ANNOUNCEMENT | Welcome Leticia Ama Deawuo, SeedChange’s new executive director

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Welcome Leticia Ama Deawuo, SeedChange’s new executive director! Ama has been a leading activist for food sovereignty and food justice for the past 15 years.

SeedChange is pleased to announce that its search for new leadership has concluded. On August 16, 2021, we welcomed our new Executive Director, Leticia Ama Deawuo, to our team. Ama will be based in Ottawa, at SeedChange’s main office at 56 Sparks Street.

Ama has been a leading activist for food sovereignty and food justice for the past 15 years. Before accepting this position, she was the Director of Black Creek Community Farm, an organization that works to increase access to healthy food and food justice in the Jane and Finch community of Toronto through food distribution and training programs. Ama was also instrumental in the creation of a number of community groups and initiatives including Jane Finch On The Move, Jane Finch Action Against Poverty, Jane Finch Political Conversation Café, Black Creek Food Justice Network, and Mothers-In-Motion.

Ama brings to SeedChange a unique perspective on food sovereignty, agroecology and food justice. Having been raised by her grandmother, a small-scale farmer, in Ghana, she grew up on a farm much like the ones that SeedChange supports around the world. She also brings nuanced insight into the food system and social justice issues that prevent many Canadians from accessing healthy food, having lived and worked in Toronto’s Jane and Finch community for most of her adult life.

Ama is currently completing a Master’s Degree at York University, looking at how decolonization, agroecology, and the expertise of women elders in small-scale farming communities can support much-needed shifts in the way we think of our relationships with each other and with other living beings.

Last but not least, Ama also arrives with her own knowledge and experience of SeedChange, having served on SeedChange’s Board of Directors for the past four years, most recently as its Chair.

The search for SeedChange’s next Executive Director took place via a competitive open process, led by Karim Salabi and Nicole McDonald, respectively the Vice-Chair and Secretary of the SeedChange Board of Directors, and Bruce Lourie, Chair of the SeedChange Foundation Board.

SeedChange’s Board of Directors would like to take this opportunity to once again thank Jane Rabinowicz and Martin Settle, who led SeedChange as executive directors for the last five years. Their commitment to social justice and food sovereignty, enthusiasm for transformative change, and careful stewardship were deeply appreciated. We look forward to a new and exciting chapter in SeedChange’s long history under Ama’s leadership.