Mikaela Perry is the Advocacy Manager at Equity Advocates, leading policy campaigns and grassroots efforts with a focus on coalition-building to drive city- and state-level change in New York. A former fifth-generation farmer from the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Mikaela brings 12 years of professional experience in agriculture and food systems policy. 

Most recently, as the NY Policy Manager at the American Farmland Trust, she led two statewide coalitions — the NY Grown Food for NY Kids Coalition and the Alliance for NY’s Farmland — to achieve legislative wins, including increasing the state’s small purchase threshold so K-12 schools can purchase more local food, codifying the $10 million Farm to School 30% reimbursement program into law, securing legal changes to allow conservation easements to be purchased through state Bond Act Funding, and increasing the annual contribution for the Farmland for a New Generation Program to $700,000 annually so new and beginning farmers could access farmland. She regularly testified on behalf of farmers at Senate and Assembly hearings, providing key insights into topics such as agrivoltaics and co-location of renewable energy and farmland, Farm to Institution programs, and farmland conservation. In 2023, Perry was recognized as one of NYC’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars in Food Policy for these policy efforts. 

Mikaela’s advocacy expertise is built on significant field experience, including coordinating the annual NY Farm to School Institute; service as a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer in Tanzania; and nutrition and farm-based education programming in the Dominican Republic with La Fundación Mariposa, West Virginia with Wardensville Garden Market, Vermont with Shelburne Farms, and in NYC at Harlem Grown. 

Mikaela holds an MA in Food Studies from NYU and a BA in Political Science with minors in African Studies and Arabic from Middlebury College. In her spare time, she’s an accomplished artist who exhibits her paintings in galleries throughout NYC and the US. She lives with her partner and dog Manì in Queens and enjoys reading, traveling, hiking, and discovering amazing restaurants and bakeries with her friends.