Matzen brings experience from her time at National Farmers Union (NFU) where she managed all aspects of the Local Food Safety Collaborative (LFSC), a $4.5 million cooperative agreement between NFU and FDA. The goal of LFSC was to provide education, outreach, and training on produce safety to farmers serving their local markets. Prior to employment with NFU, Matzen was an Associate Consultant at Corner Alliance where she supported two grants at the Department of Commerce related to public safety broadband.

Anderegg comes to the NGAF from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank where he ran the Green Grocer, a mobile farmer’s market program that served neighborhoods across the city that were experiencing food apartheid.  It was there that he first interacted with SNAP payments and various nutrition incentives, including the Food Trust’s Food Buck program and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s S/FMNP program. While on the Green Grocer Anderegg helped grow the initiative from fourteen to twenty markets and helped design the return to business solutions following the mobile market’s shutdown at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mason brings vast experience from former positions within the retail food industry, including as a retail technologist for the nation’s largest wholesale grocer, Director of Emerging Technology & Electronic Payments for the Food Marketing Institute, Director of Standards Implementation for the National Association of Convenience Stores PCATS (now known as Conexxus), and Executive Director of the Kentucky Grocers & Convenience Store Association. He most recently served as the Director of Information Technology for an independent supermarket chain. Mason served as chairman of the committee that published the first national standard (X9.58) for today’s SNAP (Food Stamps) card-based electronic benefits transfer (EBT) system. Ted was also a participant in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AutoID Center where Internet of Things (IoT) originated

Wright is lifelong independent grocer. He is President of Wright’s Market in Opelika, Alabama and Wright2U.com, an e-commerce fresh food delivery company. He is also President of Wright Food Solutions, consulting with retailers, wholesalers, non-profits and community development groups in the areas of food access and food security, with a focus on inner city and rural America. Wright has testified before both the U.S Senate and House Agriculture committees on the importance of the SNAP program in our country. Wright’s Market was the first independent grocer in America to offer Online SNAP along with Online Produce Incentives.

O’Connor spent 38 years with the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) at USDA. While there, he served in a variety of positions throughout the agency. He headed SNAP’s store operations, led the team that replaced paper food stamps with EBT, oversaw the beginnings of the conversion of WIC to EBT and served as Acting Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services for a six-month period.

Jones holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Richmond and a Master of Fine Arts from the American Conservatory Theater, located in San Francisco, CA. Outside of working for the NGA Foundation, he is an accomplished actor, writer and producer in New York City.

Kelly brings a breadth of experience working as a registered dietitian nutritionist in non-profit, government, and private settings. Most recently she managed a statewide farm to early care and education project with the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Children.  Prior to that she worked with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction advancing healthy school meal environments.