Fatuma Emmad

Fatuma Emmad, who was raised in Colorado and Ethiopia, is Co-Founder, Executive Director, and Head Farmer for Front Line Farming. She is also an affiliate professor at Regis University and lecturer in the Masters for Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado – Boulder. Before becoming a farmer, Fatuma was a political scientist who engaged in issues affecting marginalized farming communities, such as the push for genetically modified seeds across Sub-Saharan Africa. She believes in resistance by the world’s land caretakers to single solutions for crop productivity and seeks to work on re-framing ideas of food security. She currently serves as a Mayor-appointed Member of the Sustainable Food Council for the City of Denver and a co-chair for Denver’s Good Food Purchasing Policy Group. Fatuma is also a fellow at Transformational Leaders for Change, which promotes leaders of color in Colorado, and was a 2020 Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Fellow for 2020. She was elected president of Mile High Farmers in 2020. Fatuma is the recipient of the Kathy Underhill Inaugural scholarship, which recognizes a community member who is changing hearts and minds in the hunger space through advocacy, policy, and/or community engagement through the lens of health equity. She is a graduate of the Center for Agriculture and Ecology at the University of Santa Cruz.