Aba Kiser Bio
Aba Kiser
Aba Kiser grew up in her grandmother's garden on the east coast in traditional Piscatoway Conoy territory near Washington D.C.. Always a plant lover, she went on to explore the intersections of culture and language within agriculture at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. Aba traveled and farmed extensively on the west coast through the WWOOF program, moonlighting as an itinerant musician. After a brief stint in New York City slinging vegan cuisine and recording her debut album, Aba returned to the west coast to settle in Jefferson County, WA where she worked at local farms and as the Chimacum Farmers Market manager for 5 years. She became the Farm Tour Coordinator and Project Manager for the Cascadia Grains Conference through Washington State University in 2015. Since then Aba has gone on to develop the statewide Food Systems Innovation Event model and bring her production skills and expertise to such events as the International Quinoa Research Symposium, the WA Meat Up, the Inland Northwest Artisan Grains Conference, and RadTV with the Culinary Breeding Network. In addition to her seed saving work with the Organic Seed Alliance, she is currently the Project Manager for the state-wide WSU Food Systems Program. In 2020 she was named Capital Press’ Western Innovator for her commitment to equity frameworks. She founded Watershed Productions to bring together her passion for understanding culture as a part of nutrition within food and farming systems, and to support organizations pursuing a more equitable future.