Dr. Gail Myers is an Agri-Cultural Anthropologist. For the last twenty five years she has researched, lectured, published about and recently filmed the stories of African American farmers, sharecroppers, and gardeners. In 2000, while a doctoral student at The Ohio State University, Dr. Myers organized the first statewide conference for African American farmers in Ohio, “Sustaining Communities: Ohio’s Black Farmers at the Crossroads.” She also served as the conference coordinator of the 19th California Small Farm Conference in Ventura, CA in 2005. The Root Magazine (April 24, 2015) featured Dr. Myers as one of seven urban farmers in the US you should know.
Gail Myers received her bachelor’s degree from Florida State University, a master’s degree in Applied Anthropology from Georgia State University and received her doctorate from The Ohio State University in Cultural Anthropology. Dr. Myers designed an original course from her field work and taught the course at Denison College, Sustaining Community: Black Farmers in the USA. She has taught for The Ohio State University, San Francisco Art Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine’s MPH Program, Morehouse College, and Denison College.
In 2004, Dr. Myers co-founded the non-profit, Farms to Grow, Inc, which supports Black farmers to maintain and grow their farms. In 2013, Farms to Grow, Inc. started the Freedom Farmers Market in Oakland, CA, now in its 9 th year.
Dr. Gail Myers lectures and consults frequently with community based, local, state, national organizations and federal agencies. Dr. Myers has authored several articles including the recent article in the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, Decolonizing a Food System: The Freedom Farmers Market as Resistance and Analysis, Summer 2015. In 2017, Dr Myers co-authored the chapter “Roots” with Dr. Bandele Owusu in Land Justice: Re- imagining Land, Food, and the Commons. Dr. Myers has received numerous awards and recognitions including from the California’s State Senate and the Ohio State House of Representatives. In 2018 She received the Advocate of Social Justice Award “Justie” from the Eco-farm Association. Dr. Myers continues a wide spectrum of grass roots organizing and coalition building through her work with Farms to Grow. Her new documentary film, “Rhythms of the Land”, is currently being screened.