Founder's Bio:
Ruby White is a social entrepreneur. Founder and CEO of Jazzy Greens, LLC, Ruby has dedicated the past eight years towards raising awareness to promote food justice and recirculation of wealth amongst at-risk communities. Her grassroots approach to entrepreneurship has resulted in five community garden projects in the city of Columbus, $80,000 in grant funding for urban garden proj
ects, and 1st place awards in both youth garden recreation and community service for global poverty. With over 10 years of professional experience, Ruby has served as an environmental steward, STEM instructor, and community food educator. Her environmental justice work began with three federal-level internships served with the National Park Service and Environmental Protection Agency. During these appointments, Ruby slayed non-native plant species throughout the National Parks System of the DMV area. She also wrote and edited environmental justice strategies for Tribal communities, and worked directly with the creator of the EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) system. As a Marine & Environmental Science graduate of Hampton University, Ruby has used her Bachelors of Science degree to teach ecological-based science curriculum - many times of her own design – to formal and informal classroom settings. Her love of teaching allowed her to create the Reynoldsburg Edible Schoolyard Project, a USDA Farm-to-Table grant funded program that proposed to use seven school locations to create a mini-food system. Most recently, Ruby was selected to be a Global Social Impact Fellow with University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Social Impact Strategy. In this program Ruby served amongst 24 other fellows from 12 different countries, for one week in January 2016 in the rainforest of Costa Rica, to develop her social enterprise business model. Ruby’s hard work and dedication to community mobilization and food justice issues has provided a solid foundation to support her pursuit of leadership within the realm of sustainable development of food systems.