Student Leaders

Alexandra Nagy
President; Garden Campaign Co-Manager

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Alex is a third year physics major, and she became involved in the Real Food Challenge at UCI in October 2008. Alex loves being involved in the Real Food Challenge because it combines her passion for community growth and involvement with her love for food and cooking. She has always loved food variety and its implications for the surrounding community. You can learn a lot about a people and their culture by sitting down and eating their food with them. Her goals for the year are to establish the grounds for a food garden on campus and by doing so, creating an educational opportunity for the community that will link people directly to their food. When she is not occupied with the concepts of the food culture at UCI, you can find her riding (hopefully not falling) on a unicycle around campus.

Laura Ashmore
Treasurer

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Alexandre Colavin
Garden Campaign Co-Manager; Webmaster

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Alexandre is a third-year undergraduate physics major concentrating in computational biophysics and systems biology. Alex plans on continuing studying in graduate physics or systems biology after graduating from UCI. While he's still here, Alex hopes to continue advocating for food awareness, and improve the sustainability of our food. He believes the food network to be a complex system that affects our lives, the lives of others, the global economy, and society in ways that are braided and chaotic. Understanding seasonal, climatic, and fiscal constraints in UCI, and building local food awareness, Alex wants to optimize these parameters for the benefit of economy, sustainability, health and taste!

Tova Handelman
Club Development & Education

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Colin Murphy
Food Systems Working Group Co-Coordinator

Colin is a fourth-year undergraduate in the Departments of Souerkraut and Tomfoolery, otherwise known as Music and Social Ecology. As this year's Director of the Student Sustainability Coalition at UC Irvine, he aims to unite campus environmental organizations through UCI's first Earth Week, make plans for a Sustainability Theme House in one of UCI's housing communities, and catalyze communication among students, community members, and staff. After his undergraduate studies Colin aspires to a career in sustainability science, education, or policy, starting with graduate school. Among his passions, he loves nature & learning, music & art, and striving for wellness.  Idols: A. Einstein, M. Gandhi, Socrates, Martin L. King Jr., and Vandana Shiva.

Kelsey Meagher
Food Systems Working Group Co-Coordinator
Real Food Challenge California Regional Coordinator

Kelsey  is an undergraduate student in the department of Cognitive Sciences. This year, she was selected to serve as a Second-Year Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) Fellow through the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) at UC Santa Cruz. Last year, she used her fellowship to co-conduct a sustainability assessment of UCI Dining food purchases, educate her peers about food systems issues, and advocate for a more just and sustainable food system at UCI. This year, she will use her fellowship to develop educational resources for students who want to understand and engage with campus dining services, assess student attitudes and behaviors around sustainable food options, and co-manage the food systems working group at UCI. After she receives her bachelor’s degree, she plans to attend graduate school in hopes of securing a career in research or academia.

Hai Vo
Co-Founder; Alumnus

Hai is a graduate of Social Ecology studying sustainable food systems.  In the 2008-2009 academic year, Hai was chosen to be a UC Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) Fellow. As part of his fellowship, he co-conducted a food assessment of UC Irvine that sought to discover how much sustainable food is procured on campus. He thrives on innovative visions, fresh ideas, participatory models of democracy, and dynamic leadership development.  Hai loves to cook, and he often hosts cooking nights for our club. Post-graduation plans include farm apprenticeships, graduate programs in sustainable food communities, and advocating for real food.  If you want to read more about his epicurian adventures, visit his blog.