Gabrielle Kirkland has been a part of California’s agricultural community in marketing, leadership and advocacy roles over the past 20 years and joined the California Farmworker Foundation in August 2022 as the Director of Fund Development. Kirkland has been a fan of the California Farmworker Foundation since its inception. She was a board member from 2021 to 2022. Kirkland joined the CFF team in an effort to be a part of the solution in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the agricultural community. Core to our ag community are the people working in the fields and farms. Our farm working families and individuals are the bridge to bring millions of people food harvested from thousands and thousands of acres of land in California. Somehow these members of our community have been underserved. CFF is the platform to bring the community at large together to support one another.
At this time, Gabrielle believes it is critically important that our community increase its efforts to create and implement solutions to the issues that ag employees encounter – such as housing, healthcare, education, and more. Gabrielle has worked for the past 10 years in the insurance carrier space where she has had the opportunity to gain a deep understanding of the employer-employee relationship among ag businesses. Prior to working in insurance, Gabrielle worked with stone fruit and table grape grower-packers as the Director of Membership for the California Fresh Fruit Association. Gabrielle is a California native, raised in Sanger. She graduated from Fresno State with a degree in Journalism. After graduating she worked as a staff writer for a community newspaper where she was able to learn about ag land and the people who worked the land. In 2014, Gabrielle earned an MBA in Ag Business from Fresno State. Gabrielle lives in Clovis and has two grown children.
