AGRARIAN LAND TRUST - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board and Advisors Team
- Secretary of the Board
- Research Associate and Project Coordinator at Local Futures / ISEC
Alex Jensen is a research associate and project coordinator at Local Futures/ISEC (International Society for Ecology and Culture). He has co-ordinated Local Futures' Ladakh Project intermittently since 2004. He is also an associate of the Sambhaavnaa Institute of Public Policy and Politics in Himachal Pradesh, India, and is a member of the core group of Vikalp Sangam/Alternatives India. He holds an MA in Globalization and International Development from University of East Anglia, UK. His research interests include political ecology and environmental ethics. He has worked with cultural affirmation and agro-biodiversity projects in campesino communities in a number of countries, and is active in socio-environmental movements including degrowth, environmental health/anti-toxics, and zero waste.
Job Titles:
- Co - Author: Benevolent Investing Guide
- Editor for Agrarian Trust 's Benevolent
Ali Budner is the editor for Agrarian Trust's Benevolent Investors Guide. She is an independent radio journalist who also has a background in farming and gardening. As a journalist, she's worked in collaboration with The Kitchen Sisters, Latino USA, The Fukushima Reporting Project, and local San Francisco Bay Area stations, KPFA and KALW. Most recently, she was a 2015 reporting fellow with Michael Pollan's Food and Farming Journalism Fellowship at UC Berkeley. Ali has also worked as an intern at Full Belly Farm in the Capay Valley, taught gardening to elementary school students, and studied herbal medicine.
Job Titles:
- Attorney / BCM Environmental & Land Law PLLC
Job Titles:
- Storytelling and News Editor
As lead editor for Agrarian Trust's FaithLands Toolkit and two editions of the Greenhorns New Farmer's Almanac, Briana has connected with farmers, ecologists, ranchers, spiritual leaders, justice advocates, and seed savers across the US (and world). A longtime wanderer, she currently lives in Albuquerque, where she co-edits edible New Mexico and writes about land, food, art, and identity. Briana holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston and has taught writing at diverse institutions, including Mount Tamalpais College at San Quentin State Prison, where she was the managing editor for the student-run literary magazine, OpenLine.
Caroline Woolard is an artist and organizer. Making sculptures, furniture, and events, Woolard co-creates spaces for critical exchange, forgotten histories, and plausible futures. Her practice is research-based and collaborative. In 2009, Woolard cofounded three organizations to support collaborative cultural production; three long-term infrastructure projects to support short-term artworks: a studio space, a barter network, and Trade School. From 2008-2013, Woolard was also supported by unemployment benefits, a Fellowship at Eyebeam, a residency at the MacDowell Colony, Watermill, iLAND, and funding from the Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund. Woolard has been an Artist in Residence at the Queens Museum, a lecturer at Cooper Union, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the New School, and a member of Trade School and the Pedagogy Group.
Woolard's research includes: the rise of the BFA-MFA-PhD, the relationship between art and property in New York City, footnote systems for research-based art, socially engaged failure, and incommensurability. Forthcoming writing will focus on a project at MoMA that closed in June, as well as the implications of debt and duration for social practices. By 2018, Woolard hopes to establish a community land trust in New York City with community organizers, computer engineers, and artists who are dedicated to lifelong commoning.
Darby Weaver is a grower, a seeker, and a student of the Earth. After growing up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Darby attended Sterling College in Northern Vermont where she received a degree in Sustainable Agriculture. She has since spent the last decade growing Biodynamic produce in the Southeast and teaching holistic and ecological methods to learners of all ages and backgrounds through articles, agriculture intensives, workshops, and lectures.
Darby's passion for this work is derived from an endless curiosity for the complex and dynamic relationships that build our natural world. She finds her greatest meaning from sharing with others the tools necessary to engage with these living systems to create nourishing food for the body and mind. Her most recent project finds her in a tiny house on 20 acres in Northern Vermont where she is developing an Agroecology system with her husband, Elliot Smith.
Job Titles:
- Community Member
- Executive Director
Dave Henson is a Sowing Circle Community member and Executive Director of OAEC. He also directs OAEC's Ecological Agriculture Program and co-directs the Center's Intentional Communities Program. With a background in environmental studies, sociology and law, Dave has worked for over 25 years with many environmental, agricultural and social justice organizations, and has lectured and led training programs around the U.S. and in over 20 countries. Dave is also a co-founder and steering committee member of the Wild Farm Alliance and Californians for GE-Free Agriculture, and serves as a facilitator, strategic planner, and organizational consultant to many other nonprofits.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director of Agrarian Fund
With 30 years of experience in all aspects of land conservation and farmland preservation in rural and urbanizing regions, David Harper has raised more than $8 million in grants for conservation planning, easement acquisition, sustainable agriculture and local food system development, and ecological restoration projects in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern US. He has worked with landowners and land trusts to preserve more than 8,000 acres of farmland, natural areas and historic sites. He designed and taught a course on land conservation and management and is a frequent public speaker on conservation topics. David served for 8 years as a municipal planning commission member in a fast-growing agricultural community near Philadelphia. He is co-chair of the Rural Resource Coalition of South Carolina, promoting rural economies favoring healthy land and communities, and Treasurer of the International Center for Indigo Culture, educating about revival of indigo as a natural dye. David previously served as Executive Director of the Pee Dee Land Trust in South Carolina and Unique Places to Save in North Carolina. He currently runs a land conservation consulting practice, Land In Common. He and his wife Caroline grow indigo in the SC Lowcountry and produce indigo dye and textiles for her business (www.chidesignindigo.com).
Job Titles:
- Regional Agrarian Commons Development Director
Eliza's work with Agrarian Trust supports land-based livelihoods, healthy farms, de-commodifying land, and legal tools for equitable land access and shared stewardship. Eliza lives in southwest Virginia where she co-operates a diversified farm in the Sinking Creek Valley, called Singing Spring Farm. She raises food, fiber, and medicine, and specializes in raw milk goat cheeses. As a farmer, acupuncturist, and Agrarian Trust team member, her life centers on nurturing and healing with the land and human communities that depend on it. This process of healing requires deep transformation of the soil, our bodies, and our communities, especially racialized harms and capitalism. Eliza holds bachelor degrees from UVa,, a J.D. from Vermont Law School, and a master's degree from Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine.
Originally hailing from the Adirondacks in upstate New York, Erin now resides in Gunnison, Colorado where she is completing a Master in Environmental Management degree at Western State Colorado University. Erin returned to school after spending five years as an environmental educator throughout the United States, from Northern Vermont, to the misty Oregon Coast, to the sunny Rocky Mountains. In graduate school, Erin focused on the complexities of local food economies and non-profit management. As a concluding project in partnership with Guidestone Colorado, Erin organized the 2016 Colorado Land Link Forum, a 2-day event designed to spark conversation and connections around farmer land access and support in Southwest Colorado. When not working to support local food economies, Erin can most likely be found outside on a bike, on skis, on foot with a field guide, or with hands in the soil.
Ian's career and his life's work has been focused on the human connection to soil and food. He first worked as a social worker focused on developing and operationalizing outdoor experience based education programs and later sought more direct work with the connections to soil and food in real estate by founding a brokerage and consulting company to focus on prioritizing conservation, agriculture, and community within typical land development. Most recently, he served as Executive Director of the Russell Foundation, a private foundation focused on assisting landowners and farmers through customized approaches to farmland ownership, conservation, management, and stewardship. During his tenure, the Russell Foundation worked with 65 land conservation groups, 40 townships, and local, state, and federal partners to assist 60 farms, complete 28 lease and/or management agreements, and complete more than 100 farmland focused projects protecting over 12,000 acres and raising over $16,000,000, all aimed toward providing benefit to farmland, farmers, communities, and the local agrarian economy.
Ian has also participated in many farmland and food systems initiatives and has served as a consultant to a number of organizations, locally, regionally, and nationally. He has served on zoning, conservation, planning, and agricultural Boards and Commissions, County Conservation Districts, Regional Planning Commissions, and a University Extension Coverts Program. Ian speaks on farmland transfer, conservation, secure tenure, and fundraising models across the country. He was recognized as a "40 under 40" leader in New Hampshire and selected for the Leadership Institute at Food Solutions New England. Ian and his wife Liz protected their own small New Hampshire farm with a conservation easement, manage their forest as a Certified Tree Farm, lease their farmland to a Certified Natural vegetable grower, keep bees, manage habitat with an ecological focus, and spend as much time as possible with their two young boys, Dylan and Bridger.
Ian is deeply committed to bringing about innovation to evolve farmland conservation to holistically address equitable, secure, and affordable ownership and tenure arrangements, farm viability, conservation, and community resilience to ensure regenerative, diversified food production that benefits soil, human, and community health. Ian founded Farmland Consulting LLC to support communities through farmland preservation and is excited to lead Agrarian Trust as Organizational Director.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Board and Advisors Team
- New England Program Manager With American Farmland Trust
amie Pottern is the New England Program Manager with American Farmland Trust, facilitating projects and programs that address farmland loss and support farmers and conservation organizations across New England. Jamie served as Land, Community & Education Director at Agrarian Trust, during 2018 and 2019. Jamie coordinated the national FaithLands initiative, including the Eastern North Carolina FaithLands Inventory Project and also brought her wealth of knowledge of farm conservation and land access strategies to the developing local Agrarian Commons model. Jamie previously managed the Farm Conservation Program at Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, facilitating the protection of working farms and forests across north central and western Massachusetts, focusing on innovative mechanisms that address farmland affordability, housing, and farmland transfer to the next generation. Jamie is deeply committed to the mission and values that Agrarian Trust embodies, especially commitments to racial and economic justice around land and agroecological and regenerative land management practices. Jamie holds a Masters in Sustainable Landscape Planning & Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design, a B.A. from Brandeis University in Environmental Studies and International & Global Studies, and a certificate from The Farm School's Learn to Farm Program.
Job Titles:
- Conservation Project Manager at Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire
Jillian is an agricultural attorney, Founder & CEO of F.A.R.M.S., and author of "Don't Bet the Farm on Medicaid." Hishaw is well-versed in the areas of civil rights and agricultural policy. She was recognized as a "Food Changemaker" by Clif Bar Co. and has been featured in O (Oprah) Magazine, The Atlantic, Vice News, and more. Hishaw has nearly 15 years of professional experience and has raised funds for various food bank and law programs.
F.A.R.M.S. provides technical and legal services to small-scale farmers while reducing hunger in the farmers' community. Over the past five years F.A.R.M.S. has been in operation, the organization has purchased and donated nearly 300,000 lbs. of fresh produce and provides estate planning, foreclosure and civil right legal assistance to farmers throughout the country.
Johanna Rosen brings her passion for fostering connections and commitment to advancing racial and economic justice and community control of land to Agrarian Trust's work through the Commons Alliance. Previously, Jo worked with Equity Trust, collaborating with farmers and land trusts to ensure affordability and security of farmland through shared ownership arrangements that benefit communities and promote equity, and with the Food Solutions New England network as Community Organizer and Communications Coordinator. She spent over a decade working in urban agriculture and farm-based education in Philadelphia including as co-founder and Director of the Mill Creek Farm. Jo grows food and stewards seeds on Pocumtuc land in Massachusetts.
Job Titles:
- Designer
- Illustrator
- Contributor
Katie Shelly is a designer and illustrator focused on material with civic, social and educational value. She's had the privilege to work with orgs like Left Forum, Just Food, Third Root Community Health Center, the Cooper Hewitt Museum, distinguished scientists at Oxford and Northwestern Universities, and many more. She has illustrated award-winning books such as the genre-bending cookbook Picture Cook (Ulysses Press, 2013) and Nature's Remedies (Chronicle, 2016). She has a BA in American Studies from Wesleyan University (CT) and an MA in Experience Design from Hyper Island (UK). She lives and works in Barcelona.
You can find her on Instagram and Twitter @interkatie and on Facebook at Katie Shelly Illustration. Her portfolio is available at: https://katieshelly.art/
Kendra has worked in urban agriculture and farm education, vegetable/CSA and flower production, restoration landscaping and design, and for more than a decade as a consultant on farm conservation, access, and affordability. As leader of California FarmLink's Central Valley programs for five years, she helped farmers with land access, farm succession, and business needs. She has worked with numerous land trusts on easement tools for small farm preservation, access and affordability, and coordinated the "One Farm at a Time," campaign to permanently protect an important small farm for a future of food production and access by farmers. Kendra holds a Master of Science in Community Development from UC Davis and currently consults for California FarmLink and Agrarian Trust. She's happily married to a salmon ecologist (think ‘fins, feathers, farms, and floodplains') and raising three kids back home in western Sonoma County (northern SF Bay Area).
Job Titles:
- Communications & Social Media Manager
Kristina Villa is a farmer, communicator, and community coordinator who believes that our connection to the soil is directly related to the health of our bodies, economy, and society. With over a decade of social media experience and over seven years of vegetable farming and cattle management experience, Kristina enjoys using her skill sets to share photos, stories, and information which help to inspire change in human habits and mindsets, causing the food system, climate, and overall well-being of the world to improve.
Kyle shows commitment to contributing towards resilient localized foodsheds through his work and educational pursuits. He is currently completing a bachelor's degree in sustainable agriculture through Goddard College with the focus of his senior thesis on land access for new farmers. His experience with food production ranges from starting a small CSA, working with orchard crops for market and biodynamic growing with Winter Green Farm. Kyle also sits on the board for the Willamette Valley Sustainable Foods Alliance in Eugene, Oregon where he lives. He is excited about food and the land which sustains us.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Economics at the State University of New York
Lisi is a professor of economics at the State University of New York, Cortland. Her areas of specialization are labor economics, the political economy of women, environmental and resource economics, and ecological economics. For her doctoral dissertation, she undertook an institutional analysis of the shortage of professional nurses in U.S. hospitals. She has published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, The Journal of Economic Issues, and Contemporary Sociology. Her present research concentrates on U.S. land policies with an emphasis on the influence of those policies on the settlement and land use of the western United States. Krall received her B.S. in anthropology from the University of Utah and her Ph.D. in economics, also from the University of Utah, in 1989. She is the author of Proving Up, a history of the domestication of land in the United States.
Liz Burrichter works at Main Street Farms in Cortland and Homer, NY as well as with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Cortland County as an Organic Dairy Educator. She graduated in 2012 with a B.S. in Plant Sciences from Cornell University, where she co-managed Dilmun Hill Student Farm and also minored in dance. She now enjoys living in a small town very close to where she can grow vegetables, hike with her dog, and participate in the diverse food and farms culture of the Finger Lakes region. She contributes to the Agrarian Trust blog by helping to write farmer profiles.
Mark brings more than 25 years of experience working in the fields of nonprofit and faith-based fund raising, domestic and international partnership development, organizational development, community development, coalition building, board development, strategic planning, program implementation and sustainability. He has taught at a private college, a major university and at a Protestant Seminary. He has been a regional director for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), through which he managed a variety of programs and staff, as well as fund raising across seven States and worked as part of AFSC's national leadership on nationwide human rights work, anti-poverty programs and entrepreneurship.
Mark has led international program development for organizations working in more than 30 Global South nations and for faith-based hospitals in 10 developing countries related to cloud-based medical record systems, provided by a company he helped to start-E-Health Records International. He has been the CEO or Executive Director for four different nonprofit organizations, all with sustainability and resilience as key parts of their mission.
He has been the lead fund raiser for seven different organizations including McDaniel College, Ministry of Money, the American Friends Service Committee, the Seva Foundation, the Global Footprint Network, the Palm Drive Health Care Foundation and Bethany Seminary. Mark is frequently called on to be a consultant for a variety of international and domestic organizations in the area of fund raising and programmatic work in the areas of climate change/climate justice. Mark has served on the boards of a variety of domestic and international organizations including: Bread for the World, Seeds of Learning, the Center for Caring, Empowerment and Peace Initiatives (CCEPI) and Heifer International, where he was board president.
Mark and his family live on a small organic farm where they raise heirloom vegetables, fruit trees, goats, chickens and bees.
Peter Barnes is an entrepreneur and writer who has co-founded and led several successful businesses and written numerous articles and books about capitalism, the commons and other topics. His latest book, With Liberty and Dividends for All: How to Save Our Middle Class When Jobs Don't Pay Enough, proposes universal dividends from shared wealth as a practical solution to economic inequality. Barnes grew up in New York City and earned a B.A. in history from Harvard and an M.A. in government from Georgetown. He was a Washington correspondent for Newsweek and west coast correspondent for The New Republic. In 1976 he co-founded a worker-owned solar energy company in San Francisco, and in 1983 he co-founded Working Assets (now Credo). In 1995 he was named Socially Responsible Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California. He has served on numerous boards of directors, including the National Cooperative Bank, the California Solar Industry Association, Businesses for Social Responsibility, the Rainbow Workers Cooperative, Redefining Progress, Greenpeace International and the Center for Economic and Policy Research. His books include Pawns: The Plight of the Citizen-Soldier, The People's Land, Who Owns the Sky? and Capitalism 3.0. His articles have appeared in The Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the American Prospect, the Utne Reader, Yes! and elsewhere. In 1997 he founded the Mesa Refuge, a writers' retreat in northern California.
Rachel Payne is a volunteer with FaithLands. She grew up in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she got to pay regular visits to beautiful Caretaker Farm. She's working on her master's in divinity at the Boston University School of Theology. Her aim is to use her degree to help people heal their relationship with the land and with each other. Prior to starting school, she wrote grants and other content for the corporate watchdog group Corporate Accountability. She also coordinated a network of rebel academics challenging institutions that perpetuate poverty. As a college student, Rachel was an organizer in the youth climate movement and led freshman trips to Connecticut organic farms.
Job Titles:
- Associate Editor of Fatal Harvest
- West Coast Director at the Center for Food Safety
Rebecca is the West Coast Director at the Center for Food Safety. Spector has been working in the environmental and agricultural sector for more than 20 years, with expertise in policy development, grassroots campaigns, fundraising, and organic farming. She joined Center for Food Safety in 2000, and as West Coast Director champions policy initiatives at the state and federal level and coordinates public outreach campaigns to promote healthy, safe and sustainable food systems. Her experience includes establishing regulations to limit the production of genetically engineered (GE) fish in California, and writing and sponsoring numerous legislative initiatives including state bills to require labeling of GE foods, labeling of GE fish, labeling of food from cloned animals, and farmer protections from GMO contamination. Previously, she served as director of development at Green Seal, the first U.S. product eco-labeling organization, and at Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet she spearheaded its organic cotton marketing campaign.
Spector is associate editor of Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture and Your Right to Know: Genetic Engineering and the Secret Changes in Your Food. She has authored numerous articles and essays including "Livestock Cloning and the Quest for Industrial Perfection" in CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories and "Fully Integrated Food Systems: Regaining Connections between Farmers and Consumers" in Fatal Harvest. For ten years, Spector was co-owner of the first certified organic farm in Half Moon Bay, California, and created its community supported agriculture (CSA) and farmers' market programs that served hundreds of families in the Bay Area. She holds an M.S. in Environmental Policy from the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment.
Job Titles:
- Artist
- Puget Sound Agrarian Commons Advancement & Communications
Rhys-Thorvald is an artist and facilitator working within the intersections of community care, folk art, food systems and land justice. They live and work on Coast Salish lands in Northwest Washington State. A long-time food systems advocate, Rhys-Thorvald has worked in a variety of capacities in food systems, including CSA farmer, personal chef, poultry processing, retail food cooperatives, and wholesale market development. In addition to their work with Agrarian Trust, Rhys-Thorvald works with IndigenEYEZ and KinSHIFT to support settler-Indigenous relationships and reconciliation, as well as Northwest Agriculture Business Center to offer business training and technical assistance to scaling farmers in the Puget Sound region. Rhys lives with their partner, two big dogs, an opinionated cat, and enjoys kayaking, fiber arts, and hanging out with trees.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Board and Advisors Team
Sallie knows about software and ranchland. An engineer by training, she spent twenty-five years growing a software company with her husband which they sold in 2000. Then they did the craziest thing they'd ever done: they purchased a 7600 acre ranch south of San Jose, Ca. Sallie's adventures include raising grass-fed beef, running a packing plant, and making loans to support sustainable agriculture. Sallie is Board Chair of Holistic Management International, an organization dedicated to helping farmers, ranchers and land managers use and conserve their land effectively. In addition to their philanthropic plans to give all of their money away during their lifetime, Sallie and her husband are in active inquiry about what it means to shift their investment portfolio to align with their mission.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board and Advisors Team
- President of the Board
Severine is a farmer, activist, and organizer based in Downeast Maine. She runs Smithereen Farm, a MOFGA certified organic wild blueberry, seaweed, and orchard operation which hosts summer camps, camping, and educational workshops.
She is a founder and board member of Agrarian Trust and current director of the Greenhorns, a 10 year old grassroots organization whose mission is to recruit, promote, and support the incoming generation of famers in America. Greenhorns produce media and publications for and about the young farmers movement from documentary films to almanacs, anthologies, mix-tapes, posters, guidebooks, and digital maps. They are best known for The New Farmer's Almanac, now in its fourth edition, their documentary film, "The Greenhorns," and the raucous young farmer mixers they've thrown in 37 states and 14 grange halls. Severine is co-founder and board secretary of Farm Hack, an online, open-source platform for appropriate and affordable farm tools and technologies, as well as a founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition, which now boasts 23 state and regional coalitions. She serves on the board of the Schumacher Center for New Economics, Eat Local Eastport Cooperative, and on the advisory board of Savanna Institute.
Severine attended Pomona College and the University of California at Berkeley, where she graduated with a B.S. in Conservation/Agroecology.
Shakara Tyler is a returning generation farmer, educator and activist-scholar who engages in Black agrarianism, agroecology, food sovereignty and climate justice as commitments of abolition and decolonization. She obtained her PhD at Michigan State University in Community Sustainability (CSUS) and works with Black farming communities in Michigan and the Mid-Atlantic. She also serves as Board President at the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) and a board member of the Detroit People's Food Co-op (DPFC).
Job Titles:
- New Roots Community Farm and Fayette County Resource Coordinator
Taylor is a senior at Duke University where she studies literature, environmental policy, and documentary. Beyond her love affair with food, Taylor cares deeply about the equity of our food system and believes in land accessibility as a moral imperative. After spending 2020 reporting on food sovereignty and the bison industry for her documentary film, Taylor can't wait to apply her passion for storytelling toward Agrarian Trust's project. She looks forward to joining this team and telling stories with teeth and claws.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Board and Advisors Team
Ted Bellinger has a background in finance, strategy and operations with a passion for sustainable food systems and social entrepreneurship. He currently works as a food business consultant with New Venture Advisors and runs his own consulting business. He was drawn to work in sustainable food and agriculture systems in order to have a positive impact on human and environmental health.
Ted began his career as an investment banker and private equity investor in New York City. In 2013, he moved to Colorado and joined Craftsy, a Denver-based online education and e-Commerce startup. He has also spent time traveling and living in Southeast Asia where he worked at Kopernik, an international development NGO in Indonesia that distributes clean technologies to remote communities across Southeast Asia. Ted also served as Director of Finance at Pasture One, a distributor of domestic, grass-fed beef that supported ranchers who techniques that promote grass-lands regeneration and carbon-sequestration. Ted has a bachelor's degree in finance and accounting from NYU's Stern School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Member of the Board and Advisors Team
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board and Advisors Team