Leslie Hossfeld

Leslie Hossfeld is a public sociologist at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She was the 2004-2005 Faculty Fellow in Public Policy and Public Engagement at the Institute for Emerging Issues at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on poverty and job displacement in rural North Carolina and she serves as lead researcher on the Jobs for the Future Project www.povertyeast.org/jobs, a community-based-participatory research project addressing job loss in Robeson County, North Carolina. She has made presentations to the United States Congressional Rural Caucus and to the Joint Select Committee on Growth and Development of the North Carolina Legislature on the subject of job loss and rural economic decline. Hossfeld is a Research Affiliate of the International Gender and Trade Network, Center of Concern in Washington, DC. Leslie works within the state of North Carolina on workforce development issues and economic recovery policy for rural counties. Her current research and community activism focuses on economic restructuring and recovery through regional community food systems. She is co-founder of the Southeastern North Carolina Food Systems project http://people.uncw.edu/hossfeldl.