Systems Transformation Partnership

Jim Embry is a Kentucky-based and life-long community activist, agrarian intellectual, and oral historian whose work centers on food justice, land stewardship, and cultural memory. A descendant of those who fought with the United States Colored Troops, he lives on his family’s multigenerational farm and has spent decades advancing sustainable agriculture and environmental justice through community-based initiatives. Embry is a recipient of the 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award, the 2025 Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellowship and has served in leadership roles with Slow Food USA and numerous national and local organizations. His work reframes the Underground Railroad, the Civil War and Juneteenth as not simply history to read about but a living practice of emancipation, reunification, and repair, connecting history to the design of more just and sustainable futures.

Jennifer Bailey is a lifelong learner and student of history who is passionate about social justice and sustainable environmental practices. Her love of history has led her on a spiritual journey of family discovery, sharing stories of liberation along the Underground Railroad, and deepening her connection to the land.

Her commitment to equity and justice has shaped a career in equal employment opportunity and civil rights, including service with the Transportation Security Administration, Peace Corps Headquarters, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, she served as an environmental educator in the Dominican Republic, a mediator, and trainer providing in diversity, equity, and inclusion and professional coaching.

In 2020, she co-founded Daughters of the Underground, a nonprofit dedicated to walking in the footsteps of our ancestors along the Underground Railroad to remember and share their stories.