The NEFA team of experienced community-based developers, consultants and social entrepreneurs has completed hundreds of successful projects across New England, the Northeast, nationally and globally over the past 40 years. We use a community-based development approach to work with investors, experienced farmers and local allies to make sure an investment in agriculture yields results that are good for the investor, the farmer and the land, based on a set of social-investing criteria we have.
Bob Bernstein, Managing Director
Bob Bernstein, an experienced community-based development practitioner, has been connecting individuals and groups with land, public facilities and affordable housing for 40 years. Bob has worked with multi-party initiatives, community land trusts, and individuals to develop and implement traditional and non-traditional legal and financing mechanisms for affordable land and housing. He brings this wealth of experience, perspective, and tenacity to Northeast Farm Access, LLC, a company he founded in 2013. At NEFA, Bob recruited the following highly skilled professionals to help fulfill a common vision for a company that builds reciprocal relationships between experienced farmers and socially minded investors, while promoting working farms and growing good local food. To read more about Bob’s experience with other organizations, click here.
Kahlil Lozoraitis, Development Director
Born on Co-op day, Kahlil possess a long history of passion for quality food and sustainable development. He is a seasoned strategist and MBA/MA with 15-plus years of building brands with purpose, and has successfully led projects for Fortune 500 clients, nonprofits, as well as startups. Kahlil brings strength in converting insights into strategy and communication initiatives that change behavior and build community, and supports work with an acute understanding of trends and commitment to the belief that it is unconventional business that can make a difference. An avid outdoorsman, he and his family share time between Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley.
Jacob Meyer, Co-General Counsel
Jacob Meyer brings a background in law and policy to the challenge of identifying and encouraging professional, consumer, and charitable investment that honors sustainable agriculture as the root of social and economic health. He has 13 years’ experience in legal and public policy research, writing, and analysis, applying clarity and precision to complex legal, business and social issues. To read more about Jake’s experience with other organizations and his full CV, click here.
Walter Cudnohufsky
Walter Cudnohufsky has over 50 years of experience as a landscape architect and land and community planner. His practice includes all scales, from regional planning to residential site planning. Operating within this continuum, Walter Cudnohufsky Associates (WCA) Inc. works to bridge planning and design as a seamless whole. We are a full service firm from conception to implementation. Walter has an agricultural background and a long held reverence for protecting agricultural lands. Through Walter’s work in public process he has developed strength in facilitating public input and is particularly adept at conceptualizing often complex issues. Quality design is based in the natural systems and human uses of a particular site. The crew at WCA, including Chuck Schnell and Kirsten Baringer, are acute observers who believe that planning and design is a team process that includes the client, users and the land as critical members of the team.
Laura Hartz, Outside General Counsel, Orr & Reno, P.A.
Laura Hartz is an attorney at Orr & Reno, P.A., of Concord, New Hampshire, which has been bringing a practical approach to New England’s legal challenges for over 70 years. Admitted to the bar in New Hampshire and Maine, Laura helps businesses and non-profits meet their legal requirements and business goals. She particularly enjoys environmental and energy law, land use, and business law. Laura has consulted for environmental and agricultural organizations, including Northeast Farm Access, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Downstream Strategies, and Organic Valley Dairy Cooperative., leading project teams, soliciting grant funding, and writing technical reports and case studies. She also received a Master’s Degree focused on Agriculture, Food, Environment from Tufts University. Learn more about Laura and Orr & Reno.
Tod Wohlfarth, Marketing
Tod Wohlfarth has over 20 years’ experience in the creative community. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a major in Film and American Studies, he completed a graphic design apprenticeship under the tutelage of acclaimed designer Chase Watts. Tod jumped to the East Coast in 2001, working for a variety of studios and publications before venturing out on his own, founding Rock Paper Pixel, a brand-strategy and design studio with locations in New York, San Francisco and Berlin.
Jonathan W. Jaffe, Advisor, Farm Credit East (SVP)
Jonathan Jaffe has over 28 years’ experience working for Farm Credit East as a loan officer, appraiser, tax specialist, business consultant and provider of critical program oversight and planning. In addition to this extensive professional experienced with farm financials and accounting, Jon has personal experience from his childhood and young adulthood on the family dairy farm. Jon brings this expertise and a critical eye to all NEFA projects to provide project underwriting. To read more about Jonathan’s experience with other organizations, click here.
Marc Delany, Design and Technology Consultant
Marc Delany is an experienced appropriate-technology designer and builder with 35 years’ experience in community-based housing and innovative product development. Marc has particular expertise in solar, and adaptive re-use of residential and commercial properties, with a proven track record of achieving neighborhood acceptance of innovative projects. Marc, who has advised NEFA with various design projects from housing and barns to gates and event facilities, is focused next on affordable farmworker tiny houses, chicken tractors, and landscape planter-screens to appear in 2016 at all three Centers.
