Edward “Eddie” Hill is a farmer, systems sustainability planner, and equitable development consultant with 20+ years of experience from grassroots environmental justice to international equity consulting. Currently Hill is an Assistant Director at Oregon State University Small Farms & Soils Department and leading the BIPOC-1890 Hemp Program of the Global Hemp Innovation Center. Hill brings a directness and sincerity to his work advancing environmental and social justice through food systems and economic development in vulnerable communities nationally.
After a shift in 1994 from the Oakland Bay Area growing environmental justice movement, Hill fell into learning how to operate an organic small farm in Olympia, WA. Quickly adapting to the pacific Northwest, helped launch small school garden programs and nature/art collectives in Seattle, WA focused on addressing disparities and inequities in the arts and culinary food systems. Later as community engagement and grassroots initiatives focusing on food justice grew, Hill, using tools and resources from his urban planning background helped negotiate the use of city-owned lands to advance economic and food market opportunities for Black and African populations in the PNW with Tilth Alliance.
With an interest of developing systems at the intersections of environment, food, equity, wealth, and health, and STEM workforce development he keeps focus on convening and facilitating ecosystems awareness. Hill worked as a Program manager for Will Allen’s Growing Power in Milwaukee and Chicago, served as a City Planner for Portland’s Bureau of Transportation, Executive Director of Groundwork Portland, led Community Outreach at the ReBuilding Center, and taught as an adjunct professor at both Antioch University Seattle and National University of Natural Medicine in Portland. Hill also helped to established and advanced work with the Green Workforce Collaborative, Mudbone Grown Farms, Black Food Sovereignty Council, Coalition for the Prosperity of the People (CPP), and Urban Civic Group West, his newly launched consulting firm.
Hill studied and completed work at California State University Hayward, Art Institute of Seattle, University of Washington College of Built Environment, and The Evergreen State College, Tacoma. In his spare time Hill DJ’s and produced mixed media paintings.
