Franklin Holley has more than 15 years of experience in sustainable agriculture, community development, and conservation programming leading diverse efforts and groups of people to better outcomes for our people and our planet in both rural and urban settings. As a Senior Policy Director and Director of Food and Agriculture at Keystone, Franklin works on multi-stakeholder food and agriculture initiatives focused on environmental sustainability as well as social issues. Her portfolio ranges from projects covering climate change, soil health, water quality and scarcity, wildlife habitat and biodiversity, to nutrition and farm labor. Franklin is focused on identifying collaborative solutions to these challenges that work for all stakeholders in the food and agricultural system and for our planet.

Franklin holds an MS in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis and a BA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining Keystone, Franklin worked for the World Wildlife Fund Sustainable Food Team managing agricultural supply chain initiatives and field programs that conserve nature, ensure farmer livelihoods, meet corporate business objectives, and contribute to feeding a growing population in a resource-constrained world. During her time at WWF, Franklin also served as Vice-Chair of Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture where she now represents Keystone on the Board of Directors.

Having worked as the Executive Director of Southern Maryland Resource Conservation & Development, Inc., Franklin also has non-profit organization management expertise. Before returning to the East Coast, she worked for an international livestock research and development partnership between USAID and UC Davis. She has experience with Extension programming working as a nutrition educator in low-income urban areas and spent her college summers farming on Heifer International’s Learning Center Farm in Ceres, Calif.