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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.
Contact: [email protected] |
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.
Contact: [email protected] |
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.
Contact: [email protected] |
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. Contact: [email protected] |
Courtney Delello
FARM-TO-SCHOOL PROGRAM MANAGER |
With a BS in Ecology and an MA in Sustainable Communities Courtney has spent her career involved in all aspects of local food systems, from research to education to getting dirty growing food. When she started volunteering on an organic farm during graduate school her dreams of studying plants and birds in far off locations changed dramatically. She found she loved the practical application of serving her community by settling into the land and growing food. Over the next two decades she would work on a myriad of garden projects, large and small, many of them involving sustainable food systems education to diverse age groups. She has been an associate instructor in the Agriculture/Natural Resources Department at Santa Rosa Junior College for 15 years and spent the last few years directing adolescents in the running of a 1 acre market garden. Courtney recently started a culinary garden consulting business, helping people to understand just how much food it is possible to produce in a small area. As the Farm to School Program Manager she is excited to take her passion for local food systems, knowledge of food growing practices and excitement about what is possible to grow in small gardens to the schools she will be serving.
Contact: [email protected] |
Nina Anakar
COOKING AND NUTRITION EDUCATOR |
Nina’s work combines a passion for the intersections between food, culture, wellness and ecology. She has a decade of experience working in the culinary industry; her cooking background includes studying the regional cuisine of her family’s home country of Morocco, apprenticing both abroad and in leading US restaurants, five years of work as a private chef in her home state of California, and five years of hands-on experience as an active culinary gardener with a focus on restoration. Throughout her career she has worked with school garden nonprofits in both New York and Los Angeles, was a co-initiator of the Ziza Urban Farm project in Los Angeles, and is currently cultivating her own garden in the North Bay Area to grow and advocate for culturally important, nourishing, sustainable foods.
Contact: [email protected] |
Annika Lawson
GARDEN CAMP MANAGER |
Annika is stoked to join the SGN team as the Garden Camp Manager! Having spent numerous summers attending and working at camps all around Northern California, she found a love for outdoor education and recreation that blossomed into a lifelong passion for environmental justice. Annika believes that educating the younger generation on the importance of knowing your farmer, how that food is grown and cultivating a connection to nature is the way to combat climate change. Annika believes this is the act of planting the seed for a brighter future. She brings big camp counselor energy, in the way of her silly songs, games and activities that she is looking forward to bringing to the School Garden Network. She has a bachelors from Sonoma State University in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Environmental Studies.
Contact: [email protected] |
Ciel “Mr. Fox” Muir
LEAD EDUCATOR |
Ciel “Mr. Fox” Muir (they/them), is a self described queer and trans nature nerd who brings their passion for nature, art and reflection to their local LGBTQ+ community as an active volunteer. From cradle to grey, Mr. Fox shares their love of learning and exploring through knowledge gained at Sonoma County Regional Parks and Westminster Woods. They invite participants of all ages and backgrounds to learn and share about self, others and nature through interconnectedness. They earned their Environmental Educator Certification through the AEOE (Association for Environmental and Outdoor Educators) last year. Currently they oversee on "Queer Nature Journal Club '' in order to ensure the outdoors as a safe and inclusive space for the LGBTQ+ community in Sonoma County and in community.
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Leah Mathews
LEAD EDUCATOR |
Leah is the School Garden Coordinator at Lucas Valley Elementary in San Rafael. There she creates curriculum & activities each week for “Garden Club,” a garden education program for 1st-5th graders. She is also the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Lead at the elementary school, and DEI team member at the middle school and district levels. This year she helped form and lead the school’s first Student Leadership Team in an anti-bully/anti-bias campaign.
Leah’s passion lies in combining her current roles and skillset —Garden Education, DEI work and Art—to creatively teach kids about growing their own food, ecological justice, sustainability practices, and community involvement. Her goal as Camp Lead Educator is to foster each camper’s personal growth as a budding gardener— caring for the planet and growing into an impactful member of their community. She earned a degree in Studio Art, emphasis in Painting, at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. If not in the garden or managing her kids’ activities, her ideal day would involve hiking along the northern California coast, painting en plein air. |