TracyFood

Resumé for Tracy van Cort

Employment Objective

Recovering professional cook seeks full or part-time employment related to food systems, policy, or planning, especially in or around New York City. Other areas of interest include writing and editing, organic and vegetarian food and cooking, gardening, sustainability, science, and public health.

—Tracy (tracyfood@gmail.com)

Education

New York University, New York, NY. Candidate for M.A. in Food Studies (Food Systems and Policy concentration) at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Coursework: Food policy, food sociology, food industrialization & processing, public policy for metropolitan regions, nutrition, research methods, food writing, history and principles of public health policy, contemporary issues in food studies, statistical methods, grantwriting for health-related projects, research applications.

Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA. B.S. in Mathematics (concentration: applied mathematics) and Pomona College Linguistics major (concentration: language and gender).
Coursework specifics: linear algebra, differential equations, mathematical analysis, probability, applied analysis (Fourier series and partial differential equations), operations research, dynamical systems; syntax, semantics, field methods, bilingualism, sociolinguistics, cognitive psychology, psychology of gender & sexuality.

Experience

NYC Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability
New York, NY
June 2010-present
Food policy fellow: Evaluate best approaches for promoting sustainable food systems in New York City. Assist interagency efforts between OLTPS policy advisors and staff from the Office of the Food Policy Coordinator and Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services. Substantial research, including preliminary program evaluation and needs assessments. Draft sections of PlaNYC update (release date: April 2011).
Grow, Cook, Eat, Learn
New York, NY
October 2008-May 2009
Teacher: Introduced NYC public school first-graders to the joys of food and gardening, once or twice a month at P.S. 116. Lesson planning, patience, fortitude, and keeping a straight face during repeated performances of the Water Cycle song.
Morning Glory Café
Eugene, OR
February 2007-July 2008.
Cook: Best restaurant-style hippie breakfast and lunch in town, one-four days a week. Vegan and vegetarian line cooking and prep cooking, including soups, sauces, salad dressings, and specials..
Willamette Farm and Food Coalition
Eugene, OR
January 2007-March 2007
Volunteer: supported production of 2007 “Locally Grown” directory of foods & wines of Lane County and Surrounding Areas. Recruited participants by phone and mail, designed print ads.
Sundance Natural Foods
Eugene, OR
January 2005-November 2006.
Cheese buyer: order products for cheese department, process invoices, inventory, prepare and stock cheese, dried fruit, and other products, customer service including multiline phones. Prep cook: prepare organic vegan soups, salad dressings, chopped vegetables, kitchen stocking and cleaning. Hot bar cook: prepare organic vegetarian and vegan entrees for hot buffet and soup bar, help deli counter attendant keep buffet and soup bar stocked, kitchen stocking and cleaning. Deli counter attendant: responsible for hot and cold buffet and soup bar food presentation and maintenance, stocking, cleaning, customer service.
Everything2
February 2001-January 2006.
Content Editor: administrative site maintenance (deleting and correcting submissions: spelling, grammar, punctuation, HTML formatting), proofreading, criticism, and collaboration on an online interactive hypertext database of professional and amateur fiction and non-fiction.
The Glenwood Restaurant Campus Cafe
Eugene, OR
May 2003-March 2005
Line cook: an always fast-paced pandemonium of stocking, prepping, cleaning, and actually cooking meals for customers, two or three days a week on average. Also occasionally covered prep shifts: putting together soups, sauces, sliced meats and cheeses, chopped vegetables, etc.
The Learning Center, Inc.
May 2003-June 2004.
Tutor: one-on-one academic instruction and coaching for college students with learning disabilities. Scheduled tutor sessions, wrote weekly progress reports.
Score!Prep/Kaplan Test Prep
Orange County/San Diego, CA.
August 2001-May 2002.
SAT I Tutor: One-on-one SAT I math and verbal test preparatory coaching with high school juniors and seniors. Scheduled lessons and diagnostic exams, interpreted diagnostic test results to design individualized lesson plans, assigned and graded homework, wrote tutoring session summaries and weekly progress reports.
Senior Thesis: Computational Evolutionary Linguistics
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA.
May 2000-May 2001.
Interdisciplinary research project on applications of mathematical methods for evolutionary biology to problems in historical linguistics. Adapted and implemented biomathematical models for use on linguistic data; written and oral presentations to general and technical audiences.
Environmental Studies Clinic
Claremont, CA
September 2000-December 2000
Interdisciplinary team project analyzing and evaluating Harvey Mudd College’s campus landscape (environmental, economic, social/human aspects) with the goal of proposing more sustainable alternatives. Researched/analyzed social and historical aspects of land use, edited midyear report.
The Queer Resource Center of the Claremont Colleges
Claremont, CA.
January 2000-December 2000.
Office Manager: created staff email list to facilitate employee communication, maintained inventory of supplies. General Staff: held regular office hours, answered phones, event planning, publicity, assisted with editing and production of six-college literary magazine, Outspoken. Day of Silence coordinator: directed publicity, registration, and participation in a six-college consciousness-raising event.
Pitzer-Pomona College Joint Linguistics Department
Claremont, CA.
September 1999-December 2000.
Research assistant to Profs. Carmen Fought and Karen Kossuth; student coordinator for “Methods in Sociolinguistics” Conference in honor of Prof. Ronald Macaulay; assistant webmaster on department website.
Integrative Biology Department
University of California, Berkeley
June-July 2000
Developed C/C++ simulations of mathematical models in theoretical human population genetics for Prof. Montgomery Slatkin’s research group.
Harvey Mudd College Mathematics Clinic
Claremont, CA
March 1999-May 2000
Assistant to the HMC Math Clinic director, Prof. Robert Borrelli: organized a professional workshop for the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), edited Interface, HMC’s journal of interdisciplinary research, and developed a database of Math Clinic records for the Claremont Colleges.
Harvey Mudd College New Student Orientation
Claremont, CA.
March 1998-September 1998, March 1999-September 1999.
Lookbook Editor: Directed an all-student staff of volunteers writing a 70-page booklet for first-year students. Laid out the Lookbook in FrameMaker 5.0; supervised its copying, binding, and distribution. Orientation Sponsor: Guided group of five first-year students through Orientation activities. (Volunteer positions.)
New Jersey Workshop for the Arts
Westfield, NJ.
July 1994, July 1995, July 1996.
Taught electronic keyboards and music appreciation to students, ages 3-12, at the Westfield Summer Workshop for the Arts.
Van Cort Controls Corp
Westfield, NJ.
Fall 1995-Summer 1997, Summer 1998, Summer 1999.
General office work (phones, filing, records, inventory) and some bookkeeping.

Skills

Bilingual Dutch/English, conversational French. Experienced with Mac, Windows, Linux, and Solaris Unix operating systems. Proficient in most word processing software, FrameMaker, PageMaker, and LaTeX. Some experience programming in C/C++, Python, Java, and Prolog. Basic web development using HTML and CSS. Also I am smarter than a box of rocks and can cook my way out of a paper bag.

Awards and Activities

Harvey Mudd College Dean’s List, student representative to HMC Board of Trustees annual retreat. ASHMC Historian; Student Representative to the HMC Alumni Board of Governors; Delta-H (HMC hiking/outdoors club); Pre-Orientation Hike Leader; PRISM (HMC Queer-Straight Alliance). National Merit Scholar, AP Scholar With Honors.