Michelle Kaiser

My community food security research addresses interconnected social, economic, and environmental issues. I have professional training in social work and public health and center anti-oppressive, critical frameworks in my work. I engage in interdisciplinary and community-engaged ecological-social research that has the potential for impact in practice and policy.  My food systems and farming work has included funded efforts to better understand the lived/living experiences of food insecurity; mapping disparities in food insecurity, food access, and food affordability across Columbus; participating in interdisciplinary teams to explore the perceptions and realities of environmental issues in communities as it relates to urban farming; creating an experiential, place-based, service-learning course with an urban farm to help students explore community food strategies, co-developing a first-ever CSA program in a low-income neighborhood, and conducting a feasibility study of an online food hub. I am always looking for ways to connect ideas and people, preferring community work and choosing participatory processes. I seek to center the voices of people with lived and living experiences, including marginalized communities and socially disadvantaged farmers. I have recently completed additional coursework on ecopsychology, nature-based healing and ecotherapies, and horticultural therapy, all of which center on sustainability and resiliency.