About

Amanda Maria Edmonds

A consultant, strategist, and educator in food systems, sustainability, social enterprise, and nonprofits, Edmonds has more than 20 years of experience as a positive change maker. She is a systems-change, big-vision thinker who translates ideas and values into pragmatic, on-the-ground strategies and policies. Edmonds founded and directed Michigan-based nonprofit Growing Hope for 15 years, improving healthy food access through farmers markets, urban agriculture, youth programs, economic development, and good food policy. Between 2014-2018 she served as the Mayor of Ypsilanti, Michigan. She served under Governor Granholm on the Michigan Food Policy Council, was a founding member of the Washtenaw Food Policy Council, and has been part of the Michigan Good Food Charter leadership group for 15 years. After living in London, UK from 2019-2024, she returned to Ypsilanti, Michigan and continues consulting, focusing on policy, evaluation, & strategy, particularly as related to markets. She is also completing a doctorate in spatial planning at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, researching municipal policy and planning related to farmers markets. She has BS and MS degrees from U-Michigan’s School of Natural Resources & Environment. She is also a passionate gardener, mama to a preschooler, photographer/artist (SeedPip Studio, formerly AMEPIX), and (in a past life by now) avid swing dancer.

Public Service: Between 2014-2018, Edmonds served in elected office as the Mayor of the City of Ypsilanti, Michigan, a diverse and historic urban community of 20,000 residents in southeast Michigan, where she was driven by how to create sustainable and equitable communities. Additionally, during nearly eight years serving Ypsilanti’s Downtown Development Authority, she helped this body develop vision and strategy to most effectively support our invigorated commercial districts.

Board Service: Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Edmonds co-founded a nonprofit called Snail while in high school, and served on her school board at age 16. She has lived in Michigan since the mid 1990s, and is a twice alum from the University of Michigan’s School of Environment and Sustainability. Edmonds has served on many boards from local to national levels, including as chair of the Washtenaw County MSU-Extension Advisory Council, many years of service on the Ypsilanti Parks & Recreation Commission, on the leadership team of the Ypsilanti Health Coalition, and six years on the bi-national board of the American Community Gardening Association, among others. Current board service includes the Ypsilanti Community Schools Foundation board, the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability’s External Advisory Board, AESOP Sustainable Food Planning Steering Group (European-based), and the Michigan Good Food Charter Council Strategy Team.

Honors: She has received honors including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women Business Owners of Southeast Michigan, Twilight Foundation Award, Brown Chapel AME Brotherhood Award, and ATHENA Award for Young Emerging Leaders. She was featured in the book “Practical Idealists: Changing the World and Getting Paid” and has been highlighted in Organic Gardening magazine. In 2017 she traveled on a month long diplomatic trip around Europe engaging in transatlantic relations with leaders from the US and Europe as a Marshall Memorial Fellow.