Board of Directors Announces New President and CEO
Dana Yost to Lead Roadrunner Food Bank

Albuquerque, NM (August 22, 2023) – The Board of Directors of Roadrunner Food Bank has appointed a new President and Chief Executive Officer to start on August 31, 2023.

Dinah Garcia Tolley, Board Chair said, “Roadrunner Food Bank’s board of directors collaborated with The Batten Group Executive Search & Consulting to find the best candidate. After an extensive search, we are delighted to announce Dana Yost as President and CEO of Roadrunner Food Bank. We are most excited about Yost’s visionary leadership, passion and experience. With his leadership, we believe Roadrunner Food Bank will make an even greater impact to our New Mexico communities.”

Yost has 13 years of experience in food banking, most recently with Arizona Food Bank Network, where he served as Vice President of Supply Chain Operations. In his role, he managed the Nogales Produce Rescue Operation and the Mexico Produce Sourcing Strategic Operations to build a coalition of US and Mexico food bank partners with the purpose of supporting produce sourcing across international borders.  Yost’s work with the Nogales team brought more than 100 million pounds of edible produce to the Arizona Food Bank Network and other food banks in the United States.  His work re-directed unsalable produce from landfills to food banks and other hunger-relief organizations to benefit people experiencing hunger in communities in both the US and Mexico.

Additionally, Yost is also one of the founding members of the Southwest Produce Cooperative, a regional produce rescue and sharing organization. The cooperative shares transportation, logistics, and food resources with food banks across the southwest United States including Roadrunner Food Bank.

Yost previously served as the Chief Operations Officer of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, overseeing daily operations at the food bank’s main facility in Tucson and the food bank’s produce rescue and repack facility in Nogales, Arizona from 2016 to 2021. Dana’s 13 years of food banking experience also include working as director of resource strategy at St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance from 2011 to 2016.

Prior to his years in food banking, Yost worked at nonprofits in Arizona from 2008-2011; worked in large-scale outbound freight, freight systems, and fulfillment for Target’s Distribution Center; and was employed at Arizona’s Game and Fish Department overseeing their media programs on wildlife, environmental education, hunter safety, and other game and fish related programming.

Yost has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Grand Canyon University and a Master of Arts degree in English from Northern Arizona University.

Earlier this year, Mag Strittmatter announced to the food bank’s Board of Directors she would retire in June.  Strittmatter was the fifth person to lead the food bank and helped oversee the transition to an interim leader while the board searched for a permanent replacement. Yost will be the sixth person to lead the food bank since it was founded in late 1979. Linda Wedeen has been serving in an interim capacity while the board completed the search process.

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