Leslie Touzeau

Leslie grew up in Columbia, Missouri, and her parents instilled in her a passion for gardening and cooking from a young age. After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelor’s in art history and psychology, she changed paths and worked for eight years as a vegetable farmer (as one does with art history and psychology degrees!). While in Missouri, she worked on urban farms, university research farms, and on her own organic market farm, certified by QCS. Leslie earned her masters from the University of Missouri in rural sociology, where her research focused on the experiences of young, African American farmers like herself. Having experienced organic agriculture as a farmer, researcher, and social scientist, Leslie appreciates the additional perspectives on organic agriculture she is exposed to as a QCS employee. In her free time Leslie can be found cooking, woodworking, and trying to adapt her Missouri gardening methods to the Florida conditions.