Kelly Joy Freeman

From complex IT projects to elementary school recycling programs to school reunions to community gardens and baby showers, Kelly Joy Freeman seems to always be in the midst of planning and working with diverse teams. In her professional career, she worked as a Global Program Manager, (Project Management Professional, PMP certified) at Avaya for 16 years. She successfully managed very large teams on complex implementations of new and upgraded voice infrastructure technology for Dell Computers, Cisco Systems, and ABN AMRO. Her assignments sent her to work in Sao Paulo Brazil, London England, Amsterdam Netherlands, Dublin Ireland and numerous states in the USA. She coordinated engineers, vendors, technicians, software specialists, project managers and clients of various languages, races and cultures to achieve project successes.

Retiring in 2012, she enjoyed traveling but also started gardening in her backyard. With a lifelong passion of the natural state of the earth and environment, she also learned that our generation’s actions have had a major negative impact effecting the soil, water and air. She made it her mission to help correct the damage done by this generation's use of single use plastics.

In 2016, she started CircleTerra, a company dedicated to supplying environmentally friendly compostable tableware and food service supply choices for businesses and consumers alike. Her small company has prevented over 25 tons of single use plastic from going into our wasteland and water sources by replacing with biodegradable products.  She is a member of the Sustainability Management Association (SMA), Sierra Club, NAACP, KIVA donor and is a Certified Woman Owned Business (WBE). She is also a Certified Disaster Relief/CPR trained American Red Cross Volunteer.

And as a mother and a grandmother who also serves as a community garden volunteer, she recognizes the mental and physical benefits of consuming freshly grown vegetables. She shares her experiences and knowledge with her friends, family and social media presence, and following her lead, many have also started gardening!

Why I’m part of Restorative Farms

My mother taught me “Leave it better than you found it”. I believe we all have a responsibility to use our talents, skills and creativity to positively impact people and the earth. When we help one another with compassion and love, it proves there is plenty to go round and no one has to go without. Restorative Farms is a conduit to make that happen. Together we are better.

J. Paxton Marshall, J.D., L.LM

Member of Board, Director of Development & Lead Grant Writer for Restorative Farms

Senior Advisor, Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity, Lyle School of Engineering (SMU)

Attorney of Law (Member in good standing, NY & FL)

Director Development and Lead Grant Writer, Restorative Farms, LLC

Paxton has extensive experience practicing civil law in New York, NY and Miami, FL as a commercial litigator with firms such as Clifford Chance LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, primarily representing clients involved in large, sophisticated, class action disputes in both international and domestic contractual and tort actions. Further, Paxton has worked with students and social entrepreneurs both at the Tulane School of Law and the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity (SMU), articulating the increasing influence of global stakeholders towards standards of corporate accountability, and the benefits and potential pitfalls of increasing regulatory and social oversight of corporate strategies to ensure environmental and economic sustainability.

Paxton earned his Bachelors Degree in clinical psychology at the University of Miami (FL), his Juris Doctorate (JD) at Tulane Law School, and his Masters Degree in International Law (LL.M) at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University). His Capstone thesis focused on the application of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, specifically the economic value of galvanizing global multinationals to incorporate social and environmental corporate sustainability strategies that positively impact their stakeholders. This has resulted in Paxton encouraging broad based corporate action to mitigate the negative impacts of globalization, through the application of long-term sustainability programs intended to alleviate systemic inequality, reduce income and gender disparity and encourage the recognition, and the incorporation of, competent strategies to combat the looming threats associated with climate change.

    Why Restorative Farms?

As a result of the vision of Dr. Owen Lynch and the Restorative Farms' Board, Restorative Farms, LLC. has incorporated responsible and sustainable social and economic development strategies as an essential component of its core business model. The effectiveness of this approach is reflected in its impressive social and commercial impact, alleviating poverty and creating economic opportunities in a community suffering chronic urban blight and a significant depletion of human capital and natural resources. Restorative Farms' steady development and robust growth reflects both the resilience of the Fair Park, South Dallas, community as well as the astuteness of Restorative Farms' insistence on promoting responsible development, utilizing urban farming as the catalyst to systemically address the needs of this economically fractured and nutritionally depleted community. It also provides a provable case study of a scalable commercially viable project that incorporates responsible social and environmental strategies that could effectively be replicated by multinationals on the global stage in the foreseeable future.