As the Chief Executive Officer of the EA Alliance, Emily Brooks serves as a community connecting point to unite grass-roots and community based organizations. The EA Alliance supports and promotes community-based health and agricultural initiatives by developing and encouraging grass-roots, local, and sustainable food systems. Emily specializes in supporting organizational needs such as business planning, marketing support, strategic planning, grant writing assistance, market positioning, branding, and broadening customer bases.

Emily passionately believes in changing the social norm towards agricultural sustainability and development through education and coalition building.

 

 

Her current and former clients include:

 

·      Formulating and building a revolutionary nonprofit organization in Wisconsin called BRIDGES Healthy Cooking School dedicated to reducing the obesity epidemic among children by building coalitions between the  local food supply, educators, and medical providers.  By creating and teaching over 1,000 highly specialized educational classes, Emily transformed Workplace Wellness programming for businesses into a Community Wellness Education approach which encompassed the entire needs of North East Wisconsin inhabitants.  Under Emily’s leadership, the school was managed by 5 advisory groups represented by 60 area business leaders, experts, and organizations.

·      Constructing strategic plans, marketing plans, organizational systems, business development modules, and value-added educational products for Sustainable Food Systems in Wallingford, CT.

·      Managing and growing the Celebration of Connecticut Farms, a fundraiser for the Connecticut Farmland Trust, as Food & Beverage Manager.  Emily directly manages farms, producers, health departments, chefs, restaurants, and event coordinators for this 800-seat outdoor food and wine festival.

·      Revising the Funding and Sponsorship systems and procuring operational funds for Connecticut Farmland Trust, in Hartford, CT.

·      Launching Litchfield Hills Food Systems in Litchfield, CT.

·      Creating a 3-year strategic funding plan including funding case statements for Two Angry Moms, a documentary film encouraging local food consumption in schools in Westport, CT.

 

An active speaker throughout Connecticut, Emily leads book discussions and classes about sustainable agriculture at the Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, CT. 

She is also a board member with the Washington Environmental Council creating farm maps, creating coalitions between environmental preservation agendas and local producers,

and managing their strategic goals of incorporating more local foods into their private scholastic institutions.

 

Emily Brooks graduated from Ripon College, Ripon, WI, with a degree in Chemistry-Biology in 1997. She graduated from Fox Valley Technical College with a degree in Culinary Arts December 2003 and from Clayton College with a Masters degree in Holistic Nutrition. She is currently working on her PhD degree for Holistic Nutrition and ND License at Clayton College.  With her background in science, Emily has studied the effects of the use of antibiotics in the meat production industry, the nutrient deficiencies in the normal growth and development of plants, and the medicinal properties of natural herbs. She worked as a Chemist analyzing the fat-soluble vitamin content of commercially prepared foods.  Emily’s diverse educational background allows her to effectively analyze all aspects of new development needs, effectively create and manage strong, yet diverse coalitions, and ultimately create the right project solution to fit the requirements of the community by creating sustainable and progressive systems.