Sarah Brannen (She|Her)
Associate Director for Programs, Hudson Valley Farm Hub
Sarah Brannen is the associate director for programs at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub, a 1,500-acre not-for-profit farm dedicated to an equitable and ecologically resilient food system. She oversees community food programming related to food access, farm-to-school, and local food supply chain development. She previously worked for the Local Economies Project of the New World Foundation managing grantmaking to support the Hudson Valley food system. Sarah has led a number of research and planning initiatives, including the Hudson Valley Food Hubs initiative; Reviving Small Grains in the Hudson Valley; and FoodWorks, New York City’s first comprehensive food plan. Before moving back to her hometown of Poughkeepsie, Sarah worked in government for more than ten years as a policy advisor to Speaker Quinn at the New York City Council, as an aide to a Baltimore City Council member, and as an investigator of police misconduct at the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board. Sarah received a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College and her Master of Public Policy degree from Johns Hopkins University. When not working to transform the local food system, Sarah spends her time serving as a member of the City of Poughkeepsie Common Council, hiking with her husband and two sons throughout the Hudson Valley, gardening, and figuring out what to cook with her CSA share.