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SGN board of directors

Laurel Anderson
Laurel Anderson is a founding member of the School Garden Network. She worked as the garden teacher for 14 years at Salmon Creek School where she loved to cook up the harvest with students and look for interesting insects!
She currently is the coordinator of SGN’s Schoolyard Habitat Program- providing professional development opportunities and helping schools design and use habitat projects as an extension of the classroom. Laurel is also passionate about  seedsaving  and is very active with the Community Seed Exchange.
Jay Beckwith
Jay has spent over five decades creating play systems for children. In the ’70’s he formed a team creating Build Your Own Playgrounds throughout the Bay Area and had a one-person exhibition at the DeYoung Museum. In addition, he created School Yard BigToys, Landscape Structures Play Boosters, Little Tikes Kid Builders, many products for Kompan, and the apparatus for Gymboree Play and Music. He has also been a board member of Magical Bridge Foundation.
He lived on Tomas Creek Ranch, an intentional community outside of Forestville, for 15 years. The next 40 years were spent on his three-acre farm above Graton, where he raised sheep, chickens, berries and tended a 50x100 ft kitchen garden. Note: on a well that produced only 2.5 gals per minute.
He is one of the founders of the Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative. Jay has been an active member of the Healdsburg Sunrise Rotary Club and is currently the chair of the club’s Community Service and Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group.
Jay has been very concerned with children’s safe use of technology and is currently developing a system that allows children to play popular games such as Minecraft on playgrounds. He blogs at Playgroundguru.org.
Kate Doherty
Kate Doherty is a California native who is dedicated to living a peaceful and sustainable life.  She has had a love of nature from a young age, and entered the farming world after college through WWOOFing in the Santa Cruz mountains.  The experience of living off the land in a permaculture setting changed her direction in life and paved the way for her true calling.  Over the next decade, she became immersed in the world of regenerative agriculture and managed organic farms, installed backyard gardens, taught horticulture classes, and became a certified Master Gardener and Permaculturist.
She then furthered her love of good food by becoming an Integrative Nutritionist, and got the chance to pursue her two passions in tandem at Calaveras High School, where she taught nutrition and agriculture.  She served on school garden and wellness committees, and elevated children’s access to healthy food as well as their connection with the environment.  Wild fermentation, foraging, animal husbandry, dancing, and making music are also some of her other passions!
Kate feels most fulfilled when she can share her knowledge of how to be in harmony with the earth and our own bodies, as human and environmental health go hand in hand.  She is excited to be part of the School Garden Network and continue to help spread awareness of sustainable food systems to children and the greater community.
Natalie Goble
TREASURER
Natalie Goble is Chef/Owner of Handline restaurant and partner of Fern Bar both in Sebastopol. She has worked closely with local farmers and growers throughout her career running the restaurants and started a farm dedicated to growing produce for the businesses on the land where she was raised in west county. She is passionate about local food systems, and sustainability in the industry.  ​
Amber Napoleon
PRESIDENT  ​
Amber Napoleon has been living in Sonoma County for the past 16 years. She has a BA in Humanities with a focus on Sustainable Agriculture from New College of California and is a certified Nutrition Educator and Consultant. She has been able to blend her passions and work in both fields bringing healthy food to people while educating them on lifestyle choices that benefit both the earth and their health. In 2007, while working as a School Garden Coordinator at Steele Lane Elementary School, Amber discovered the School Garden Network and was proud to serve on the board from 2007-2012. She was active in many aspects of the organization and was head of the School Food Committee. Amber was happy to take a step back from it all for a few years to focus on starting a family with her husband. They have two beautiful children and a bountiful garden that she loves watching her kids grow up in.        ​
Geoff Scott
Geoff Scott is the Vice President of Real Estate at Jackson Family Investments and a Principal at William Hezmalhalch Architects. He joined the SGN board in Januray of 2022 after helping to launch the school gardens mapping project.  Geoff brings his techincal skills  to help oversee the development, implementation, maintenance and growth of the first SNG map using Arcgis. 

SGN staff

Laurel Anderson
SCHOOLYARD HABITAT 
PROJECT MANAGER
Laurel Anderson is a founding member of the School Garden Network. She worked as the garden teacher for 14 years at Salmon Creek School where she loved to cook up the harvest with students and look for interesting insects!
She currently is the coordinator of SGN’s Schoolyard Habitat Program- providing professional development opportunities and helping schools design and use habitat projects as an extension of the classroom.
Laurel is also passionate about  seedsaving  and is very active with the Community Seed Exchange.
Austin Brooks
CAMP INSTRUCTOR
Austin Brooks is a 4th grade teacher and Garden Club guru. He helps children cultivate life in the garden for frogs, worms, plants of course, and plenty of stink beetles!

Austin uses nutrition lessons, plant care, composting, propagating, and garden art to inspire and educate.  Garden Camp here he comes!
Sue Davis
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Sue Davis combines her knowledge of business and personnel management with her passion for access to healthy and sustainable food sources, community-centered programming, and environmental education. She has been well connected in the Sonoma farming community for nearly 20 years, which now serves to support SGN in tangible and practical ways. Sue leads the School Garden Network with high esteem for her Board and staff, the community, and the children and youth impacted by SGN. Her values-driven guidance of the organization promotes the humanity of people, a connection to the land, collaborative decision making, vision for opportunities, and promoting the highest good for the community that SGN serves. Sue holds a M.A. in Leadership and Humanities with an emphasis in Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Communities.
Anne Loarie
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Anne's path in garden education has wound through studies at the University of Oregon, service in Peace Corps Panama as a Permaculture volunteer, time teaching in San Francisco Unified, and non-profit educational work. With her passion for gardening, cooking, the natural world, and social justice, empowering educators to take their students outside to learn has become a personal mission. Anne is also the Garden and Wellness Educator at Alexander Valley School where she integrates science curriculum with organic gardening practices and food literacy education. She envisions an education system that integrates whole child concepts through authentic, inquiry led, project-based learning so that our youth have the skills and opportunities to self-actualize in an increasingly hectic and yet isolating society.
SAM PRATT
CAMP INSTRUCTOR
A current Waldorf School teacher, Sam is dedicated to teaching gardening and nature connection through discovery and exploration. He can't wait to dig in the soil, find worms, run in the sun, and power the smoothy bike!
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In his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar, nature journal drawing  and leading interactive games.
Emily Ruebl
CAMP DIRECTOR
Emily's love for nature and earth tending began at a young age through daily encounters with a few beloved backyard plant allies. She has facilitated experiential learning in many diverse settings, including educational farms, school gardens, and forest school programs—focusing much of her curriculum development on the intersections of food literacy, nature connection, and social emotional learning.  She believes in nature-based programming as an opportunity to connect more deeply with ourselves, with each other, and with our wider natural world.
Emily is curious about how reciprocal, therapeutic relationships with nature can be cultivated in many settings. She has worked with outdoor occupational therapy groups for youth in the East Bay and has recently completed a certificate program in horticultural therapy. Currently, she is working to develop a rooftop garden program at a women's clinic in San Francisco, integrating horticultural therapy techniques into the services offered.
Her interests and continued learning center on how individual and collective healing, connection, and growth can be creatively and equitably supported in garden-based spaces. On the weekends you might find her tending to her honeybees or lounging in the sun with a friend and a cup of tea.
Lynn Wheeler
COMMUNICATIONS
DIRECTOR
A native of Pueblo, Colorado, Lynn landed in California by way of long hot summers in the Panhandle of Texas on her grandparent’s farm.  Lessons learn there paved the way for her life as an environmentalist, a mother, a winemaker, and a business owner. Earning a B.S. in Botany from UC Davis, Lynn managed the CSA at the student organic farm, went on to cataloged the flora of Rocky Mountain National Park, and was the program director at Eco-Farm for several years before moving to Sonoma County to start a family and a winery.  20 harvests, 2 girls, Tofu the dog, a winery, and countless wines later Lynn is very excited to be a part of the School Garden Network team.
​When Lynn is not at the winery or organizing files, her passion is in the garden with her girls.  She values the lessons the garden can provide and strives to instill environmental stewardship alongside the joy of growing your own food.
If you're interested in learning more about our Board of Directors and our amazing staff,
​contact info@schoolgardens.org