Pam Hess is the Executive Director of Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture. Formerly a career national security journalist, Pam covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2002 to 2007. After a brief foray into national politics as a communications director on Capitol Hill, Pam returned to her first love: food and sustainable farming. In 2011, she took the helm of a local food and wine magazine that celebrated the sustainable food movement in the Capitol Foodshed, and in the course of it, met and fell for Arcadia. Since joining Arcadia in 2013, Pam has led Arcadia through its launch of the Veteran Farmer, now in its 10th year; the doubling of the Mobile Market fleet and a 500 percent increase in sales; the creation of a 2-acre free community farm; and the expansion of field trips, farm camp, and other educational programs. Pam oversaw the creation and introduction of a custom data-gathering point of sale app now in use by 150 other mobile and farmers’ markets around the country. The Arcadia Farmers Register produces previously unavailable data and insights into how low-income households use SNAP, WIC and Senior FMNP nutrition benefits to feed their families. This data is then used to design, implement and measure the impacts of programs to increase the sales of nutrition-dense foods. Pam was a plenary speaker at the USDA’s 2016 Transforming Agriculture conference, has testified to the House Agriculture Committee, and served on the Virginia governor's children's nutrition cabinet. Arcadia is a 2022 recipient of the Harkin on Wellness award. She was graduated from American University’s School of International Service in 1989. The Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture cultivates vibrant regional food systems that build the health of the land, food, and community, from the farm forward. It works in three program areas: sustainable agriculture – producing food and training military veterans farmers; farm and nutrition education – teaching schoolchildren to love their veggies with hands-on learning on the farm, in school and in community gardens food access – overcoming barriers to healthy food in low-income neighborhoods via a network of 8 weekly Mobile Markets in Washington, D.C.