Christopher Gardner - Moderator

Christopher Gardner has a PhD in Nutrition Science and is a Professor of Medicine at Stanford’s School of Medicine. He has been researching the health effects of a plant based diet and its components for 20 years, primarily with federal (NIH) funding. He recently served on the American Heart Association’s Nutrition committee and is currently on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Culinary Institute of America. On the Stanford campus he has taken the lead in organizing the Stanford Food Summits which have now been held annually since 2010. These events have successfully connected faculty and students from across all seven of Stanford University’s undergraduate and professional schools, and connected these academics to community food activists and advocates.

Steve Brown

Steve founded Ignite Channel in 2014 as a media company focused on arts and innovation. Previously, he directed and produced “Spark: A Burning Man Story,” a documentary feature that premiered at SXSW 2013 followed by a 40 city theatrical run and release on Showtime, Netflix and video-on-demand channels. Throughout his career, Steve has been an innovator, founding CEO and board member of media and technology ventures in health and education. He currently is a partner in an innovation fund engaged in advanced research combined with early stage funding and incubation of related technology companies. Steve graduated from Stanford in physics in 1991.

Todd Darling

Todd Darling is a veteran filmmaker who has directed and edited for MTV, worked on the broadcast of five Olympic Games, edited over 50 nationally broadcast television shows, covered a revolution as a free-lance journalist, and directed independent films. His directing and editing credits include the reality show “Laguna Beach” for MTV (2004-2006), the feature documentary, “A Snow Mobile for George” (2009) about a cross-country trip to Washington, DC, now available on NetFlix, and the 30 minute documentary short, “Black Rock Horse”, about one of Burning Man’s boldest art projects.

Maria Deloso

Maria is a senior in the studying Earth Systems and minoring in Economics. She is fascinated by how many different issues intersect with the food we eat, from the environment to racial equity. In the past, Maria has interned at the USDA working on school food programs, and later at Revolution Foods where she got to observe the creation of school meals.  At Stanford, Maria loves exploring how people pick what to eat and how their decisions affect the larger food system. She is currently a sustainability intern for Stanford Dining, a psychology department research assistant studying the effects of signage on people's food choices and a member of the student group Appetite for Change.

Daniel Murray

Daniel is a PhD candidate in the Program in Modern Thought & Literature at Stanford. His dissertation, titled The Radical Democracy Movement: Occupy, Institution and the Commons, examines the role of social movements in deepening democracy. It focuses on Occupy Wall St. and Occupy the Farm, where he has been both a participant and researcher. Daniel was a Graduate Public Service Fellow at the Haas Center, where he designed and led a pre-orientation trip focused on food and social justice for incoming freshmen. He is currently the program coordinator for the Community Research Summer Internship at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. He lives in Oakland with his partner and daughter.