Rich Sanders – Director, Sustainable Table

Rich Sanders has often been called a Renaissance man and his unconventional career path supports that notion. He spent his ivy covered years at Yale University as a music major, but kept his left brain limber with engineering and applied science courses as well. Rich went on to compose and produce award winning music for television and films, and boasted a client roster that included TV's Captain Kangaroo and the Muppets. During those years, he merged his music and engineering backgrounds to become an innovator in the sphere of electronic music and synthesizers.

Subsequently, the advent of multimedia captured Rich's attention and provided another opportunity for him to blend technology and the arts. As a software developer, his involvement in the industry embraced the design (concept and content), programming, project management and production of interactive multimedia software for leading publishers including Simon & Schuster Interactive, Macmillan Digital, and Time Warner.

That experience led to his appointment as Chief Operating Officer at Vanguard Media Corporation, a software and internet development firm. As COO, Rich was Vanguard's jack-of-all-trades: developer of business strategies, acting-CFO, project manager, interface designer, software developer, writer and editor, human resources department, executive sponsor to clients, and staff psychologist without portfolio. There, the satisfaction he experienced in working with organizations like Asia Society and the United Nations sparked a keen desire to migrate to the non-profit sector.

Throughout this professional voyage, one thing remained constant: Rich has always been a passionate foodie, and there were two pivotal events that awakened his interest in sustainable, local food. The first occurred years ago at his local farmers market where he had an epiphany: not only do carrots not taste like wood, but they are actually sweet. The second was an eye-opening mini-vacation on a family farm in upstate New York where he quickly developed an appreciation for family farmers and learned first hand about the virtues of sustainable agriculture.

Rich says that that each step along that journey was preparation in some way for its culmination, his recent appointment as Director of Sustainable Table. He is thrilled to be here and describes the outcome as a perfect fit, saying, "We're going to make beautiful music together!"

In his free time, Rich pursues his ardor for everything ethnic - cooking, eating, the music, the languages, the culture in general. His idea of a perfect day is spent wandering through one of New York's many ethnic neighborhoods, prowling around the local food shops and letting the sights and smells and sounds wash over him.

Dawn Brighid – Marketing Manager

Interested in nutrition and healthy eating for over 20 years, Dawn has joined forces with Moopheus and crew to promote the sustainable food movement.  Most recently, Dawn worked as a Holistic Health Counselor and was trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.  As a health counselor, she educated people to balance their lives through nutrition and lifestyle choices.  Even then, Dawn shared with her clients that eating sustainable food is a big part of living a happy, healthy life.  Prior to health counseling, Dawn worked as a project manager at various financial, communications and fashion corporations in California and New York.  She is happy to combine her project management background with her love of food to help people adopt a more sustainable outlook for their community. Dawn grew up in California and spent summers in Oregon eating vegetables out of her Grandparent's garden.  Those fresh vegetables created picky taste buds that love organic and local foods.  Cooking for friends is a passion, especially after a trip to the Park Slope Food Coop.  She is excited to share Sustainable Table & The Meatrix with everyone!

Sophy Bishop – Program Assistant, Sustainable Table

Sophy has loved all things culinary since her first eggplant parm at age one, and has followed the Sustainable Food movement since she first read Fast Food Nation at seventeen. She majored in Anthropology and International Affairs at Skidmore College and studied abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France where she frequented the farmers market daily. After graduating, Sophy lived abroad and traveled in Argentina, Chile and Peru where she decided to dedicate her life to her love of food. Upon return, Sophy interned at Fine Cooking magazine where she went to tastings and participated in photo shoots where food was the star. She is thrilled to be working at Sustainable Table, where she can put her epicurean interests to good use. She hopes to use her background in anthropology to explore the cultural side of the sustainable food movement. In her spare time, Sophy enjoys cooking savory dishes, shopping at the farmers market in Grand Army Plaza, reading everything from classics to sci-fi, skiing and sailing on Long Island Sound. She is growing her first container vegetable garden this summer on her roof in Brooklyn.

Diane Hatz – Founder, Sustainable Table; Executive Producer, The Meatrix

As Founder of Sustainable Table, Diane Hatz conceived of and developed creative projects to raise awareness and educate consumers about issues surrounding sustainable food and farming, while promoting solutions to the problems caused by factory farms. She is a creative marketing visionary who uses new media, pop culture, humor and entertainment to educate consumers in both traditional and nontraditional ways.

Diane is Executive Producer of the award-winning, critically acclaimed, animated films The Meatrix, The Meatrix II: Revolting, and The Meatrix II ½ as well as Project and Marketing Director for the Meatrix campaign, both online and off. She is a Founder of the Eat Well Guide, an online consumer directory of sustainably-produced food in the United States and Canada.

Previously, Diane directed a team of consultants on issues surrounding industrial agriculture and developed publications and materials to help educate consumers about industrial farming. Prior to working in the nonprofit world, Diane worked in the music industry in various roles, including marketing, publicity, business affairs and management. She also co-founded, wrote and published The Relay, an independent music magazine on The Who, which is archived in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Diane has an MA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, a BS in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Delaware, and a Minor in Philosophy. She recently published her first fictional novel and is working on a book based on The Meatrix. She is committed to sustainability and to helping build community through food.