Courtney Streett (Nanticoke Indian Tribe) co-founded Native Roots Farm Foundation (NRFF) and uses her knowledge of Indigenous communities, horticulture, and visual storytelling to lead the organization. Prior to NRFF, Streett was a television news producer at CBS News and Business Insider. She received an MS from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and wrote her thesis on the local food movement. She earned a BA in Environmental Studies and a BA in Africana Studies from Wellesley College. She focused her undergraduate studies on environmental justice and conducted research in Wellesley’s greenhouses on plant responses to organic and conventional growing methods.
Streett is part of the East Coast Seedkeepers. The team is led by members of the Nanticoke and Lumbee communities who are braiding together methodologies including oral history, archival research, community conversations and involvement, and genetic analysis to reclaim and recultivate human/plant relationships with ancestral seeds — particularly The Three Sisters (Corn, Beans, and Squash). The East Coast Seedkeepers received an MIT Solve Indigenous Fellowship in September 2025.
