital, managing the organization’s comprehensive online technical assistance tool for practitioners of the HUD Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program. Kahfii holds a B.A. in Political Science from Butler University and a Master of Public Affairs (MPA) with a concentration in Urban Sustainability degree from Indiana University-Indianapolis.

Olivia Chatman

Program Manager, Equitable Food Systems
olivia.chatman@reinvestment.com

Olivia Chatman (she/her) is a Program Manager and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. She works with the HFFI grant fund and the HFFI Partnerships Program. Her professional background includes work in community development, managing locally and state-funded arts & culture grants in southern Louisiana, in addition to providing research assistance in Georgia Tech’s Healthy Places Lab, where she has participated in multiple projects highlighting the connections between the built environment and public health. Olivia holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Anthropology and a Master of City & Regional Planning (MCRP) from Georgia Institute of Technology.

 

Sarah Leslie

Program Associate
sarah.leslie@reinvestment.com

Sarah Leslie (she/her) is Program Associate for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative where she supports many of the HFFI grant fund programs. Sarah has a background in sustainable agriculture and global food systems, and has 6+ years of experience leading agroecology projects around the globe – ranging from natural beekeeping in Jamaica, to medicinal herb farming in Costa Rica, to community incubator permaculture programs in the high desert of Colorado. Sarah brings a passion for food and farming and believes that food can serve as a profound healing agent with the power to reach across cultures, lineages, and identities. She has harnessed her skills in working on the ground to become a successful programs leader in the policy, administration, and financing side of global food systems.

 

Halima Miha

Program Operations Manager
halima.miha@reinvestment.com

Halima Miha serves as Program Operations Manager for Capacity Building & Capital Access Programs. She supports HFFI grantee onboarding process and portfolio management. She has more than 20 years of experience working for nonprofit organizations. She is passionate about data, outcome tracking, workflow optimization, and bringing structure and organization to the nonprofit world. Halima holds an M.A. in History of Philosophy & B.A. from Baku State University.

Tennille Shields

Grants Associate
tennille.shields@reinvestment.com

Tennille Shields is a Grants Associate for the Capacity Building & Capital Access Programs Operations Teams. In this role, she supports HFFI grant administration, including HFFI grantee onboarding and portfolio management. She brings a diverse skill set to this role, having previously held positions in communications, grant writing, and program management. Tennille holds a bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College.

Sara Vernon Sterman

Chief Program Officer
sara.vernon.sterman@reinvestment.com

Sara Vernon Sterman (she/her) currently serves as Chief Program Officer. In this position, she provides executive leadership and oversight of all capacity-building, grant and technical assistance programs at Reinvestment Fund, particularly in the areas of food, childcare and social determinants of health.  She has over two decades of experience developing and implementing financing initiatives in the education, social services and health care sectors. Prior to joining Reinvestment Fund in 1999, she taught elementary school in New York City and Washington, D.C., with the Teach for America program, and was a program director for Teach For America in eastern North Carolina. Sara holds an M.S.W from the School of Social Work and an M.B.A from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

HFFI Expert Panel

To support the successful implementation of the HFFI program, Reinvestment Fund has assembled an Expert Panel with a diversity of expertise and perspectives around healthy food access and the economic development needs and challenges of underserved communities.