HEAL Food Alliance

2023 School of Political Leadership 

A Greener New Orleans

Devin Wright

she/they

Research and Policy Coordinator,
SPROUT NOLA

SoPL will give us the tools we need to fight in today's world where we are seeing the ongoing and escalating impacts of late stage racialized capitalism and the climate crisis. People have been using agriculture to resist oppression and protect their communities in the Gulf South for centuries-- what can/have we learned from them and what new skills do we need now? SoPL will give our team the space to dig deep in these questions and forge ties across space and time.

Meet Devin

Devin began studying, working in, and organizing around food systems over 10 years ago. She got her Bachelors in Society & Environment from the Johnston Center for Integrated Studies at the University of Redlands. She is currently a PhD candidate in the City, Culture, and Community program at Tulane University where she studies how growers interact with and understand their surrounding environments with a focus on the conditions here in the metropolitan New Orleans area. What does food justice look like for growers here? How does our environment play a role?

She has worked within agricultural systems as a nursery stock and row crop field hand, farmers markets salesperson, educator, community gardener, and as a grassroots member/organizer with the Greater New Orleans Growers Alliance. She believes that food is an integral vehicle through which we will achieve a sustainable and just future for New Orleans, the Gulf South, and the planet. She is excited to work continue her work on systems-level change using every tool we’ve got—including research and policy!