Administrative Team

Emilio Panasci | Executive Director

Emilio Panasci is the Founder and Executive Director of Urban Agriculture Cooperative, a not-for-profit social enterprise in Newark, NJ. His focus is the development of market opportunities for farmers and creative models to bring the highest quality food to low and moderate income communities at minimal cost to them. Starting with his own small community gardens and urban farms, Emilio operated farmers markets for several years in food insecure neighborhoods, before building an aggregation and delivery approach for Newark area neighborhoods. Since Covid-19 pandemic, he and his team have refined their procedures and invested in their capacity to meet the needs of businesses, schools and nonprofit partners across the region. Under Emilio's leadership, UAC has built an infrastructure tied closely with institutional procurement partners in health care and government to widen the impact on consumers and broaden economic growth for small to medium local farmers.

Emilio has a Bachelor’s from Rutgers College Honors Program and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning and Policy Development, with a focus on community development organizations. Emilio has worked for 15 years in urban agricultural and local food projects, with a passion for social justice, community development, healthy sustainable living practices, and integrated neighborhoods.

Ursula | Farm to City Director

Ursula Kirk, serves as the Farm to City Director for Urban Agriculture Cooperative. She joined UAC with a background in wholesale account management and farmers market management with Dogwood Farms, a certified organic farm located in Basking Ridge, NJ. Between her earlier experience working in luxury brand retail and now agriculture, Ursula has over 10 years of management, customer service and sales experience. Ursula discovered her passion for farming and agriculture during her service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria. Living in a small village with less than 400 people, everyone had their own garden, their own livestock and thus everything-from their cheeses to their wine, and rakia, was domashno, the Bulgarian word for homemade. The Bulgarian's natural and organic way of living, and their connection and understanding of nature—the land, the seasons, the animals. Ursula was inspired to make this a significant part of her life when she returned to the US. Ursula is a proud HBCU alum, receiving her bachelors in economics from Florida A&M University. Ursula likes to read, watch "Golden Girls," and peruse YouTube for videos of kittens and puppies.

Ayushi Shah | Logistics & Supply Chain Support

Ayushi Shah is the Supply Chain Program/Project Assistant for the Urban Agriculture Cooperative. While she has been involved in multiple projects since starting with UAC in May 2025, her main focus has been to develop an interactive GIS map of UAC's farmers and community partners networks as a tool for internal and external logistics. This map will then also be used to propose new ideas for efficient transportation planning for deliveries. In addition, Ayushi is aiding in local greenhouse and shade structure build projects, as well as maintaining and strengthening relationships with community partners through marketing and presence in community meetings.

Ayushi has a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Urban Design from NJIT's Hillier College of Architecture and Design. She has a passion for understanding how the local food system is integrated into urban planning practices, specifically focusing on how urban planning tools and skills can be used to analyze and combat food insecurity.

Rahshemah Wise | Communications and Marketing Manager

Rahshemah Wise is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Urban Agriculture Cooperative. As a born and raised Newark native, Rahshemah is deeply invested in the well-being of their community. Rahshemah’s work primarily focuses on capturing and sharing the diverse stories that make up Urban Agriculture Cooperative and the community we serve. The local food economy relies on everyone – farmers, delivery drivers, families, market managers, and so much more. With a background in sociology and education, Rahshemah curates program highlights to share with the UAC audience through social media, newsletters, and fundraising campaigns.

Rahshemah has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Education Studies from Yale University. They are a current candidate for a Master of Education from University of Pennsylvania.

Warehouse Hub Team

Poe Rosenberg | Assistant Warehouse Manager

Poe Rosenberg is the Cooperative Market Food Hub Assistant Manager at Urban Agriculture Cooperative. She is interested in building capacity in communities experiencing food apartheid and moving towards a food sovereign future. Poe has spent the past two years working at Urban Agriculture Cooperative, and several years volunteering at and working with community gardens throughout Newark and New York City and learning about food systems in the region. Poe also has eight years of experience in food service and is an avid lover of cooking and teaching about sustainable, culturally relevant food.

Poe has a Bachelor’s degree in Social and Cultural Analysis from New York University, focusing on racial justice and food sovereignty.

Brittany Forslind | Assistant Warehouse Manager

Brittany Forslind is an assistant warehouse manager at Urban Agriculture Cooperative. Brittany is particularly interested in closed loops, and learning the flow of the food cycle. She is drawn to environmental justice initiatives providing local solutions to communities. Her favorite part about working at Urban Agriculture Cooperative is learning about different vegetables, their growing seasons, and about the local farmers around Newark!

Sharon Williams | Assistant Warehouse Manager

Sharon Williams (she/they) is an assistant manager at Urban Agriculture Co-op serving in the distribution hub and client accounts. Graduated from Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences in 2023, they migrated into food systems and sustainable agriculture from the prospective of an aspiring graphic designer, photographer and artist. Since their start at UAC, she has since become invested in creating accessible, sustainable, and affordable efforts that contribute to the continued decline in food desertion in the Newark, NJ area and other locations just like it. She wholehearted believes that art can inspire and motivate the actions we take in everyday life and has found a unique mix of her artistic passions and sustainable agriculture practices. Back end or front end, they have utilized the innovative platform that UAC offers to learn the honorable work that has become such an indispensable need today.

Maisie Conrad-Poor | Packing and Design associate

Maisie Conrad-Poor is a packing and design associate at Urban Agriculture Cooperative. In this role Maisie packs fresh produce from local urban farms to families, markets, hospitals and nonprofit organizations, and delivers those boxes in the company’s electric vehicle. She trains staff interns and volunteers for co–packing and farmer’s markets and performs essential roles in organization, inventory and behind the scenes maintenance.

Maisie received her bachelor’s in environmental studies and visual arts from Lawrence University in 2023. Much of her background is in wetland ecology and field science – focusing on science communication and the connections between ecosystem health and human health. Maisie has volunteered and worked in community gardens since childhood. Since then, she has enrolled in Farm School NYC and continued to volunteer at local community gardens in New Jersey and NYC.

Elida (Ely) Abreu | Packing and Design Associate

Ely Abreu is a Packing and Design Associate at Urban Agriculture Cooperative. Nicknamed E-ChickPea by the team, Ely ensures that the quality and specific items in our subscription boxes are correctly distributed with attentive care. Ely understands that this is vital to building and maintaining the numerous strong relationships we have established with our customers, local community, and even upcoming producers who we have provided a variety of produce for them to utilize in their businesses. Beyond work related to packing, Ely is also an artist and provides free-lance graphic design services to UAC and their online network of farmers and producers who desire to expand their agricultural brands.

Sky Lara | Farmer’s Market Manager

Sky Lara is the Farmers Market Manager for Urban Agriculture Cooperative. Sky was born and raised in Newark, NJ with a Bachelors in Public and Nonprofit Administration from Rutgers University Newark. They work as an administrative coordinator for Newark Green Team and NewarkDIG; promoting and supporting sustainability and green infrastructure solutions. As well as La Casa De Don Pedro’s 2025 Farmers Market Manager. At Urban Agriculture Cooperative, Sky has assisted at Farmers Markets throughout Newark, supported the hydroponic garden at The Beth Greenhouse, and facilitated a Food Nutrition Support payment station at East Orange 2025 Farmer’s Market.