Briana Okebalama is a recent graduate of Syracuse University, earning her bachelor’s degree in Geography as well as Environment, Sustainability, and Policy. She has a zeal for climate mitigation and community action. Briana gained experience with community engagement during her time as an undergraduate student researcher for the Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project (SUFFP). She helped collect extensive research on the benefits of local forageable species such as sumac and black walnut.

Briana gained experience with event planning both during her time at SUFFP, helping coordinate community walks and cooking demonstrations, and with her time as co-manager at student-run nonprofit, People’s Place Café. During her time at People’s Place Café, she made outstanding contributions including implementing new vendor contracts, and helping rebrand the café’s point-of-sale system.

She also devoted time to helping develop a farm-to-table start-up organization, drafting sample terms and agreements documents and compiling state farm sales regulations needed to onboard farmers to the platform.

Briana is excited about gaining new knowledge and experience, in particular relating to her interest in climate and community projects.