Today s Speakers and Panelists Seth Bostick Seth has been working as a chef for most of his life. He started in the kitchen with his mother, making breads and preserves. As a young man, he started making his way through the restaurant ranks at 13. After a few years, Seth decided to make a career out of his passion for food. He attended Western Culinary Institute of Portland, Ore., (now called Le Cordon Bleu). After a few years of culinary school in the mid 90s, he embarked on a journey with several French trained chefs that led him through Oregon, Colorado, Idaho, and now Montana. He is Executive Chef with Thomas Cuisine Management at Kalispell Regional Medical Center. Seth has been in health care now for five years with Thomas Cuisine Management. Partnered with Kalispell Regional Health Center, the company is adamant about sound culinary practice, clean labels, and emphasizing healthy choices. It strongly supports whole, natural foods in basic forms. Farm-to-table practice, local sustainable products, and healthy cooking are the company s main objectives. Jill Brackenbury Jill is as horticulturalist with the B Bar Ranch near Emigrant. Besides feeding ranch guests and customers of the Paradise Valley Grill near Mill Creek, the B Bar s Ranch s greenhouse business also sells produce to the Livingston Hospital. Established in 1906, the B Bar today manages a herd of Ancient White Park cattle (from which organic, grass-finished beef is sold throughout Montana), and operates a high-altitude organic garden and greenhouse featuring heirloom varieties of vegetables and herbs. B Bar ranch has wound down its longtime Suffolk Punch draft horse program which has helped to preserve and improve the breed and increased their numbers with sales nationwide and in Canada. The ranch is a place of spectacular beauty, and committed to protecting its unique and extraordinary environment in perpetuity.
Mark Branovan Mark currently serves as the Director of Hospitality Services for St. Luke s in Duluth, Minn. a 265-bed, level II trauma hospital. Mark is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles with a degree in Sociology with a minor in Business Administration, and he has a graduate degree in Organizational Management from Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn. Mark is also an honors graduate of the California Culinary Academy, in San Francisco. He has worked as an executive chef in restaurants throughout the wine country of California as well as owning his own restaurant in Colorado. For the past 17 years Mark has been working in the healthcare field, holding positions ranging from line cook to department director. He currently oversees a staff of over 160 employees with services lines representing Nutrition Services, Environmental Services, and an in-house laundry that processes over 3 million pounds of linen annually. Mark lives in Duluth with his wife Leigh and their two sons Daniel and Matthew. Mike Callaghan Mike works for Food Services of America in Billings as the Director of Business Development. He has over 30 years of experience in the food-service industry. Mike has degrees in Hotel, Restaurant and Catering Management from Athlone Hotel and Restaurant School, Ireland, and a culinary arts degree from City and Guilds of London, England. He is a Certified European trained Chef (CEC) and Food Management Professional (FMP). He has been part owner of, managed, and operated restaurants in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Del., and Billings. He has instructed numerous cooking classes in Billings over the past 15 years. In his spare time, he teaches culinary and food-safety classes throughout Montana and Wyoming. He has been a supporter and mentor to the ProStart culinary program both in Montana and Wyoming for the past six years. He also is a Certified ServSafe Trainer with more than 280 National certification classes to his credit. While Mike was the executive chef at Jack s Firehouse restaurant in Philadelphia, it was recognized as a Top 10 restaurant in the nation by Food & Wine, Bon Appetite, and Gourmet magazines. He was also the executive chef at Silk Purse Sows Ear in Wilmington, voted best restaurant in the state by Food and Wine. His most recent executive chef position prior to working at Food Services of America was at Walkers Grill in Billings.
Walter E. Congdon Wally owns Big Sky Natural Beef in Dell, where he raises and markets beef. He is an attorney in private practice with offices in Missoula and Dell. Wally is a member of the American Highland Cattle Association, Highland Cattle Foundation, National Cattlemen s Beef Association, and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, among others. He also has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Montana and UM-Western since 1998, teaching courses on Land Use Law and Regulation, Agricultural Law and Natural Resources Law. He has also given numerous conference presentations since 1988. Wally has a law degree from the University of Montana, a graduate diploma in Land Use Planning from Massey University in New Zealand, and a Bachelor s Degree in Geography from the University of Montana. Lindsay Howard Lindsay joined Lake County Community Development Corporation's Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center in Ronan as an AmeriCorps VISTA serving with FoodCorps. Originally from the East Coast, she attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, studying Business Administration and Marketing. At UNCC, she was a member of the Business Honors Program and worked in the global marketing department of manufacturing conglomerate, Ingersoll Rand. Following graduation, Lindsay decided to pursue her passion for food and continued her education at Johnson and Wales University's Culinary Arts program. She put her skills to practice at a high-end catering company and inn, The Duke Mansion in Charlotte, NC. She has since volunteered on organic farms in Colorado and New York with the goal of learning more about sustainable agriculture. She recently completed her year of service with FoodCorps and is continuing her work for MMFEC as the farm-to-institution project coordinator. Crissie McMullan While earning her Master of Science degree in Environmental Studies from The University of Montana, Crissie co-founded the UM Farm to College Program, which has since returned over $3 million to local and regional food producers. Building on that program s success, Crissie founded and directed Montana s FoodCorps, a model for national FoodCorps, which now reaches 11 additional states. She has also served as the director of the Grow Montana coalition, a farm-hand, a Sierra Club field organizer, and a yokel in a slap-stick comedy troupe about how and why to buy locally grown food, The Local Yokels.
Dave Prather Dave has been the General Manager for Western Montana Growers Coop (WMGC) since the beginning of the 2010 growing season. He first joined WMGC as a member/producer in 2007 in order to find a market for his root vegetables and joined the staff in 2008 as the Assistant Manager/ Delivery Driver. Once at WMGC, he quickly found a venue for his training in agriculture and relationship building to promote the growth of small farms in the area. Dave holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Resource Conservation from the University of Montana and has been pursuing interests in agriculture and resource management for over 10 years. He hopes to continue using his experience to help promote a regionalized food system in Montana that focuses on collaborative relationships in order to benefit the rural economies of our state. Jessica Williams Jessica Williams is a registered dietitian and the Food and Nutrition Services Manager at Livingston HealthCare (LHC). Jessica has a Bachelor of Science degree in both Restaurant and Resort Management and in Dietetics from Colorado State University. She graduated from Montana State University- Bozeman with her Master s degree in Nutrition in 2006. Jessica started her career at Livingston HealthCare in June of 2007. Through the Corporation for the Northern Rockies (now the Western Sustainability Exchange), LHC joined the Farm to Restaurant campaign in October of 2007. Since then, it has been Jessica s mission to incorporate as many local and sustainable food products as possible into the hospital s menu. By purchasing locally, LHC is contributing to the local economy by supporting local farmers and ranchers and by creating more jobs in the kitchen; preserving valuable farm land; taking care of the environment by lessening the distance our food travels and therefore decreasing our carbon footprint; and providing healthy, fresh, nutritious food to patients, staff, and guests. Jessica has also started a sustainability committee at LHC and implemented several green projects, including a 40-foot garden plot in the Livingston Food Pantry s Community Garden and a productive recycling program that includes electronics and batteries. Jessica also is a member of the Montana Food System Council, a board member with Farms for Families, and a preceptor for MSU dietetic internship students. She recently started the Park County Food System Council. She was awarded the 2012 Emerging Leader in Dietetics by the Montana Dietetic Association. She is dedicated to mentoring future dietitians and anyone interested in local and sustainable food production.
Dean Williamson Dean is a former English teacher whose path to growing food has been a long and winding one. He owns Three Hearts Farm, between Bozeman and Belgrade, a diversified vegetable farm where nothing is sprayed, no chemicals used, and no genetic engineering trusted. Three Hearts sells to several restaurants, the Bozeman Community Food Co-op, local farmers markets, and through a CSA. Dean uses his spare time to coordinate the Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems program, an interdisciplinary major at Montana State. He also sits on the board of the Bozeman Community Food Co-op.