Meet our Keynote Speaker

Stephen Ritz  Speaker | Author | Educator

Stephen Ritz is a South Bronx educator who believes that students should not have to leave their community to live, learn, and earn in a better one. An internationally acclaimed award-winning educator, Stephen is the author of the best-selling book, The Power Of A Plant, and founder of Green Bronx Machine. Known as “America’s Favorite Teacher,” Stephen is responsible for creating the first edible classroom in the world, which he has evolved into the National Health, Wellness and Learning Center. He and his students have grown more than 100,000 pounds of vegetables in the South Bronx, and in the process, Stephen has moved school attendance from 40% to 93% daily and helped provide 2,200 youth jobs in the Bronx.

Stephen was a Top Ten Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize, named Global Humanitarian, Food Tank Hero, TEDx Prize Winner and a Global Food Educator, and has presented at the Obama White House three times. A replica of his classroom was installed in the US Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC. His curriculum is being used in hundreds of schools across the United States, and internationally from Colombia to Dubai, from Canada to Cairo, to Doha, and beyond.

Meet the Chef

Dana Rodriguez  Executive Chef | Restauranteur

If you met Dana Rodriguez on the street, you’d never know that she grew up on a farm without any running water or electricity, or that she helped her mother grind corn down to masa to make tortillas almost every day at mealtime. You certainly wouldn’t guess that she studied computers or owned her own clothing boutique in her native Chihuahua, Mexico. Indeed, Dana has made quite a journey.

What you WOULD know if you met her, is that she is immediately engaging—her friends and nearly everyone in the restaurant industry know her simply as “Loca.” Loca is the kind of woman who fills a room the instant that she enters it—her laugh carries above the noise, and you know immediately that you are in the presence of a salt-of- the-earth woman who knows above all else how to cook, and how to work hard.

After vacationing and visiting family in Colorado twenty years ago, Dana decided to stay in the state and applied for a job at Panzano, an upscale Italian restaurant in the Hotel Monaco. From dishwasher to prep cook, through pasta making and the bakeshop, and finally as a sous chef at Panzano, Dana worked her way through the ranks,  becoming a sous chef at Rioja and Chef de Cuisine at Bistro Vendome.

In late 2014, Dana launched Work & Class in RiNo. In 2018 sister restaurant Super Mega Bien opened; Dana has most recently ventured into the world of small-batch mezcal and tequilas with the launch of Doña Loca.