Ola Klimczak(they/them) is a community-centered policy practitioner and food systems advocate, born and raised in Chicago in first generation Polish family. With an MA in Sustainable Urban Design and a focus on geography, Ola works to build a people-centered, soil-health-forward food system. Their work centers on understanding the needs, aspirations, and lived experiences of food growers, community nourishers. They translate those insights into stronger policies, community requested website and resources, and collaborative crossilo systems. Ola brings experience as a food grower, mapper, drone pilot, intergenerational caretaker, project manager, and Tree Keeper, a member of the Chicago Sustainability Task Force and the IL Food Scrap and Composting Coalition, and North American Food Systems Network. They connect community knowledge and ecological stewardship to aim for more resilient and equitable food ways.