FMC Welcomes trans•act Fellows

      Posted On: May 31, 2008

The Farmers Market Coalition, together with marketumbrella.org, is proud to announce the launching of Summer 2008’s trans•act project, sited in Los Angeles and New Orleans. FMC is sponsoring a fellowship in L.A. to lead the Neighborhood Exchange Evaluation Device (NEED) research in eight selected farmers markets throughout the southern California area, to bring the pilot research to scale and construct a working tool to measure the community impact of farmers markets. These markets include seven coordinated by the Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles (SEE-LA), and one coordinated by Kaiser Permanente.

Please join us in welcoming Michael J. Rosenkrantz as this summer’s FMC Fellow, who will lead the trans•act research in L.A. from June to August, 2008, and Fenwick Broyard III, who will lead the trans•act research in New Orleans.

Michael J. Rosenkrantz first became involved with public markets during 1987-88, as the manager of Oakland’s city-owned public market, the ‘Housewives Market’. In August 1987, he attended the first International Public Market Conference at Pike Place Market, and was bitten by the “market bug.”

From May 1996-June 2006, Michael was the Coordinator of the New London Farmers’ Market (NLFM) and served as the Secretary and Treasurer. He developed a full range of promotions, including music, dance, and children’s events and cooking demonstrations at the NLFM. In April 2004 Michael participated in the Project for Public Spaces workshop, ‘Creating a Public Market’ and later became the first Market Manager under the Central Market Trust in Lancaster, PA. Working with Market Ventures, Inc. in Salt Lake City and Louisville, Michael researched public markets throughout the country and also interviewed vendors for a potential market. For the Louisville project he researched Agricultural Census information to determine whether there were enough farmers for a potential market. Michael has also assisted with the development of a farmers market as part of a retail food cooperative in New London, CT.

Michael’s educational background includes a BA in Political Science (University of California – Irvine), an MA in Sociology (Boston College) and an MBA (Northeastern University). Michael was born in Los Angeles and has been a life-long Lakers and Dodgers fan. His parents and two children reside in Southern California.

Fenwick Broyard III, the 2008 trans•act fellow for the greater New Orleans area, is a New Orleans native and recent graduate of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. His concentration while at Tulane was international health education and communication, but he has also had extensive experience in monitoring and evaluation, both internationally and domestically. In the summer of 2006, with funding from the National Institute of Health, Fenwick conducted a qualitative analysis, in Lima, Peru, of the educational component of the Stop TB program. The conclusions of his research, conducted primarily in the shantytown communities on Lima’s outskirts, were reported directly to the NIH and to the Peruvian host NGO, PRISMA, which later funneled them to the national program.

Fenwick has also been very active in the New Orleans area over the last several years since the storm, and has worked with a number of organizations targeting disadvantaged youth as well as families in need. He’s looking forward to adding both a local’s perspective and a public health professional’s eye to trans•act, and is excited by what he sees as the tremendous potential of marketumbrella.org to affect change in his recovering city.

Please join FMC and marketumbrella.org in welcoming Michael and Fenwick to this exciting project. Michael can be contacted at mrosenkrantz@farmersmarketcoalition.org, and Fenwick at fenwick@marketumrella.org. For more general questions about trans•act, contact Senior Fellow Robin Moon at jrmoon@hsph.harvard.edu, or visit www.transact.marketumbrella.org.