Yolanda Owens
OSU-College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
Pathways & Partnerships Strategist
Columbus, OH
Yolanda considers herself a homegrown Buckeye. A product of Columbus City Schools, she developed a connection to food at a young age and believes that all students, especially BIPOC students should have access to agricultural education to reconnect to the land. She delivered a TEDx in 2020 discussing this very topic. She and her husband try to model this to their two "boss" daughters (seriously, their initials are CEO), through his landscaping work and her role as Pathways and Partnerships Strategist for the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) at The Ohio State University. Yolanda is the immediate past president of the CFAES Alumni Society Board, and first woman of color to lead. She serves on the Highland Youth Garden Board and is co-founder of Black Lactation Circle of Central Ohio, a breastfeeding support group for Black mothers, a continuation of her work to increase access and ancestral knowledge of healthy food, as well as Chief Cultivator at Forage + Black, an apparel company at the intersection of Black culture and green thumbs.