Elizabeth (Beth) Roach is a Co-founder of Alliance of Native Seedkeepers, an organization that was formed to keep ancestral seeds alive and to rebuild culture and food security in native communities. Beth has an extensive background in grants management, conservation, financial management, and organizing. She is also a storyteller for her tribe. Beth’s work with Alliance of Native Seedkeepers aligns with her rural and agricultural roots and enables her to contribute to the resilience that is desperately needed in her region, particularly with regard to native communities’ cultural and food security. Beth recently acquired land in Windsor, NC, located in Tuscarora territory, and she and her partner are excited to have space to grow heirloom seeds and host indigenous lifeways programs. Beth’s current objectives with Alliance of Native Seedkeepers are to establish community gardens and education programs focused on native seed, foster seed stewards throughout the region, build a business of selling regionally-specific native seed, design, and implement cooking demonstrations with native foods, and build soil and climate impact metrics.
Since participating in the 2019 cohort WEA and Sierra Club’s U.S. Grassroots Accelerator for Women Environmental Leaders, Beth has joined the design team for the program. Building off her two years as chairperson for the Virginia Environmental Justice Council, she was also recently tapped to coordinate a new tribal climate resilience project for the North Carolina Commission on Indian Affairs. This project serves her ancestral rivers in Virginia that flow into the waters that surround her new home in the Albemarle Pamlico Estuary. As project director, Beth seeks to be a bridge between tribal communities, local/state/federal governments, and academia.