Molly Riordan is a food systems planning practitioner who pursues equitable regional approaches for building environmentally and socially responsible supply chains. For the last decade, she has explored how large demand centers of food, like cities and anchor institutions, can be levers for food systems transformation. 

Molly is the co-author of The Promise of Urban Agriculture: a National Study of Commercial Farming in Urban Areas (2019), a groundbreaking report that now includes a professional development course for planners offered through the Cornell Small Farms Program. She is the current chair of the American Planning Association Food Systems Division, and co-founder of the nonprofit Philly Cooks for Philly, an initiative to build a central kitchen for Philadelphia food programs. Most recently, Molly has also acted as program director at the Center for Good Food Purchasing, which supports large institutions to purchase more values-based foods.

 A Western New York native, Molly is returning to Buffalo to pursue a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, with an interest in resident-led resource and data management for climate change resilience. She earned her master’s in regional planning at Cornell University, and her bachelor’s degree at Ithaca College.