Kelsey King is driven by continual learning, local and global community engagement, and building more resilient, just, and sustainable food and agriculture value chains. She works to advance on-farm and food manufacturing sustainability as the Sustainability Manager for Dairy Farmers of America, an agricultural cooperative that represents over 7,000 dairy farms. She provides leadership and project management on greenhouse gas reduction, soil health, water quality, biodiversity, renewable energy, workforce development, and environmental reporting. Her previous experience includes roles in manufacturing operations, supply chain, and international development. She has enhanced her knowledge of global food supply chains and economic development for rural resiliency through an international assignment serving as a technical advisor for small and medium sized enterprises in Sri Lanka, a short-term consulting assignment in Egypt, and providing remote consulting services for produce businesses in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Kelsey is passionate about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and has been an Employee Resource Group lead and mentor for fellow minorities in agriculture. She also served on a special project team focused on increasing broadband access in rural communities, and is invested in bridging the rural-urban divide.

She holds leadership positions as Board Chair of Minneapolis Climate Action and Board Member of Minnesota International NGO Network (MINN), where she is committed to bringing an anti-racism lens through focus on environmental justice and decolonizing development and aid.

Kelsey served as Curator for 2021-2022 and currently leads recruitment. Her project work has included co-leading our environmental justice advocacy and action, hosting a Sustainable Development Goals design challenge, community organizing to support the East Phillips Urban Farm, and supporting Memorialize the Movement, which collects, preserves, and activates the protest art that was created in response to George Floyd’s murder. She is a team member of new hub projects focused on rescuing food waste generated by the events industry and a project focused on providing BIPOC entrepreneur with support. She is also a trained Climate Reality Leader.

She loves listening to podcasts, wandering farmers markets, yoga, meeting new people, and scuba diving.