BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2025 CANDIDATES

We appreciate your interest in the 2025 Sugar Beet Board Elections. Below, you'll find candidate profiles. Current board members are marked with an asterisk (*) next to their name. Online voting is available for Sugar Beet Owners NOW until April 22nd, 2025. Please note that each ownership share (typically representing one household) is entitled to one vote. Owners will receive an April 14th email with instructions for casting their online ballot.

Thank you for participating!

*INCUMBENT

Zee Butt

Despite being a long-time resident of Oak Park, it took me some time to actually set foot inside the Sugar Beet. Part of my hesitation was just ignorance -- I had no idea what a co-op actually was and didn't know why I'd want to be part of one. Soon after that first visit , though, during peak pandemic times in 2020, I decided to become an Owner. And since then, the co-op has been an important part of my family's well-being. I'm running to serve on the Sugar Beet Food Co-Op Board of Directors to give back to this important community.

I am a clinical health psychologist by training, which means I have focused my career on understanding how people react to, cope with, and recover from illness. For the first 15 years of my career, I was on faculty at a large academic health center, where I served as the psychologist for our kidney, liver, and lung transplant programs, led federally funded studies that improved how we ask patients about their symptoms and life quality and provided mentorship in research and clinical care. In 2021, I was recruited to a healthcare technology company, where I brought psychological science to scale to help improve the care that hundreds of thousands of patients receive. I now serve as a consultant to a variety of groups, providing expertise in behavioral health and outcomes measurement. I've held a number of leadership roles in various national advocacy and service organizations (for a summary, please visit www.zeeshanbutt.com) and I'd like to bring that experience to the Sugar Beet Board to serve our mission of building community through food.

Through my professional and personal life, I have become more aware of how food and prevention are vital parts of how we understand and sustain our health. For me, the Co-Op has been an important part of that journey. If elected to the Board, I would like to focus my time to expand and deepen our efforts to foster a sense of community, both within the brick-and-mortar co-op and throughout the neighborhoods we serve.

 

Johnny Mathias*

Johnny Mathias is honored to represent you on the Sugar Beet Food Co-Op Board! He relocated to Oak Park from Oakland, California in the Summer of 2021 with his wife Kamilah. He hopes to deepen his connections to this thriving community while pursuing his interest in just food systems. He currently works as the Director, Corporate Engagement and Strategy at Consumer Reports. Previously we worked for 10 years at Color Of Change, the largest online racial justice force in the country. From his work at a civil and consumer rights organizations, he brings a set of skills that supports the operation of Sugar Beet Food Co-op including digital organizing, community engagement, and racial justice practice. On the board, Johnny focuses on owner engagement and is eager to help the co-op tackle future challenges to grow membership in an environment of increasing competition from stores moving to Madison Street. Johnny sees Sugar Beet as a grocery store that can distinguish itself by living its principles and attracting more owners eager for a grocer that shares their values.

 

Rey Rosa

The quarantine was a significant wakeup call for me, particularly on how I interact with my community. My wife and I have lived in Oak Park since 2002 and not having kids made it difficult for us to get involved in the day-to-day of the neighborhood.

Through the suggestion of friends and OP family, I became a baseball coach for OPYBS Mustangs and loved every minute of it. We made some great friends and found ourselves becoming more involved. However, work would keep me out of the neighborhood more often than not and I lost touch over time.

Then COVID happened and we were reminded of the life that we have here in Oak Park. And while I was unable to go back to coaching, we were able to change how we spent our time and money, specifically in the community. I remembered when my mom and dad would send me across the street to R&S to grab milk and eggs for breakfast on the weekends. I remember grabbing a hot dog and fries at Jackie's where every kid in the neighborhood worked at one time or another. And I remember stopping in at the Egg Store with my mom for groceries and running into Aunt Mary and them having conversations with the grocers, the butcher, and the cashiers. Everyone knew each other and it was a community.

We have that here in Oak Park, and pillars of the community like Sugar Beet, Carnival Grocery, Carnivore, Anfora, and so many more are what make our neighborhood what it is and who we are. Being part of the board is one way that I can help continue what's been built and pass that to others who may not understand what a gift they have.

Professionally speaking, I've been in the Commercial Insurance industry for more than 20 years focusing on the internal due diligence and risk management for clients. I have a sales background and found that I prefer the research and consulting side of the business. I believe that my risk management perspective could be an asset to the board and look forward to speaking with you further. I appreciate the opportunity.

 

Susan Stall

I am a Sugar Beet member urging friends and neighbors to join. I am a weekly customer.

In the late 1970s I helped found the Venice Food Cooperative in Los Angeles (now Copportunity Market). Newly married, my partner and I joined a residential collective in Santa Monica dedicated to shared meals and progressive social improvement.

I organized shared family meals with neighbors while studying for my PhD in Ames Iowa. Later as a Sociology professor at Northeastern University in Chicago I helped organize public housing residents in Wentworth Gardens and Albany Park neighbors near campus. I ran an internship program that placed students in community-based jobs throughout Chicago and beyond.

Currently my partner and I are part of a cohousing group developing the building across the street from the Sugar Beet store. Unlike typical condominiums we designed our building to provide a place not only for shared meals and socializing among residents, but a social and physical resource for our surrounding neighborhood. If construction continues as planned, we hope to start moving in October 2025. As a Board member I would hope to explore opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration. I have other ideas including the possibility and feasibility of internships with local university students, potential outreach and collaboration with the newly formed Forty Acres Market that will open soon in the Austin neighborhood.

https://www.fortyacresfreshmarket.com/blog/categories/brick-and-mortar-store