Ysanet Batista Vargas (she/her/ella)

Network Services Coordinator

Ysanet is a queer Black woman from Ayiti (on the side today called the Dominican Republic). She was born in Harlem, NYC & raised between there, Miami/Florida, and the Dominican Republic -- and she now spends each year living between her three homes. Ysanet is a Farm School NYC alum and holds a certificate in Urban Agriculture, Permaculture Design, and Maroon Beekeeping. She completed her undergraduate degree at Johnson & Wales University and worked in hospitality & tourism for 10 years before transitioning to community, place, and identity-centered organizing. Her life's work is an ode and commitment to Mother Earth, her people, ancestral lineage, and justice & liberation. In 2016, she created Woke Foods, a worker-owned cooperative focused on offering Dominican plant-based gastronomy and food sovereignty education. In addition to Woke Foods and her work at NEFOC, she also supports people from Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean to address & heal from anti-Blackness and Indigenous erasure. She's grateful her paid work is also her life's work and enjoys cooking, surfing, resting, and spending time with her chosen family.