Renee Brooks Catacalos is the Director of Strategic Investments at FRESHFARM, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit building a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient food system in the Mid-Atlantic region. Prior to that, she was Vice President, Strategy and Investments at the Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders (SAFSF). There, she provided strategic leadership for SAFSF’s external-facing work with members, prospective members, the philanthropic community, and the sustainable food and agriculture sector.  

Renee is a former Foreign Service officer, having served tours in Mexico City, Mexico and Istanbul, Turkey. She has served in various communications, management and business development capacities with the Houston Association of Realtors, the Houston International Protocol Alliance, VOLLMER Public Relations, Future Harvest – Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, and the American Institute of Architects, Potomac Valley Chapter. Additionally, Renee was publisher and editor of Edible Chesapeake magazine from 2006-2009 and has served on the boards of ECO City Farms, FRESHFARM Markets, and the Neighborhood Design Center, as well as the Steering Team of the Chesapeake Foodshed Network (CFN). Her first book, The Chesapeake Table: Your Guide to Eating Local, was published in October 2018 by Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Renee is a graduate of the University of Virginia and is based in University Park, Maryland.