Neambe Leadon (she/her) has had the opportunity to work within the field of health equity and advocacy through various lenses over the last fourteen years. She was drawn to this work following the death of her father from cancer and his mention of alternative medicine. After attaining her degree, Neambe returned to Denver, CO, and pursued study of massage therapy based in Chinese Medicine. This exploration of physiology and health maintenance led her to think deeply about diet-related illnesses, birthing the desire to grow food. Neambe began with hands-on food production on a small-scale urban garden, which inspired her to develop a curriculum around consumption and the food system. She received grant funding to administer this curriculum to youth ages 5-25 for over five years. Through this summer program, she co-facilitated training in ecologically intentional urban farming; recycling and composting; an introduction to bioremediation through fungi propagation; alternative watering methods (olla pots, drip irrigation); food crop and flower plant identification; cultivation, harvest, and preparation. This curriculum grew to include art, culture, and yoga, always with the foundation of health as wealth and food as medicine.
Neambe’s career continued with various experiences working with youth and the outdoors, direct food access, food production, and science education as well as obtaining her certification for Permaculture Design. Her current role of Senior Manager of Food Sovereignty, in which she guides Metro Caring’s Nutrition, Food Access, and Urban Agriculture teams, feels like a culmination of all the work she has carried out over the years. Neambe’s work and lived experiences have created a strong sense of health advocacy rooted in the relationship between humans, the land that sustains us, and the systems that impact both.