Kim Niewolny is Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education and serves as the founding director of the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation at Virginia Tech. Since joining Virginia Tech in 2009, Kim’s research, teaching, and extension programming has emphasized the role of power and praxis in food systems–based community development from an interdisciplinary and critical social theory perspective. As a scholar-practitioner, Kim focuses on the interface of sustainable food systems and the praxis of community food work from classroom to community spaces at the local, regional, and global level. Her research training and experience in qualitative research methods with special interest in discourse analysis and narrative inquiry. Currently funded initiatives include urban agriculture and sustainable food systems; farmworker food, health and wellness; the “Stories of Community Food Work initiative” and more. Kim teaches graduate courses and provides teaching leadership in Virginia Tech’s undergraduate Pathway minor, Food Agriculture, and Society. She has previously served as President for the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and has been a board member of the Virginia Food Systems Council since 2018. At the Center, her focus is on supporting research, outreach, and education that generates and promotes creative possibilities for food systems that are abundant, fair, and resilient so that all may thrive.  

Scholarly Interests and Research:

  • cultural and participatory community development
  • community-based participatory research and action research
  • multi-sector collaborations for sustainable food systems
  • narrative inquiry
  • regional food systems
  • new agrarian sustainability
  • intersection of health, wellness, and food systems

Personally, Kim finds joy in growing, cooking, eating, and sharing food—and raising chickens with her family.  

To learn more, visit:  https://www.alce.vt.edu/about/faculty-staff/niewolny/niewolny-bio.html