Rebecca is an agricultural economist and sociologist whose passion is to empower individuals to live purposeful and rewarding lives. She is a senior social science researcher at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems located at North Carolina State University where she manages the NC Growing Together project (ncgrowingtogether.org), a 5-year (2013-2017) USDA-funded initiative involving dozens of non-profit and private business partners working to build supply chains links between small and mid-sized farmers and two end retailers: a regional grocery store chain and the food service operations of a NC military base.