Keynote: Valerie Segrest
“Finding Strength Through Growing Together”
This keynote invites us to remember that, like the forest, we are strongest when we grow in relation to one another. From organic farmers to biofarming innovators, from ancestral land stewards to emerging voices in food systems—we each bring something vital to the table. Together, we can bridge sectors and perspectives to meet the challenges of our time with creativity, courage, and care.
Drawing on the teachings of old growth ecosystems, I’ll share stories of community, disruption, and renewal – how diversity builds resilience, how reciprocity restores balance, and how, after fire and loss, nourishment always finds its way back to the soil. These are lessons for our food systems, our communities, and ourselves.
When we collaborate with intention, honor our interdependence, and choose to build something better, we create a living, breathing food system of possibility. This is an invitation to take your place at The Old Growth Table—to share what you have, receive what you need, and help cultivate a future that feeds us all.
About the Speaker
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Valerie Segrest
Native Plants and Foods InstituteValerie Segrest (Muckleshoot) is the Executive Director of Feed 7 Generations and Co-Director of the Native Plants and Foods Institute. A Native nutritionist, author, and advocate for Indigenous food sovereignty, she works to restore relationships between people, place, and nourishment through education, storytelling, and community action.
At Feed 7 Generations, Valerie leads efforts to revitalize traditional foodways, strengthen intergenerational learning, and promote wellness rooted in Coast Salish knowledge. Through the Native Plants and Foods Institute, she co-leads a movement to reconnect Tribal and urban Native communities with traditional foods, medicines, and ecological knowledge systems, cultivating the next generation of Indigenous food leaders.
She is also the creator and host of The Old Growth Table podcast, where she curates conversations exploring the intersections of ecology, identity, and belonging, inviting listeners to reimagine what it means to live in reciprocity with the natural world.
Valerie holds degrees in Human Nutrition and Environment & Community and was named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People of 2025. A former Kellogg Food and Community Fellow, her work has been featured by Women’s Day Magazine, Food Network Magazine, the J. Jill “Inspired Women” Campaign, The Seattle Times, The New York Times, and KUOW’s Splendid Table. She also authored the “Indigenous Foodways” column for YES! Magazine and co-authored Feeding Seven Generations: A Salish Cookbook and Indigenous Home Cooking: Menus Inspired by the Ancestors.