the FWIAA Team

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Jessica Cordova is a writer/designer, teacher, and business enthusiast residing in Tampa, Florida. Ms. Cordova was born and raised in the “ocean farmlands” of the Florida Keys, where she assisted her father in his commercial and recreational fishing business growth and development until the age of 18. In 2008 she relocated to Tampa, Florida to pursue her Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education at the University of South Florida, graduating in 2011. 

Since 2011, she has taught locally, edifying youths on the importance of sowing good seeds that will reap bountiful harvests with consistent watering, patience, and the power of faith. Ms. Cordova empowers her students to prepare for life both academically and logistically; by utilizing real world critical thought and problem solving skills. She takes strong consideration and a mindful approach in teaching children to examine and understand the world that surrounds them, as well as their vital impact on society as future leaders of America.

Ms. Cordova’s love of teaching, coupled with her hispanic cultural roots, and fascination for the culinary arts have amalgamated to birth an insatiable desire to achieve the American dream of raising a family on a farm of her very own. By God’s blessings and multiplication, it is Ms. Cordova's mission to use small farm/sanctuary to not only feed her family a healthy, organic, vegan diet; but to also feed the masses of neighboring communities. She is passionate about creating an opportunity to educate the local population by teaching sustainable farming practices and the benefits of consuming a plant-based diet. 

Ms. Cordova truly believes in being the living example of not just “giving a man a fish”, but teaching him how to fish; thereby supplying the skill set needed to achieve a lifetime of happiness and success by building up others through a ripple effect of positive transformation. 

“While it may seem small, the ripple effects
of small things is extraordinary.”
 

-Matt Bevin

Ms. Amanda Edwards is the national coordinator and co-director of the Florida Chapter of the National Women in Agriculture Association. 

Ms. Edwards is a Tampa, Florida native and first generation citizen born in the US as her family has Caribbean Roots! She is a devoted mother of 3 children and graduated from the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida. In addition to her studies, Ms. Edwards is an avid Second Degree Black Belt Instructor. By utilizing her gifts/talents that have been cultivated through her training in TaeKwonDo, the workforce, and life experiences, Ms. Edwards strives to fulfill her God given purpose to empower the underserved in both urban and rural communities. 

She does so by sowing seeds of enlightenment to aid in strengthening and restoring the mindset of the millennial generation in order to flourish in acquiring healthy eating habits, physical fitness, and to quench the undeniable thirst for mental reformation. Her main goal was and still is, to accomplish this feat by stimulating impressionable minds with her knowledge and expertise in the preventative medicine field. Ms. Edwards strongly believes that knowledge is a source of power, and holistic emancipation of the undeserved/minority population within the current construct of our society truly starts with what is being fed to our bodies physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

This truth has driven a lifelong vision and goal to help others gain the forward thinking and courageousness needed to go against the grain of society to become self-sufficient in a time of utter convenience and dependency. Ms. Edwards would like to share the knowledge she has acquired and principle understandings of what she has studied, to teach both current and coming generations methods of sustainability through mindset renewal.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” 

-Ecclesiastes 3:1

Priya Giri is an avid activist for minority rights holistically, as well as an active advocate for unification of our communities especially those of the underserved. Her family comes from a background in finance, particularly the banking industry in which Ms. Giri followed suit and only fueled her passion for equitable treatment in the financial arena as well as comprehensively.

Ms. Giri, understands the deficit that the minority community is subject to universally and has utilized her experience in the financial industry as a catapult for teaching and preparing the next generation for the shift in our economical infrastructure as we know it. Ms. Giri comprehends the importance of preparing the youth (our future) for success as well as bridging the gap between the older generation and the ones coming up. This approach and understanding fosters the necessary unification that is imperative for our communities and provides healthy examples for our youth to follow. Due to Ms. Giri’s specialization in finance, she is conscious that agriculture plays an integral part in our economy and helps fuel our everyday needs for the lifestyle we live. Ms. Giri’s hope is to bridge the gap that stands between the recognition of this fact and the access to tangible resources on all ends of the spectrum.

 With this goal in mind, it is Ms. Giri’s mission to utilize the wealth of knowledge she has been gifted with as a holistic approach to reach minority communities, educate all classes of people by utilizing diverse concepts that will demonstrate the cumulative agenda, as well as eradicate the blockage that prevents us from consistently walking in our calling as a nation of people. Ms. Giri understands, embodies, embraces, empowers and advances the agenda of unification! A part of her life mission is fostering, cultivating, as well as maintaining unity. Ms. Giri is not only dedicated to bringing unification to our communities, our nation, and in our understanding but she is also passionate and knows that she can do it through the tools she has been blessed with as well as the wealth of knowledge she has had the honor to receive. Ms. Giri believes in partnering with those who are likeminded and ignited by the same passion. Uniting and becoming one with those who are souled our to the same mission, vision and goal allows each of us to experience successful tangible results along with spiritual, physical and mental tranquility. Ascending with like-minded individuals focused on rebuilding our communities and establishing the unity that is needed in our nation is the answer to achieving greatness and progressiveness. 

 “Unity is strength....When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” 

-Mattie J.T. Stepanek