Leah joined MESA in 2004 and now serves as Co-Executive Director. Her Humboldt farmland roots instilled a love for food and farming practices that nourish people and the planet. Leah moved to the Bay Area in 1999 to pursue degrees in Environmental Policy and Spanish at UC Berkeley. She has lived in South and Central America as well as Southeast Asia working on behalf of social, environmental and food justice initiatives. As a result of her travel and work experiences she gained insight into myriad traditional agricultural practices, implications of a globalized corporate food regime and the value of farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange, agroecology and unconventional multi-stakeholder collaboration. Her past work experience includes program development for the International Institute for Bengal Basin which focused on pollution mitigation for farmers and rural communities in Bangladesh, fund development for the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant and supply chain review for Scientific Certifications Systems. Leah is a co-founder of Wild and Radish, LLC, and developing a 10-acre urban farm and eco-village in El Sobrante, CA. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Planting Justice, an Oakland non-profit creating green jobs and democratizing access to affordable, nutritious food. Climbing rocks, yoga, milking goats and befriending bees are frequent sources of fascination.

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Batara is an LA native who started out as a technician at Honda. After a life changing experience, Batara moved north to study at UC Berkeley where he is pursuing a degree in Development Studies with a focus in Southeast Asia.

Early on, Batara was interested in foods as his Indonesian family cooked traditional meals daily. His parents taught him many Indonesian dishes which inevitably sparked his love for cooking. This love created a hunger for knowledge of the how and from where foods came. His English class at Rio Hondo College provided his first exposure to today’s food problem where the theme of the class was on the Organic Food Movement. Understanding his life goal is to help the marginalized rural population in Indonesia, food sovereignty became his chosen path. At MESA, Batara is developing relationships with potential global partners for a program with Indonesia. MESA has inspired him to be more active in spreading awareness about food justice issues with family and friends.

When Batara is not working or studying, you can find him behind the stove experimenting new flavors with fresh ingredients or out on the water with his Dragon Boat teammates.