Xochitl Bervera is a queer, mixed race, Latinx oyster farmer working to create a vibrant, delicious, sustainable, and inclusive local food system centered in the wisdom and legacies of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities.
 
Prior to oyster farming, Xochitl spent 25 years building community power and waging campaigns to end criminalization. Her work has contributed to the closure of prisons and jails, reduced the number of people behind bars, shifted policing and court system policies, and moved resources toward community-based systems of safety and wellness. She has incubated and founded 6 social justice organizations, led by those most impacted by criminalization, policing and incarceration in Louisiana and Georgia, including Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), Women on the Rise, and the Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative. From 2013-2020, Xochitl directed the Racial Justice Action Center where she was a lead organizer and strategist with the Communities Over Cages: Close the Jail ATL Campaign. 
 
Xochitl was trained as a historian at Sarah Lawrence College, a lawyer at NYU School of Law, a somatics practitioner with generative somatics, an organizer in the field from Oakland to the Bronx, New Orleans to Atlanta, and through the teachings and methodologies of the Center for Third World Organizing and mentors from the Black Freedom Movement and the Immigrant Justice Movement. She has trained at Soul Fire Farms and is a graduate of the Oyster Aquaculture course at the Wakulla Environmental Institute.