Board of Directors & Staff

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 15 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
PROGRAMS 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.

Shanon Whamond
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Shanon is an organic farmer with a passion for community, sustainability, art, and education looking to cultivate new opportunities. She is the co-owner of Hillview Farms, an organic, small-scale, regenerative vegetable farm located in Lincoln, CA that has provided her community with locally grown vegetables for the past 11 years. Shanon got bit by the farming bug after graduating from San Diego State University with a degree in Psychology. She wanted a career in which she could help others, and farming became her form of social justice. She pours her passions into the soil and in turn, provides the community that she loves with healthy food. As much as Shanon loves farming, they have chosen to scale back their operation to focus more of her energy on her newest crop, her growing family. She is excited to join the School Garden Network team to extend her farming passion to something equally as meaningful.

Michelle Krieg
SCHOOLYARD HABITAT PROGRAM MANAGER

Michelle is an ecologist, land steward, farmer, and educator with over 14 years of experience in native habitat design, stewardship, and place-based education. She has managed a native plant nursery and three educational pollinator gardens, coordinated and led outdoor science and land-based learning programs for preschool to college-age students, hosted community workshops and trainings in ecological land stewardship and horticulture, and served as a native habitat consultant for schools, homeowners, and community volunteers. With a passion for integrating ecoliteracy into schools, she also has an educational consultancy—Foodways Education—through which she develops curriculum and designs garden-based school programming. Michelle believes that school garden habitats are the perfect setting for learners to engage their senses, cultivate relationships, and develop a sense of ecological belonging and stewardship. She is excited to join the School Garden Network team to continue creating and promoting garden-based learning ecosystems—bringing life to schools, and schools to life.

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.

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!

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!

In his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar, nature journal drawing and leading interactive games.

Lynn Wheeler
DATA AND SYSTEMS MANAGER

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