The Team
Jonathan Hosseini stirs up creative change and weaves together ideas for a living. Over the last 20 years he has led change in a diverse range of organizations, from multibillion dollar corporations to UNICEF to local and national government agencies to innovative startups. He has been branded as “the innovationeer”. Over the last 10 years he served as Vice President of Global Strategic Alliances and Vice President of Operational Perfection at Southwire Company and Director of Strategic Initiatives for Beaulieu. From a young age he has passionately believed in the mobilization of communities through investments in Agriculture, Education and Health. He is an engineering graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA from Emory University. His business outlook spans work and travel in 43 countries and over 452 cities and towns. His agricultural experience started with work for a contract gardener at the age of 12 and includes 3 years tending his own flock of 1000 free range laying hens in Southern Africa.
Zia Khan is a strategist. Since 1994 his consultancy has served clients such as AT&T, Coca-Cola, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Home Depot and Mohawk Industries, on engagements ranging from brand identity to stakeholder communication. In his 20-plus years as a designer, Khan has traveled to 16 countries and his firm’s work has been nationally recognized for excellence in the industry. An ardent believer in integrative thinking as a winning strategy for business success, he currently serves on the national board of the AIGA – the professional association for design. Strongly motivated by the Gandhian ethos of being the change that one wishes to see, he relishes disrupting the status quo. Having grown up in an old-world culture he has seen first-hand how local food fosters a tighter, healthier and sustainable community.
Lew Oliver is founder and CEO of Whole Town Solutions, a firm that provides builders and developers with the tools they need to create profitable high-quality towns and neighborhoods with but one source while enriching the landscape and fostering a model of healthy and sustainable growth. His work can be found in New Urbanist towns and communities across the U.S., including Rosemary Beach, Celebration, Vickery, Clark’s Grove, Lost Rabbit, and I’on. He is Town Urbanist of Vickery, a four-hundred-acre new town, which won BALA’s 2007 Community of the Year award, and Serenbe, the nation’s largest eco-community. He is Town Urbanist of Norcross Downtown and Woodstock Downtown, and is also involved with the creation and design of McDaniel Glenn, Briar Rose, Glenwood Park, downtown Marietta, and historic Roswell, where he served for many years on the Historic Preservation Commission. His current international projects include towns in Tornagrain, Scotland; Batan, Ecuador; Isla Pedro Gonzalez, Panama; and Arcos de la Frontera, Spain.
Tahiri Merkel is a veteran food and beverage retail professional. She is the co-founder of tahCha, a popular and growing community-focused tea house brand in Atlanta. She has 7 years of retail management experience with Trader Joe’s, an international specialty grocery store, with extensive involvement in all aspects of opening up new regions and rolling out new stores, as the company expanded across the US. She also brings 15 years of experience in the restaurant beverage industry, including working in and managing two different tearooms. Tahiri directs her energies to the development and execution of food retail business models that respect the symbiotic relationship with the Earth’s natural ecology. She and her husband Erik have a long history of urban farming. They are avid gardeners with a love of all things organic, preferring to eat only what they can grow.
Natalie Rogers embraces her roles as wife, mom and Georgia PTA’s Nutrition Advocacy Specialist. She represented the PTA while testifying before the USDA about recommendations that could help improve the Child Nutrition Act. She has also been seen recently on Capitol Hill, advocating for S934 and HR1324 (also known as the “Competitive Foods Bill”). A proud co-author of our nation’s first State PTA Resolution Encouraging Healthy Fundraising, Natalie hopes this can be a catalyst for “culture shift” that will make “healthy and non-food fundraising” the norm, rather than the exception. Natalie has experienced tremendous success helping schools all over Georgia to become more effective at delivering nutrition curriculum to their students via the implementation of school garden programming. She is an Atlanta native and a graduate of the University of Georgia.
Larry Colton is a partner and the firmwide department head of the Intellectual Property Section of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP. Larry’s practice is dedicated to assisting technology and brand owners and developers in protecting their intellectual property, aiding venture capital sources in due diligence matters relating to intellectual property, and acting as the US representative to companies and law firms outside of the US in protecting intellectual property in the US. He received his Doctor of Law degree With Distinction from Emory University, where he served as an Editor of the Emory Law Journal, and his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University.
Marsha Middleton, President of M-Squared Public Relations, brings over 14 years of Public Relations and Media experience. After graduating cum laude with a degree in journalism from Florida A&M University, Marsha began her career as a public relations manager with Habitat for Humanity International. There, she was responsible for the promotion of world-wide projects such as the Jimmy Carter Work Project and Women Build, the first-ever building project led by the First Ladies of the United States. After a number of rewarding years spent in the non-profit arena, Marsha made the switch to corporate America when she joined The Home Depot as their Southeast Public Relations Manager. There, she led the internal and external communication function for more than 200 stores and worked alongside the company’s real estate division during land acquisitions, contract negotiations and store openings. In her spare time, Marsha contributes her time to many non-profit organizations and is extremely passionate about all things food.
Sarah Harman A mission-driven approach to real estate and community empowerment underlies Sarah’s professional focus on housing affordability and sustainability. She was development partner and director of sales for RiverClay, the Rocky Mountain Region’s first condominium to earn LEED designation. Drawing on prior work in curriculum development, training, and media, education and communication are also a large component of her real estate practice. Sarah attended Oberlin College, holds an honors degree in Cultural Criticism from University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA from University of Colorado at Boulder. She has held membership in Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio. With an early awareness of food quality and nutrition, Sarah has been reading ingredient labels since she was a child. She delights in kitchen science and experimenting in her street-front garden and backyard apiary.
Robert Smiles is an attorney and local farm advocate. He has practiced law for over ten years in a variety of fields in Georgia, West Virginia and Maryland. Bob’s prior practice focused on real estate, property development and business law. On the property development side, he has handled many projects involving environmentally-challenging conditions, including wetlands and contaminated soil.His current practice has expanded into other areas of environmental law, litigation and non-profit organizations. As a local farm advocate, Bob works on local organic farms, coordinates farmers’ markets, plans local farm festivals and promotes the expansion of farm-to-school programs.
Ra Broaddus knows that running your business can be tougher than surviving at sea in a lifeboat – he’s done both. With an accounting/finance degree from the University of South Carolina, Ra served his military obligation as a Naval Officer in the Vietnam War. For the next ten years he traveled the world as a Merchant Marine Officer. Ra began in business as a turnaround manager in 1983. He incorporated nine years later, changing his focus to CEO advisory work. He currently serves as business advisor to twenty companies – coaching CEOs and senior teams, and leading seminars and corporate retreats.
Melissa Cullens has an undergraduate degree from Furman University in painting with a minor in business administration and currently pursues post graduate studies in design at The Portfolio Center in Atlanta. She is passionate about building community and is engaged in various activities that engender positive social change.
Frank Rauss is a designer. No, a metaDesigner. He believes that design has the power to solve some of the most pressing issues we face today and is excited to be a part of a movement that is doing just that. He is excited to collaborate with forward thinking peers who continue the growth community based initiatives. His passions lie in communicating meaning and value to people because it is the responsible way to create a better world to live in. His prior experience includes managing and designing marketing communications programs for various companies in the New York area, and as an instructor at the Hendriks Institute.