Pronouns: she/her

Niaz Dorry is NAMA’s Coordinating Director, as well as the Executive Director of our sister organization, the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC).

Niaz moved to Gloucester, Massachusetts - the oldest settled fishing port in the U.S. - in 1994 when she decided to work on fisheries issues.

She has been a community organizer for over 35 years working on environmental, social, and economic justice issues. The life-changing moment came in 1994 when while at Greenpeace she was asked to switch from organizing in communities fighting for environmental justice to organizing fishing communities. From the start, she recognized the similarities between family farmers’ fight for a more just and ecologically responsible land-based food system and that of community-based fishermen fighting to fix the broken sea-based food system. 

She has been serving as NAMA's coordinating director since 2008. One of the first things NAMA did after Niaz took the helm was to join the National Family Farm Coalition as its first non-farming member. The two organizations entered into an innovative shared-leadership model on May 1, 2018, putting Niaz in the new role of serving the work of both organizations and further cementing the relationship and interdependence between land and sea.

Before coming to NAMA in the spring of 2008, Niaz served as the interim COO of the Healthy Building Network. She currently serves on Food Solutions New England's Steering Committee.

Niaz's work and organizing approach have been noted in a number of books including Against the Tide; Deeper Shade of Green; The Spirit's Terrain; Vanishing Species; The Great Gulf; Swimming in Circles; A Troublemaker's Teaparty; Zugunruhe: The Inner Migration To Profound Environmental Change; Raising Dough: Public History and the Food Movement; The Complete Guide to Financing a Socially Responsible Food Business; Blue Urbanism: Exploring Connections Between Cities and Oceans; and, The Doryman's Reflection and numerous articles. 

Time Magazine named Niaz as a Hero For The Planet for her work with small-scale, traditional, and Indigenous fishing communities to fight against the corporate takeover of the ocean and privatization of the marine environment and fishing rights. She received the Institute for Nonprofit Practice’s Barry Dym Champion for Change Award in 2020; Spirit of Farm Aid Award in 2023; and, James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2024.