Kim L. Niewolny

Kim Niewolny is Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education and serves as the founding director of the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation at Virginia Tech.  Since 2009, Kim’s research, teaching, and extension programming has emphasized the role of power and praxis in food systems–based community development from an interdisciplinary and critical social theory perspective. As a scholar-practitioner, Kim focuses on the interface of sustainable food systems and the praxis of community food work from classroom to community spaces at the local, regional, and global level. Her research training and experience in qualitative research methods with special interest in discourse analysis and narrative inquiry. Currently funded initiatives include urban agriculture and sustainable food systems; farmworker food, health and wellness; the “Stories of Community Food Work initiative” and more. Kim teaches graduate courses and provides teaching leadership in Virginia Tech’s undergraduate Pathway minor, Food Agriculture, and Society. She has previously served as President for the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and has been a board member of the Virginia Food Systems Council since 2018. At the Center, her focus is on supporting research, outreach, and education that generates and promotes creative possibilities for food systems that are abundant and resilient so that all may thrive.   

Scholarly Interests and Research:

• cultural and participatory community development
• community-based participatory research and action research
• multi-sector collaborations for sustainable food systems
• narrative inquiry
• regional food systems
• new agrarian sustainability
• intersection of health, wellness, and food systems

To learn more, visit the Virginia Tech Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation 

ALCE/HNFE 6234: Theory & Practice of Community-based Participatory Research (even spring)

ALCE 5614:  Politics and Practice of Food Security and Social Justice (odd spring)

ACLE 4304/5304G:  Community Education and Development (fall)

ALS 2204:  Introduction to Sustainable Food Systems (fall)

Additional Roles and Affiliations:

• Faculty member of the Food, Agriculture, and Society Pathways Minor
• Faculty Affiliate with the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT) Program.
• Graduate Program Director, ALCE Department

Leadership:

Director, Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation

My appointment at Virginia Tech includes a 40% allocation for Extension programs.  I have focused my Extension effort centered on food systems–based community and situated at the nexus of food, agriculture and society. As director of the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation, my efforts consist of program development, implementation, evaluation, applied scholarship, outreach, and administrative leadership with a commitment to participatory community development as a guiding principle for Extension work at a state, regional, national, and international level. Two hallmarks of my Extension programming are its collaborative nature and the ways in which it centers a values-based and systems-thinking approach.  I direct two signature and competitively funded food and farming systems programs:  Virginia Beginning Farmer & Rancher Coalition and AgrAbility Virginia

Select Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Kelinsky-Jones, L., Niewolny, K., & Stephenson, M. (n.d.). “Magic” Concepts and USAID: Framing Food Systems Reform to Support the Status Quo'. Development Policy Review, 43(1), e12823.

Kraak, V.I. & Niewolny, K.L. (2024). A scoping review of food systems governance frameworks and models to develop a typology for social change movements to transform food systems for people and planetary health. Sustainability 16,1469.

Stephenson, M., Niewolny, K., Zanotti, L., & Erwin, A. (2024). Editorial: Critical praxis and the social imaginary for sustainable food systems. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 8:14873 97. doi:10.3389/fsufs.2024.1487397.

Kelinsky-Jones L., & Niewolny K., & Stephenson MO (2023) Building agroecological traction: Engaging discourse, the imaginary, and critical praxis for food system transformation. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 7:1128430. Doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2023.1128430

Posadas, B.., Ogunyiola, A., & Niewolny, K. (2022). Socially Responsible AI Assurance in Precision Agriculture for Farmers and Policymakers. In F. A. Batarseh, & L. Freeman (Eds.), AI Assurance: Towards Valid, Explainable, and Ethical AI. Netherlands: Elsevier's Academic Press

Niewolny, K. (2022). AFHVS 2021 Presidential Address: Critical praxis and the social imaginary for food systems transformation. Agriculture and Human Values, 39, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-021-10278-y

Niewolny, K. (2021). Boundary politics and the social imaginary for sustainable food systems. Agriculture and Human Values, 38, 621– 624. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-021-10214-0 .

Bendfeldt, E.*, McGonagle, M.*, & Niewolny, K. (2021). Rethinking farmer knowledge from soil to plate through narrative inquiry: An agroecological food systems perspective. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 11(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.111.012

Mason, G., & Niewolny, K. (2021). Participation and empowerment as emancipatory praxis: An ethnographic study of an NGO in Chiapas, Mexico. Development in Practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2021.1937527

Trozzo, K., Munsell, J., Chamberlin, J., & Gold, M., & Niewolny, K., (2021.). Forest farming: Who wants in? Journal of Forestry, 119(5), 478–492. https://doi.org/10.1093/jofore/fvab023.

Posadas, B. B., Hanumappa, M., Niewolny, K., & Gilbert, J. E. (2021). Design and Evaluation of a Crowdsourcing Precision Agriculture Mobile Application for Lambs quarters, Mission LQ. Agronomy, 11(10), 1951. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11101951

Upasani S., Franco R., Niewolny K., & Srinivasan D. (2019) The potential for exoskeletons to improve health and safety in agriculture: Perspectives from service providers.  IISE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors , DOI: 10.1080/24725838.2019.1575930  

Culhane, J., Niewolny, K., Clark, S., & Misyak, S. (2018). Exploring the Intersections of Interdisciplinary Teaching, Experiential Learning, and Community Engagement: A Case Study of Service Learning in Practice. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(3), 412-422.

Trozzo, K., Munsell, J., Niewolny, K., & Chamberlain, J. (2018). Forest food and medicine in contemporary Appalachia. Southeastern Geographer, 59(1).

Niewolny, K., Schroeder-Moreno, M. S., Mason, G., McWhirt, A., & Clark, S. (2017). Participatory Praxis for Community Food Security Education. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 7(4), 105-128.

Ligrani, R., & Niewolny, K. (2017). Community Food Work as Critical Practice: A Faith-Based Perspective through Narratives. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 7(4), 61-77.

Niewolny, K. & D'Adamo-Damery, P. (2016).  Learning through story as political praxis: The role of narratives in community food work. In Sumner, J. (Ed.), Learning, food, and sustainability: Sites for resistance and change.  Palgrave/Macmillan: New York

Niewolny, K. & D'Adamo-Damery, P. (2016).  Learning through story as political praxis: The role of narratives in community food work. In Sumner, J. (Ed.), Learning, food, and sustainability: Sites for resistance and change.  Palgrave/Macmillan: New York.

MacAuley, L., & Niewolny, K., (2016). Situating On-farm apprenticeships within the alternative agrifood movement: Labor and social justice implications.  Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 6(2), 195–223.

Culhane, J., Niewolny, K., Clark, S., McConnell, K., Friedel., C. (2016). Learning through Collaboration and Interdisciplinary Teaching: A Case Study of Faculty Work as Learning in Sustainable Agriculture Education, North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Journal, 60(2), 219-226.

Misyak, S., Ledlie Johnson, M., McFerren, M., Hosig, K., Niewolny, K. & Serrano, E. (2015). (In Press). Low-income mothers’ perception of barriers to using farmers markets to access local foods. Journal of Extension. Available at http://www.joe.org/joe/2015august/a3.php

Misyak, S., Ledlie Johnson, M., McFerren, M., Niewolny, K., Hosig, K. & Serrano, E. (2014). Understanding low-income Virginians’ perceptions of healthy food, local food, and food access: Implication for nutrition programming. In Thomas, C. I. P. (Ed.), Food insecurity in the United States. Common Grounds: Champaign, IL.

Bryant, L., Niewolny, K., Watson, E., Clark, S. (2014). Complicated spaces: Negotiating collaborative teaching and interdisciplinarity in higher education, The Journal of Effective Teaching. 14(2), 83-101.

Zanko, A., Hill, J., Estabrooks, P, Niewolny, K., Zoellner, J. (2014). Evaluating community gardens in a health disparate region: A qualitative case study approach. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition. 9:1–33.

Hightower, L., Niewolny, K., & Brennan, M. A. (2013). Immigrant farming programs and social capital: Evaluating community and economic outcomes through social capital theory. Community Development: The Journal of the Community Development Society. 44(5), 582-596.

Clark, S., Byker, C., Niewolny, K., Helms, J. (2013).  Framing an undergraduate minor through the Civic Agriculture and Food Systems Curriculum.  North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Journal. 57(2), 56-67

Niewolny, K., Grossman, J., Byker, C., Helms, J., Clark, S., Cotton, J., Jacobsen, K. (2012).  Sustainable agriculture education and civic engagement: The significance of community-university partnerships in the new agricultural paradigm. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. 2(3), 27–42.

Jacobsen, K., Niewolny, K., Schroeder-Moreno, M., Van Horn, M., Harmon, A., Chen Fanslow, Y., Williams, M., & Parr, D.  (2012). Sustainable agriculture undergraduate degree programs: A land-grant university mission. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2(3), 13–26.

Benson, M., Hightower, L., Bendfeldt, E., Tyler-Mackey, C., Niewolny, K., & Grover, G. (2012). Surveying agrifood stakeholders to identify priorities as part of a Virginia food system assessment. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 3(1) 215-234.

Niewolny, K. & Wilson, A. (2011). “Social learning” for/in adult education? A discursive review of what it means for learning to be “social.” In Sharan B. Merriam & André P. Grace (Ed.), The Jossey-Bass Reader on Contemporary Issues and Trends in Adult Education. Jossey-Bass: CA.

Niewolny, K., & Lillard, P.  (2010). Expanding the boundaries of beginning farmer training and program development:  A review of contemporary initiatives to cultivate a new generation of American farmers.  Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 1(1), 65-88.

Niewolny, K., & Wilson, A. (2009). What happened to the promise?  A critical (re)orientation of two sociocultural learning traditions. Adult Education Quarterly. 60(1), 26-45. 

Ph.D., Adult & Extension Education, 2007, Cornell University, Department of Education

M.S., Adult & Extension Education, 2006, Cornell University, Department of Education

M.P.S., Community & Rural Development, 2003, Cornell University, Department of Development Sociology (formerly Rural Sociology)

B.S., Biology & Wildlife Ecology, 1996, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Awards

• 2023, Excellence in Instructure Award. Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society.
• 2021,  Project of Excellence. Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center, USDA -NIFA.
• 2017, Diversity Incentive Fund Award (with Erin Ling), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech
• 2017, Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center Outstanding Outreach Project Award
•  2016, Andy Swiger Land-Grant Award, Virginia Tech
• 2014, Teacher Fellow Award, North American Colleges & Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA)
• 2013, Virginia Cooperative Extension Research Presentation Award, Specialist Category, (second place), Virginia Tech, Virginia Cooperative Extension
• 2012,  Virginia Cooperative Extension Research Presentation Award, Specialist Category, (first place) Virginia Tech, Virginia Cooperative Extension
• 2011, Faculty Extension Award,  Department of Agriculture and Extension Education, Virginia Tech
• 2008, Marvin & Ruth Glock Research Award for Outstanding Dissertation, Department of Education, Cornell University,
• 2007, Julian E. Butterworth Award for Outstanding Dissertation Proposal, Department of Education, Cornell University
• 2006, Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, Cornell University

As on Outreach and Extension Center housed in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Virginia Tech Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation  works at the nexus of food, agriculture, and society to explore and catalyze the conditions for a food system where all may thrive through a community-based and systems-approach.  To fulfill our mission, our aims include:

• Address food system complexities through programs, outreach, and partnerships.
• Conduct community-based food systems research.
• Enhance curriculum in food systems with community-university learning goals.

As a Center we are involved in a number of food systems-based community development projects, including those that are focusing on developing regional food systems, fostering and connecting agroecological knowledge and networks, supporting regenerative land management practices, and sharing and learning from the stories of people working from farm to plate as examples of community food work praxis. Find out more information below about each of the projects that we currently support: Projects | foodsystems.centers | Virginia Tech