REFS Reflections : Reneé V. Wallace
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EmailMeet Dawn Burton, the Executive Director of FoodPLUS Detroit , CEO of Doers Edge LLC, and a member of Racial Equity in the Food Systems workgroup.
Reneé V. Wallace is the Executive Director or FoodPLUS Detroit and CEO of Doers Edge LLC. She has been a member of the Racial Equity in the Food Systems (REFS) workgroup since 2019. Learn more about her background and perspective in this reflective Q&A!
What is a moment in life that shaped your perspective on and approach to food systems?
Working on Detroit’s Urban Agriculture policy was my first experience engaging in public policy development. I had the privilege of working closely with Kathryn Lynch Underwood, the city planner leading the effort, the Detroit Food Policy Council, and a host of community food systems leaders and advocates to develop policy that legalized land ownership for urban agriculture use. The way that Kathryn led the work was by design, highly participatory and innovative, integrating both state and local policy advocacy. During the work I also saw first hand racial inequity at work. Just prior to the passage of the policy, the Detroit city council authorized the largest land sale in the city’s history to a wealthy white man to establish a tree farm to improve the aesthetic along his drive to work in a Detroit suburb, building legacy wealth for his family in the process. Being in the room when that deal was authorized was my first experience with the type of trauma community experiences when inequity is openly practiced.
How do you practice race equity-centered food systems leadership?
Living in a majority minority city has sensitized me to the need to be very intentional and deliberate about centering race equity in food systems work. Designing for equity participation of African Americans and of citizens disproportionately impacted by societal ills in identifying and fighting injustices, as well as in new opportunities as they emerge, is now embedded in how I practice.
What is your personal challenge in race equity-centered work?
One of the biggest challenges and disappointments I’ve faced is in working with other African American leaders to collaboratively define how to center racial equity in food systems change work. Two things I believe contribute to the challenge are the absence of a unified strategy for systems change, and the tension of taking systems approaches for long term change and tactical approaches for more immediate results.
What hard question do we need to ask ourselves about food systems leadership and transformation?
Transformation takes time and we need to ask ourselves if we are equipped, willing, and committed to persisting in the work over time to achieve the changes we envision, being adaptive to address new challenges as they emerge along the way.
How do we bridge "gaps" between and among worldviews through language and action?
Bridging gaps can be achieved when people are given the opportunity to both say and demonstrate what they mean by the worldviews they express. As facilitators and conveners we can build in upfront work to engage with people to learn what they believe and practice, and to compile and integrate the information in ways that create opportunities for exploring, sharing, reflecting, and evolving perspectives.
What advice would you offer to emerging food systems leaders?
Seize opportunities to develop a set of strategic competencies such as strategy development, systems thinking and analysis, human-centered system design, change management, power and influence, process management and monitoring, project management, listening, designing conversations for strategic engagement, facilitation, documentation, and diverse participatory methods.
