Immigrating from Switzerland to Canada in 2001, Dr. Farrell is the Founder and Executive Director of GROW Community Food Literacy Centre, an award-winning organization dedicated to advancing food literacy, food security, health equity, and social justice. Driven by a deep commitment to positive change, what began as a seed of inspiration has since transformed into a national movement.

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As a community-engaged scholar, Dr. Farrell's commitment to this work grew from witnessing the effects of food insecurity on students and families in underserved communities with some of the lowest incomes and the lowest graduation and literacy scores. She responded by investing her own resources to purchase a neglected Scouts Canada building in one of the region's most underserved neighbourhoods and transform it into a dignified, low-cost grocery store with a community kitchen and food literacy programs to confront the systemic barriers that prevent low-income and vulnerable community members from accessing affordable and culturally relevant food. This became GROW Community Food Literacy Centre, Canada's first community food literacy centre, creating a place to translate research into practical, community-driven action.

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Drawing on a multi-sector career spanning higher education, corporate leadership, government-funded research, financial services, and international diplomacy, Dr. Farrell brings a distinctive breadth of experience to her work. Her leadership has included serving as a university professor and Director of Field Education at the University of Calgary, leading national learning and diversity initiatives at Ernst & Young, working in banking and accounting in Switzerland, conducting immigration research for the Government of Canada through CERIS, and fostering bilateral relations as Honorary Consul of Switzerland to Alberta. Combined with her graduate degree in Educational Leadership from Harvard University, these experiences have shaped her ability to connect academic scholarship, community-based action, systems leadership, and international engagement to address the structural conditions that shape food access, health equity, and community well-being.

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GROW was founded on Dr. Farrell's vision of bridging compassionate, grassroots community action with evidence-based research. Her work is grounded in the belief that food literacy is about far more than knowing how to cook or what foods are considered healthy. Food literacy is a social practice connected to culture, identity, dignity, access, agency, and the systems that shape people's ability to obtain and enjoy nourishing food.

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Under her leadership, GROW has developed innovative food literacy programs, community partnerships, and initiatives designed to address the systemic barriers that contribute to food insecurity. Its low-cost market and food literacy programs have provided more than 100,000 points of service over the past six years, demonstrating GROW's ability to translate research and community knowledge into meaningful, measurable community impact.

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Dr. Farrell also served as Principal Investigator on a Public Health Agency of Canada initiative evaluating GROW-on-the-GO, Canada's first electric mobile market truck. Initially supported by a $375,000 investment from the Public Health Agency of Canada, GROW-on-the-GO brings affordable, nourishing produce directly into food deserts while examining how innovative mobile food access can improve health outcomes and reduce chronic disease risk. Building on the success of the original model, the Government of Ontario, through the Ontario Trillium Foundation, subsequently invested $553,500 to support the expansion of the GROW-on-the-GO model. This investment has enabled GROW to further scale its innovative approach to mobile food access, food literacy, and community health.

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Dr. Farrell's scholarship examines the sociocultural factors that shape and inform the intersection of food literacy, food citizenship, food security, culture, equity, and the social determinants of health. Her research challenges narrow definitions of food literacy that focus primarily on nutrition knowledge or cooking skills, instead positioning food literacy as a socially, culturally, and contextually situated practice. Her work explores how culture, identity, lived experience, socioeconomic conditions, and broader food systems influence people's relationships with food and their ability to access and participate in healthy and equitable food environments. As a community-engaged scholar, she works to amplify community knowledge and the voices of historically marginalized populations while examining the structural and systemic conditions that contribute to inequity.

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Dr. Farrell holds a Doctorate in Educational Research from the University of Calgary, specializing in language and literacy, and a Master of Education in Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her specialization in language and literacy provides an important foundation for her scholarship on food literacy. She approaches food literacy not simply as the acquisition of nutritional knowledge or cooking skills, but as a form of critical literacy through which individuals and communities develop the knowledge, language, confidence, and agency to understand, question, communicate about, and navigate the complex social and cultural systems that shape food and health. This perspective connects academic literacy with food literacy, recognizing that the ability to access, interpret, evaluate, and use information is fundamental to people's capacity to make informed decisions and participate meaningfully in the food systems that affect their lives. Her Harvard studies focused on systems leadership, organizational change, adaptive problem-solving, and equity-centred transformation in complex institutions. 

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Together, her academic training has shaped an interdisciplinary approach that brings literacy, education, food, equity, and systems change into conversation and informs her commitment to building organizations and partnerships capable of creating sustainable community impact.

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Her scholarship in critical literacy provides the foundation for her work in food literacy. Drawing on her specialization in language and literacy, she examines how individuals and communities develop the knowledge, language, critical thinking, and agency needed to understand, navigate, and participate in the social, cultural, and structural systems that shape food and health. This perspective positions food literacy as more than nutritional knowledge or cooking skills; it is a form of critical literacy that can foster agency, participation, and food citizenship.

Her academic contributions include publications with international and Canadian academic presses and peer-reviewed journals. Her chapter, “Food Literacy as a Social Practice,” appears in the Elgar Encyclopedia of Food and Society, published by Edward Elgar Publishing. Her scholarship has also been published in the University of Toronto Press and academic journals focused on education and food studies.

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Beyond GROW, Dr. Farrell has held significant leadership roles in higher education. At the University of Calgary's Werklund School of Education, she served as Director of Field Education and Professor of Education, providing strategic oversight for field experiences involving approximately 800 teacher candidates each year. Her work focused on strengthening connections between university learning and professional practice and developing partnerships among teacher candidates, educators, school systems, and communities.

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Her leadership in food security also extends to higher education. As Chair of the University of Calgary's Food and Housing Committee, she led research examining student food and housing security and collaborated with the Graduate Students' Association and Provost's Office to help establish the university's first low-cost Food Hub in 2024. She also served as Co-Chair of the Nourish to Flourish working group and contributed research and institutional leadership to advance community-focused approaches to food security, sustainability, and equity.

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Her leadership and community contributions have received national and institutional recognition. She was named one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women's Executive Network in 2025 and received the Top 25 Women of Influence+ Award in 2024. She has also received the RBC Top 75 Canadian Immigrant Award, the L'Oréal Paris National Woman of Worth Award, the 2026 City of Calgary Education Award, and multiple academic and institutional honours recognizing her contributions to education, community-engaged scholarship, and leadership.

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Across her professional leadership, Dr. Farrell's work is guided by a profound commitment to human dignity, equity, and the transformative power of education.  She views education not merely as institutional instruction, but as the foundational engine for advancing equitable societies, unlocking human potential, and driving systemic social mobility.   She believes education's true purpose is to elevate societies, cultivate critical consciousness, and dismantle systemic barriers to human flourishing. In her view, education is the ultimate driver of civic progress and collective liberation, a mandate fulfilled when rigorous research converges with community knowledge, multi-sector partnerships, and the courageous resolve to translate ideas into meaningful action.  

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Through GROW Community Food Literacy Centre, Dr. Farrell continues to build innovative approaches to food literacy and food security that place people and communities at the centre. Her work demonstrates how scholarship can become action, how community organizations can become catalysts for systems change, and how food can serve as a powerful entry point for advancing health, dignity, equity, and social justice. None of this work would be possible without the extraordinary commitment of GROW's volunteer leadership team, whose expertise, passion, and dedication are at the heart of everything we do.