Shannon Dobbs

As a disabled veteran who had to sell my nightclub businesses due to service connected disability challenges, I've pivoted my systems design expertise toward the most critical bottlenecks in our dysfunctional climate and food systems.

I develop practical, market and access focused implementation strategies that communities can deploy without institutional permission. My focus: transforming urban food waste into agricultural gold through technologies like HumiSoil, which literally grows water in soil through 24/7 bacterial photosynthesis. This is the first achievable step in coalition building for food system adaptation.

My approach is shaped by experiences across multiple domains:

• Military logistics and coalition-building in Army Special Operations logistics strategies
• Small business ownership (owned/operated successful nightclubs for 10+ years)
• Nonprofit leadership designing distributed food systems
• Regenerative agriculture design integration at hyperlocal to watershed scale

What makes my perspective unique is my "upstream intervention" approach – identifying key leverage points where targeted action creates cascading benefits. Rather than trying to fix entire systems, I advocate implementing practical connections at specific points that create immediate impact while cultivating long-term change.

I speak clearly about complex systems without jargon, connect abstract concepts to everyday concerns, and focus on implementation rather than theoretical frameworks. My stories from neighborhood bar ownership to bioregional organizing illustrate how seemingly different systems follow similar patterns of both resistance and transformation.

I'm especially passionate about creating self-determination pathways for communities, building climate resilience without dependency, and demonstrating that we already have the tools needed to address our most pressing challenges.