California Food System Network (CFSN)

                                                                                                         "Live simply so others may simply live". -MK Gandhi



Sudeep Motupalli Rao, PhD
founder, deep-solutions.com and beautifulCommunities.org

Artist-engineer, designer & social entrepreneur. A global community engineer engaged in the design and gelation of elegant & potentially "disruptive" solutions to our social, economic and environmental sustainability challenges. Work involves repair of complex systems and engages core competencies of systems failure analysis, resources inventory, masterplan & strategy development, holistic design, partnership building, and solutions delivery. Solutions are designed with the ultimate objective of building powerfully beautiful communities. Current projects incl: design consulting; dev. of the green jobs economy in San Francisco, CA; systems for healthy food access; enhancing the local public health system; cross-sector partnership development; Imagine H2O, a prize/incubation platform to stimulate innovations in water; and Summer of Solutions, a national, decentralized youth-led grassroots proj to dev emerging leaders in the sustainability movement.

Immigrant from south India. Trained in chemical & env field with combined experience of 20 yrs in the academic, nonprofit, govt and private semiconductor industry environments. Experienced in water and wastewater treatment in heavy industries as well as acid rain mitigation.  Designed at Sandia National Labs, Albuquerque, a biomimetic coating to protect monuments and statues from acid rain in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY and the Getty Conservation Institute in LA.  Worked to remediate groundwater in Los Alamos, New Mexico to prevent the radioactive contamination of the Rio Grande River that also supports Indian tribes and Mexico. Worked for last 6 years to erode environmental injustices in the southeast community of San Francisco, CA and have directed Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), a nonprofit based in the community of Bayview Hunters Point, SF, a rich and deep neighborhood that I now call home.

Memberships, Activities etc: Community Fellow at Full Circle Fund; UCSF University~Community Partnerships Council; Restoration Advisory Board to cleanup Hunters Point Naval Shipyard superfund site; Voice for Whole Communities, Center for Whole Communities, Vermont; Advisory Board of the Urban Alliance for Sustainability; Mayor’s Shape Up Initiative's Southeast Food Access Group and Mayor's Open Space Task Force; American Institute of Chemical Engineers-NorCal chapter; Engineers Without Borders; Engineers for a Sustainable World; Californians for a Healthy and New Green Economy (CHANGE); World Affairs Council; Commonwealth Club; KQED Public TV/Radio & the SF Bicycle Coalition; Served as President of the UN Association in New Mexico and marked the 50th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. I do yoga daily, like to shoot with 35mm black &white film and row every week on a whaleboat in the SF bay.