Andrew Barrett is the current Craig Murphey Fellow, working to promote NYCCAH's advocacy and organizing efforts, as well as providing support to the Brooklyn Alliance of Community Services (BACS) network in central Brooklyn.

Andrew began his work in public service in Knoxville, TN as an AmeriCorps volunteer leading compost, garden, and environmental education programs in inner city elementary schools. From there, he served as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Madison, WI, supporting the Dane County Food Pantry Network. He received Master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Horticulture and Agroecology, where his research included over two years of Peace Corps service working with small scale hillside farmers near Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Joel Berg is a nationally recognized leader in the fields of hunger and food security, national and community service, and technical assistance provision to faith-based and community organizations. He is also author of the book All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?

Before becoming executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger in 2001, Berg served two years as USDA coordinator of community food security, a new position, in which he created and implemented the first-ever federal initiative to better enable faith-based and other nonprofit groups to fight hunger, bolster food security, and help low-income Americans move from poverty to self-sufficiency.

He was USDA coordinator of food recovery and gleaning the previous two years, working with community groups to increase the amount of food recovered, gleaned, and distributed to hungry Americans. Also, while at the USDA, he served as director of national service, director of public liaison, and as acting director of public affairs and press secretary. From 1989 to 1993, he served as a policy analyst for the Progressive Policy Institute and a domestic policy staff member for the President-elect Bill Clinton's transition team.

Berg has published widely on the topics of hunger, national and community service, and grassroots community partnerships. A native of Rockland County, NY, and a 1986 graduate of Columbia University, Berg now resides in Brooklyn. He is the past winner of the US Secretary of Agriculture's Honor Award for Superior Service and the Congressional Hunger Center's Mickey Leland National Hunger Fighter Award.

Kerry Birnbach is the Coordinator of the IVAH Initiative and works to mobilize civic and religious leaders to advocate for intensified government action to end hunger and poverty. In this capacity, she is responsible for coordinating efforts to achieve anti-poverty policy victories, engaging in policy research and media outreach, and for serving as a liaison between the Coalition and other anti-poverty organizations.

Kerry comes from Berkeley, California and received a B.A. from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She served as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Austin, Texas, and received a her Master's degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin.

Brittany serves as the Volunteer & Community Initiatives Coordinator, working in conjunction with the Development team to broaden the Coalition's outreach through web and communication design, as well as volunteer outreach efforts which promote the Coalition's mission and programs.

Her background in hunger and food justice issues began in college where she was an active member of community organizations in Washington, D.C. Brittany graduated from American University in 2007 with a B.A. in Film & Media Arts and Spanish Language.

Victoria Dumbuya manages the Coalition’s Volunteer Match Center to recruit and place volunteers at soup kitchens and food pantries citywide. In this capacity she serves as a liaison between volunteers and feeding sites. She joined the Coalition in Fall 2006.

A graduate of Rutgers University, Victoria previously served as an AmeriCorps national service Team and Service Leader at Hands on Atlanta, a non-profit that coordinates tens of thousands of volunteers with service opportunities in over 400 organizations and schools throughout Atlanta, Georgia.

Esther Sharon Larson manages NYCCAH’s donor development, fundraising, and grant writing activities. In this capacity, she works to increase awareness of NYCCAH’s work and to bring funding support to the 1,200 food pantries and soup kitchens it represents. With a background in the anti-poverty movement with the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, she brings experience as their AmeriCorps*VISTA program manager and New York Times Neediest Campaign communications manager.

With a Vanderbilt University BA, New York University MA, and MPA from Texas A&M University, she brings a wide-variety of experiences, including a White House internship with the Office of the USA Freedom Corps. She is a Board member of the Micah Global Foundation, an Arizona based foundation started by her parents whose unwavering devotion to service has motivated her involvement in promoting social change.

Reggie Miller manages the Coalition’s AmeriCorps* VISTA Program. He provides oversight and assistance to the 15 VISTA members building the organizational capacity of soup kitchens and food pantries through volunteer management, grant writing, community organizing, and technical assistance at emergency food programs across the city and within the Coalition's office.

Reggie is a former VISTA who comes to the Coalition from a homeless services provider where he managed a network of over 100 volunteer-run emergency overnight shelters for homeless men and women housed in churches, synagogues, and community organizations. He is a graduate of Boston University.

Michael Paone is a community organizer with NYCCAH. He coordinates the Community Action Boards (CABs) program which engages low-income New Yorkers in public policy advocacy and other organizing efforts to increase the food security of their neighborhoods, the city, and beyond.

Michael formerly served a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA, developing and organizing food programs in Central Brooklyn. He was the first recipient of the Craig Murphey Fellowship, under which he organized a grassroots network of food providers in West Harlem. He holds a B.A. from Boston University where he studied sociology and philosophy.

Carrette Perkins directly manages NYCCAH’s Farm Fresh Initiative, Annual Hunger Survey of food pantries and soup kitchens, Child Nutrition Program, Capacity Building and Technology Projects. Carrette also supervises the Coalition's Communications and Technology VISTAs.

With a B.A. from Queens College, CUNY, and M.A. from The University of California at Los Angeles, Carrette brings a range of experience to the Coalition. She came to NYCCAH directly from a 2 year service in the Peace Corps, where she taught English as a Foriegn Language in Mongolia, and prior to that, she spent a year as an Americorp VISTA. Before venturing into the nonprofit field, Carrette worked as an Editor at the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in their Corporate Communications department and as a Publisher's and Editorial Assistant at John Wiley and Sons.

George Spira is currently the Director of Finance and Administration for the Coalition. He coordinates NYCCAH's administrative, financial, and office support work, processing a range of financial reports for federal, state and city offices. George also oversees the Coalition's operating budget and billing for various grants.

Prior to his work with the Coalition, George spent over thirty years in the finance sector. He has worked on various projects for the Food Bank for New York City as well as St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church-Community Ministry, and is an active member of United Jewish Appeal’s Commission on the Jewish People.

Jim Wengler has been with NYCCAH since July 2003, previously serving as the Coalition's Benefits Outreach Consultant. He manages projects that help to connect low-income New Yorkers with the public benefits available to them. This includes the innovative Paperless Office System, a collaboration between NYCCAH, the City’s Human Resources Administration and other community partners whereby city residents can apply for food stamps online at neighborhood food pantries and soup kitchens.

Jim is a graduate of Rutgers University and has 13 years experience in the social service field, previously working with agencies serving those affected by HIV / AIDS. He also spent a year in Nicaragua as a volunteer for an organization that served impoverished and orphaned children.