Axandra is a passionate success-driven leader, collaborator, and systems thinker with over 10 years of experience in development and program management. Armed with a unique skill set derived from her interdisciplinary background in academia and diverse professional experience, she independently and collectively strategizes to solve complex problems and exceed goals, prioritizing multiple projects while successfully adapting to change.Born to an Italian immigrant father and an American mother, Axandra spent her early childhood years in Italy where she first learned the significance of food and how it connects us all to each other and to the land. She is passionate about the interconnected issues of food and land sovereignty, decolonization and racial justice, collective liberation, and intersectional environmental justice. Axandra holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in International Relations and Global Governance, and has taken graduate-level courses in Sustainability and Environmental Management at Harvard University. Currently, Axandra is studying Folk Ancestral Herbalism and Sacred Plant Medicine at The Gaia School of Healing & Earth Education. She has also volunteered on farms around the world, where she learned first-hand about different ecologically just and sustainable practices from composting and bamboo harvesting to tropical forest restoration. Axandra’s strong track record of working with grassroots groups, non-profit organizations, coalitions, foundations, and universities on issues including but not limited to social justice, ecological restoration, animal welfare, food sovereignty and land return reveal her deep commitments to solidarity work with diverse communities through cross-cultural team building, community organizing, policy research and analysis, advocacy, and education. Recognizing a greater need for just community building on a more local scale, Axandra has narrowed her focus to support more impactful change right at home. As a new resident to Vermont, she is an active new board member of the local Slow Food chapter, an international non-profit uniting the joy of food with the pursuit of justice and dismantling oppressive food systems to achieve good, clean, and fair food for all.