About

Hi!  My name is Eileen Horn, and I live in Taos, NM with my family.  My food systems professional path—woven through public service, policy advocacy, philanthropy, and network development—has been guided by a deep belief in community-driven solutions and a commitment to systems change. 

I believe food systems change doesn’t happen through top-down plans or shiny pilot projects. It happens when local communities lead—and when the voices of people historically marginalized by our food system are centered from the start.

I bring more than 15 years of experience working alongside food policy councils, coalitions, nonprofit organizations, local governments, and state agencies to build more just and sustainable food systems. I’m a systems thinker at heart, with a knack for policy strategy and a deep appreciation for the messy, meaningful work of coalition-building across diverse perspectives.

Before launching my consulting practice in 2019, I served two terms as a State Representative in my home state of Kansas, where I worked on agriculture, health, and rural revitalization policy. Prior to that, I spent seven years as Sustainability Director for the City of Lawrence and Douglas County, Kansas. There, I founded the Douglas County Food Policy Council—the first in the state—and helped lead it to national recognition. Along the way, we launched a community garden program on city-owned land, established a regional food hub, and implemented Kansas’s first SNAP matching program.

I’m a Kansas native with an M.S. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont and a B.S. in Biology. These days, when I’m not geeking out on food systems and public policy, you can find me hiking and camping across the Southwest with my family, volunteering at my kids’ school, or nose-deep in a good historical novel.