Meet Our Experienced Team

Karl Binns

Karl is a nationally recognized advocate in agriculture and the food system and an international speaker. He’s led both regional and national value chain projects and has leadership experience in the private sector with companies like Cargill and Merck Animal Health.

Karl also has a decade of experience in leadership roles in non-profits, and higher education. Karl is a Certified Non-Profit Executive (CNE) and holds an ACRE Agricluster Certification through North American Food Systems Network. In his past roles, he served as Coordinator of the Agriculture Center of Excellence for the Penn State Small Business Development Center. He also held multiple leadership roles within the School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in recruitment and institutional advancement. Karl is a workforce development expert with a specialty in cultivating talent and markets from underserved communities. He is a former national officer of Minorities in Agriculture Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) and founder of both the Maryland Junior MANRRS Leadership Institute and Maryland World Food Prize Youth Institute.

Karl is a proud HBCU graduate, a Certified Non-Profit Executive, a LEAD Maryland Class X Fellow, Herrsching International Seminar Fellow, and a Climate Reality Action Fellow.

Jon Zerivitz

Jon comes to us with an impressive background as the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Union Craft Brewing in Baltimore, where he has led the creative and marketing initiatives since June 2012. During his tenure at Union, Jon directed all aspects of creativity, from conceptualizing to delivering the final product to consumers. He has successfully managed the brand lifecycle of numerous products, leading both internal marketing teams and collaborating with external agencies.

His expertise spans across print and digital media strategy, advertising buying, event planning, hospitality, and environmental design projects.

Kelly Dudeck

Kelly has spent over a decade working in either agricultural policy, land preservation or local food systems work. She was Howard County’s first Food Policy Director, making huge strides from food and farmers. Before that, she was the Executive Director of the Maryland Agricultural Resource Council and prior to that Kelly served as Director of Rural Lands at 1000 Friends of Maryland, where she administered the Keep Farmers Farming campaign, as well as the Partners for Open Space coalition. She has also worked for the Ohio Department of Agriculture and Baltimore County’s Agricultural Land Preservation Program. In addition to serving on the Rural Legacy Advisory Board, the Partners for Open Space Executive Committee, and the Maryland Food Policy Blueprint Advisory Committee, Kelly is also a LEAD Class VII alumni.

Janna Howley

Food, farms and economic development have been Janna’s passions since the early 2000s. Janna spent the last nine years at Grow & Fortify, working on value-added agriculture issues and activities.

Prior to that she worked for the USDA National Organic Program’s Accreditation and International Activities Division, where she conducted auditing and accreditation activities related to organic certifiers and international partners. Prior to that, Janna was the Agricultural Marketing Specialist at the University of Maryland Extension, Prince George’s County. Prior to the Extension position, she was the Marketing & Outreach Manager for FreshFarm Markets, where she managed four Maryland farmers markets, developed community level partnerships, conducted farm visits and helped increase farmers’ visibility.

Janna also spent three years at the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, working on public health nutrition campaigns. She received a masters degree from the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies & Public Health at New York University, with an emphasis on the environmental and social impacts of food production systems.

Janna is also a LEAD Maryland Class VII alumni, holds a WSET Level II in Wine, and enjoys a good IPA and rye whiskey.