Board of Directors

The members of Just Harvest’s Board of Directors serve three-year terms. Elections are held annually, usually in May. To vote in the next election become a Just Harvest member.

Paul Seif, President

Paul lives in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood, with his wife and two children. Paul has observed that in Bloomfield fresh, quality food can be hard to affordably access – especially outside of farmers market season. Paul also has personal experience with fresh and quality food scarcity, having lived on state assistance for part of his childhood, and growing up in Portland Oregon, where stark divides persist between the quality and freshness of foods available across ethnic and socio-economic divides. Paul worked for 10+ years as a development officer in Portland. At that time Paul also served on two boards. Paul is glad to be serving alongside the Just Harvest board members, staff, and volunteers to “feed” Pittsburgh’s vibrant and diverse future.

Colleen Young, Secretary

Colleen is the director of government affairs for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. In 2021, she became the director of the Greater Pittsburgh Nonprofit Partnership at the Forbes Funds, where she supported regional nonprofit organizations, including Just Harvest, to unify their voices and leverage their collective power to access robust resources and to advocate for just policies that address critical issues facing our communities. Prior to that, she was the director of Community Programs at the University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development where she served in multiple roles over 12.5 years. There, she supervised the Family Support Policy Board for five years, partnering with Just Harvest to promote advocacy to improve services and support for children and families. She has volunteered on multiple advisory committees for Allegheny County Departments of Human Services and Health, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, and Women for a Healthy Environment. Across her career, Colleen has partnered with multiple community-based organizations to support the co-design of solutions to complex issues. She is deeply committed to advancing the leadership of those with lived experiences to make decisions that directly impact their lives. She joined Just Harvest’s board in 2019 “to support the work to uproot the multiple forms of systemic injustice that keep families in poverty.”

Mario Ashkar

Mario is an artist and activist who moved to Pittsburgh in 2013 after receiving a bachelor’s degree from the Ohio State University’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Ashkar has been awarded for their filmmaking at the Columbus International Film Festival, the European Media Arts Festival, Toronto’s Out Fest, Río De Janeiro’s Gay Film Festival, NYC Porn Film Festival and San Francisco’s National Q Arts Festival. She has sat on the founding board of directors for Bunker Projects as well as several grant panels. She has been featured as a fellow and artist in resident with Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Most Wanted Fine Arts, Maelstrom Collaborative, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, GlitterBox Theater, New Hazlett Theater and Bunker Projects and has received artist grants from the Heinz Foundation, Creative Capital, Boom Concepts, and GPAC. Mario has volunteered packing CSA boxes for several seasons and ran four farmers markets for the City of Pittsburgh in the 2022 season. She grew up in a Lebanese household and values access to nutrition. Mario runs an annual coat drive with Bloomfield Garfield Corporation as well as produces events, podcasts and live theater with her character Princess Jafar who was voted Best Drag Performer by the readers of the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2022.

I. Kristine Bergstrom

Kristine is a staff attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services, providing direct representation to low-income clients in elder and consumer law programs. She came to Pittsburgh from Nevada, where she managed a law office that provided free legal services in programs covering housing, public benefits, bankruptcy, consumer rights, tax controversies, family law, economic development, and prisoner reentry.  A graduate of Cornell Law School, she has also practiced disabilities rights law.

Tamika Berry

Tamika is the program supervisor at Pittsburgh Mercy, a part of the Trinity Health System. She has more than twenty years of experience in program administration, colleague development, colleague management, investigative, medication administration, policy and procedure development, and supportive services. Her emphasis is advocating for vulnerable persons, such as those who are diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and/or mental illness, by way of education, collaborating, self-centered plans, and training. She received a bachelor’s degree from LaRoche University in leadership and is currently enrolled in the Healthcare Administration Master’s program at Rasmussen University. She is a current Pittsburgh resident and is dedicated to serving as a quest to all persons to ensure all people are living rewarding, satisfying everyday lives by utilizing positive approaches, respect, and dignity for all of humanity.

Sr. Barbara Finch

Sister Barb has been a Sister of St. Joseph for more than 40 years. She remains committed to changing institutional structures that cause oppression, hunger, poverty, or the diminishment of human dignity. Formerly nurse at the Allegheny County Jail, Sister Barb is well known throughout the justice and peace community as well as the interfaith community. Her greatest gifts are consensus building and networking.

Jeannette Hickman

Just Harvest is an organization that Jeannette has admired over the years because “it’s a nonprofit that fights economic injustice issues in a holistic way.  The clear vision that free income tax preparation is as important to eliminate poverty as access to a caseworker or the ability to go to a farmer’s market with food stamps for fresh produce is inspiring” and why she is glad to have the opportunity of rejoining the board. Her community involvements include the Civic Leadership Academy-City of Pittsburgh and being a member of the Allegheny County Green Team, which supports sustainability efforts within the County workplace. Her favorite quote, of Jane Addams, is on every email she sends out: “The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.” It’s a sentiment that she wholeheartedly agrees with. Jeannette lives in Pittsburgh’s East End.

Suzanne McDevitt

Suzanne has a PhD and taught in social work programs at the University of Northern Iowa and Edinboro University of PA following a number of roles at Allegheny County Children and Youth. Her research has focused for a number of years on food assistance, primarily SNAP and the operations of the informal food assistance network, particularly food pantries.

Samuel A. Sierra

Samuel was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in a bilingual first-generation family that immigrated from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic in search of work and advancement opportunities. In 1990, his family relocated to Washington, DC, and started inner-city outreach missions in DC’s poorest projects where he served and saw first-hand the need for programs that provided food security and expanded access to social services with dignity. Samuel attended the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering & Applied Sciences graduating in 2004 with a BS in Electrical Engineering. Professionally, he has worked for several top-tier engineering and consulting firms including Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corp, Booz Allen, Accenture, and Northrop Grumman in which he honed his strategic and tactical multi-disciplinary skills in business consulting, business analysis, and engineering. Currently, Samuel is a member of PNC Bank’s Diversity & Inclusion Marketplace Team within the Corporate Responsibility Group. He is applying his talents to drive the strategic growth of diverse customers in support of PNC’s commitment to providing expanded access to critical financial services to diverse populations in new and existing markets. He is also a DJ and music collector that plays events throughout the Pittsburgh area. Samuel relocated to Pittsburgh in 2011 with his wife, Lyndsey, and is the proud father of two children, Greta Cruz and Eloise Rose.

Becca Smith

Becca is a proud Pittsburgh native and North Side resident who has recently returned after living in New York City for five years. She is a live events and touring professional, with over ten years of experience in producing and promoting events across the globe, from Broadway to London’s West End and numerous countries across five continents. Becca received her bachelor’s in communication and theatre arts from the University of Pittsburgh. She has personally benefited from food assistance programs and is passionate about giving back to her community. Participating in volunteer work and the betterment of life for the people of Pittsburgh has always been a part of her life, and she is honored to be serving on the Just Harvest board alongside this incredible team of individuals.

Stephanie Tsong

Stephanie is a multi-disciplinary Taiwanese-American DJ, artist, designer, and creative community leader who performs as “Formosa” and as half of the monthly Pittsburgh queer party, Jellyfish. They are heavily involved in local creative programming and events with organizations such as Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, Jaded, Honcho, Carnegie Museums, Pittsburgh Zine Fair, among many more. Throughout their twelve years living in Pittsburgh, they have developed a strong passion for helping their local community thrive – be it through collective dancefloor healing, skillsharing, or access to resources. Before living in Pittsburgh, Stephanie received a BFA in Printmaking and Art History at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and grew up in Northern Virginia. Stephanie has had extensive experience in event organizing, fundraising, and networking and is looking forward to applying their skills to support Just Harvest.