Last updated on September 15th, 2023 at 03:12 pm
Willow Lake joined AgriSafe’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Advisory Council in 2023. She currently is currently a supervisor for the State of Connecticut Department of Agriculture, Division of Regulatory Services, utilizing her training in One Health in systems analysis to administer and create sustainable policy and practice in animal health, human health, and environmental health as it relates to: zoonotic disease, food policy, social determinants of health, food insecurity, social equity, diversity, and inclusion. program, project, interventions. She has eighteen years field/clinical experience in Connecticut agricultural industry, twenty years’ experience in regulation and enforcement, thirteen years’ experience in nursing including, intensive care units, step down, medical surgical, and public health nursing. Twenty years’ experience teaching, promoting, and mentoring local, state, and industry on existing and new policy, programs, and regulation initiatives in collaboration with federal and state partners. She currently owns and operates her own farm growing medicinal herbs and cut flowers. She lives with three beautiful dogs, three cats, two “dog sheep”, and her partner helping on his family farm established in 1832 raising beef and crops for livestock production. She is an ordained minister and serves the agricultural community on suicide prevention and crisis intervention initiatives.