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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] |
Jon Backus
NATIVE HABITAT CONSULTANT |
Growing up in Sonoma County, Jon's passion for ecological restoration sparked in high school when his environmental science class worked to restore a riparian habitat at a local park. He holds a BS in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California, a Masters in Environmental Horticulture from the University of Washington, a CERP certification from the Society for Ecological Restoration, and is also a licensed C27 landscaping contractor. He has developed and implemented over a dozen large-scale habitat restoration projects around the SF Bay Area through his role as the Restoration Program Manager at Save the Bay, and in 2020 founded West Coast Wild Ecological Restoration in Sebastopol, which specializes in native habitat planning, consulting, plant growing and installation. Jon joins the SGN team to support local schools in creating native habitats on their campuses through the Schoolyard Habitat Program.
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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] |
Annika Lawson
FARM-TO-SCHOOL COORDINATOR |
Annika is stoked to join the SGN team as the Farm-To-School Coordinator! Having spent numerous summers attending and working at summer 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 has a Bachelors from Sonoma State University in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Environmental Studies.
Contact: a[email protected] |