National Farmers Market Survey

Michigan State University Team

Dave Ivan 

Dave Ivan provides oversight to a team of more than 65 MSU Extension members who specialize in natural resources management, financial literacy, entrepreneurship and more. Ivan has over 15 years of progressive leadership experiences with MSU Extension. In addition to serving as director of the Community, Food & Environment Institute, he also served as a regional director and Clinton County Extension director. Ivan has provided innovative Extension programming in economic development and is frequently sought as a guest speaker on community revitalization. He holds a bachelor’s and a doctorate from MSU as well as an MBA from Penn State University. 

Sarah Klammer

Sarah Klammer is an agricultural economist and currently serves as Senior Specialist for Michigan State University's Extension Center for Local Government Finance and Policy and the Center for Economic Analysis. Her experience ranges from conducting program evaluations and impact analyses for public and private entities, to providing extension support for local governments and other entities (like farmers’ markets) across a breadth of issues. She has provided quantitative and technical program support for the City of Detroit, numerous nonprofits and private entities, as well as organizations such as USDA and international food-safety certifying body GLOBALG.A.P. To match this experience, she possesses a range of skills including conducting independent research, risk and impact analysis, grant writing, teaching, and strategic management and planning. 

Ed Mahoney

Dr. Ed Mahoney is one of the founding research members of the Farmers Market Manager Survey and brings extensive knowledge of survey development and administration for this project. He is a central architect of the survey instrument and rationale and will contribute to writing the final reports.  

Steven Miller

Steven R. Miller is Director of the Center for Economic Analysis at Michigan State University and an economist specializing in regional and urban economics, econometrics, and applied economic policy. He has led the Center since 2006, securing funding through high-impact research partnerships with government, industry, and non-profit organizations. His work spans economic impact analysis, labor markets, agriculture, food systems, renewable energy, and infrastructure. Miller has collaborated extensively with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, USDA, and state agencies, producing influential studies on supply chains, childcare and workforce participation, specialty crops, and regional development. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Oklahoma State University. 

Ryan Newcomb

Ryan Newcomb serves as a professional aide at Michigan State University Extension within the Community, Food & Environment Institute. He is a 2023 graduate of MSU with a degree in the arts and humanities, focused on language and culture. He now works as a coordinator in the fields of sustainable agriculture, clean energy and community resiliency. For the past two years, he has worked directly with over 50 communities across the state of Michigan to progress a variety of environmental projects. He has worked with food businesses to create promotional materials and aided in coordinating the annual food trade show and conference hosted by the MSU Product Center. 

USDA Agricultural Marketing Services Team (AMS)

Americo Vega-Labiosa 

Americo Vega-Labiosa is an Agricultural Marketing Specialist working in local and regional food systems. Since joining USDA he has dedicated his time to researching and supporting the role of farmers markets, farmers market organizations, and other areas of the local and regional food system. He has contributed to the USDA's National Farmers Market Manager Survey and is part of the team that maintains the USDA’s Local Food Directories. Currently, he leads a collaborative project with the University of Vermont, delving into the relationship between agritourism and the economic and sustainability of small and mid-sized working farms. By analyzing the economic implications for producers and identifying factors contributing to profitability and success, this research project seeks to pave the way for a more resilient and flourishing agricultural landscape.  He is also the USDA Lead for the 2025 National Farmers Market Survey. 

Kamran Zendehdel

Kamran Zendehdel is the Research Branch Chief in the Local and Regional Foods Division, USDA AMS. In this capacity, he leads a portfolio of national research initiatives and cooperative agreements that strengthen local and regional food systems. Prior to joining USDA, Kamran worked as a land-grant faculty at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences. In that capacity, he led the Center for Sustainable Development and Resilience where he managed a team of researchers working on a wide range of topics including urban agriculture, food value chain management, urban food hubs, green infrastructure, and youth education. Kamran conducted extensive research on farmers market and its health and economic impacts on the communities.   

Farmers Market Sector Team

Amanda Edmonds

Amanda Maria Edmonds of Beehive Strategies (Ypsilanti, Michigan) is a sustainable food systems consultant and researcher. She founded and directed Michigan-based nonprofit Growing Hope for 15 years, improving healthy food access through farmers markets, urban agriculture, youth development, economic development, and good food policy. Between 2014-2018 she served as the Mayor of Ypsilanti, Michigan. She currently consults in food systems and nonprofit management, focusing on policy, evaluation, & strategy from local to national scales.  She is also a doctoral candidate in Spatial Planning at Wageningen University (The Netherlands), researching U.S. municipal policy and planning regarding farmers markets. 

Darlene Wolnik

Wolnik helped create more than two dozen farmers markets in SE Louisiana and Mississippi while serving as the Deputy Director of New Orleans NGO Market Umbrella from 2000-2010. While Deputy Director, Wolnik also designed and oversaw the entity's fair trade and seasonal shrimper markets, created the first set of national free resources for market leaders, directly supervised all market and project staff and helped the entity manage its many private, state and federal grant funds in all years.

In 2011, she transitioned to working as a private consultant, working directly with dozens of market organizations across the US on design, operations, data collection, and analysis support.

Since 2015, she has worked as the National Farmers Market Coalition’s Program Director overseeing its support of all 9,000 market sites in the US and co-authoring more than two dozen regional and national reports on the farmers market sector.

Advisory Group

The Farmers Market Sector Advisory Group is a team of leaders assembled in 2025 and 2026 to advise on the National Farmers Market Survey. The Advisory Group is convened by and supporting the Farmers Market Sector Team (Dar Wolnik & Amanda Edmonds) to ensure that the NFMS is reflective of and useful to farmers markets and their partners. The Advisory Group will provide feedback and insight via Wolnik and Edmonds, and when relevant, help the FMST increase awareness and the reach of the survey.  By convening and engaging these leaders, the farmers market sector can gain clarity about NFMSS’s aims, methods, and outcomes, with the goal of higher response rates and deeper utilization of survey results by the sector.