Ken Menard
President of the Board and former representative. Ken has an Associates Degree in Agribusiness, and has been a dairy farmer for 20+ years, providing him with ample practical farm management experience.
Margarita Echeverria
Executive Director of The Highfields Institute. Secretary of the Board, head of accounting department, grant writer and member of the Management Team. Margarita brings with her 28 years experience in operational systems consulting and accounting. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of L.A. Mesa Co., Ltd., an international distributor of specialty fasteners for the Hi-Tech Industry. She works in an advisory capacity for the Pacem In Terris Foundation- a mission in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, South America. The foundation focuses its work with under-privileged children and the elderly in the community and also serves as a monastery for young priests working for peace on earth.
As a full-time staff member, Margarita administers all programs, oversees the Highfields staff, directs the development of promotional and outreach materials and develops cost tracking and analysis programs. She has been with Highfields since 2000.
Tom Gilbert
Programs Director and Board Member. Tom is a Certified Compost Specialist (U.Maine/Orono Compost School), has 12 years experience working in agriculture, eight years experience in composting, and is Vice President of the Composting Association of Vermont. BA with emphasis on composting and sustainable agriculture from The Evergreen State College, Washington State, designer and project organizer for The Evergreen State College composting facility. As a full-time staff member Tom is a Technical Consultant in composting systems for the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District, the Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District, the Association of Vermont Recyclers and serves on the Management Team.
Fletcher Dean
Board Member. Fletcher earned his B.A. from Middlebury College. He teaches at the U-32 High School Apartment Program, specializing in independent living skills for transition and employment for students with developmental disabilities. He started the school gardens and helped initiate the cafeteria composting program with students and staff. He is a strong supporter of efforts to integrate sustainability concepts into the curriculum. He brings his experience of eight years as a Board member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, as well as eight years of public relations at Ben and Jerry’s, where he was active in carrying out their Social Mission. He has been a passionate backyard gardener for over thirty years, homesteading with his wife for 20 years in their Calais solar home. He also enjoys volunteering in the community.
Tom Stearns
Board Member. Tom Stearns began gardening at an early age at his family home in CT. Prior to completing a degree in Sustainable Agriculture from Prescott College in AZ, he began saving seeds. A hobby was born in 1996 in Vermont, when Tom began sharing these seeds with others through a small seed flyer. High Mowing Organic Seeds has since expanded into one of the leading organic seed companies in the U.S., supplying both home gardeners and commercial growers.
Tom’s vision has always been to create a company that would help support the re-building of healthy food systems, first in Vermont, followed by the rest of the U.S. He has also taught numerous workshops on many agricultural topics such as ag. education, economics, community supported agriculture, genetic engineering, plant breeding and more. In addition, he has served on the board of several agricultural organizations. He lives on 50 acres in Vermont, with his wife Heather, and their two girls, Ruby and Cora.
Nicholas Comerci
Board Member. Nick is a soil conservationist with an animal science degree from Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture, and a Masters in Vocational Agricultural Education. He has been active in natural resource and farm planning for 20 years. Nick is employed by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and works with farmers in the northeast kingdom of Vermont on manure management and water quality issues.
Mary Delaricheliere
Board Member. BSN St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH. Mary is currently in her fourth year on the Executive Board for the United Nurses and Allied Professionals union. With 19 years of nursing experience – 10 which spent in the Emergency Room, Mary is an emergency room nurse and Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner at Copley Hospital in Morrisville, VT. Mary is also the property owner of the land we lease for our Demonstration and Research Site.
Grace Gershuny
Board Member. Nationally known in the alternative agriculture movement, having worked for over thirty years as an organizer, educator, author and consultant, as well as a local organic market gardener. She has written several books and numerous articles on soil management and composting, including "The Soul of Soil", coauthored with Joe Smillie, and "Start with the Soil", published by Rodale Press. She was the editor of "Organic Farmer: The Digest of Sustainable Agriculture" for its four year existence. In the seventies and eighties Grace worked for the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) in many capacities, including developing its first organic certification program in 1977, and was a founding member of the Organic Trade Association.
From 1994-99 she served on the staff of USDA National Organic Program, and was a principal author of its first, much maligned proposed rule. She is now consulting for the organic industry, doing a few inspections here and there, and working on a book about the real meaning of organic. Grace has taught about gardening and agriculture issues at various schools and colleges, including Goddard, Sterling, Burlington College, and now Prescott College in Arizona. A long time faculty member at the Institute for Social Ecology, she continues to serve on its Board. She lives, gardens and composts in Barnet, VT.
Susan Alexander
Susan is an Agricultural Resource Specialist with the Winooski Conservation District. She earned her degree in Soil Science from Cornell University and has done graduate work in hydrology. She brings her keen interest in sustainable agriculture and viable communities to the board. Susan has extensive professional experience in soil science, hydrogeology, water quality, regulations, solid waste management planning, as well as working directly with farmers. In her work for the Conservation Districts Susan concentrates on water quality outreach and education to farmers/landowners and is writing the agriculture chapters for the Winooski River and Lake Memphremagog Watershed Plans.
Susan conducts outreach to farmers on Accepted Agricultural Practices, connects them with resources and programs to meet regulatory standards, and works with them nutrient management planning. Each fall and winter she works with individual farms to site stacking/spreading areas if they are unable to contain their manure during the spreading ban. Through the Farm*A*Syst program she collects water samples for nitrate, herbicide and bacteria and advises farmers/landowners on mitigation of non-point source concerns.
Previous to working for the NRCD Susan spent 15 years working with a small environmental consulting firm managing over $1 million in projects and leading a team of 10-12 scientists, computer modelers, and GIS spatial analysts. This often included long negotiations and on-going liaison work with the EPA, clients, and landowners. The projects she worked on included ground and surface water registration studies across the US. Susan wrote the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District’s first comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan, encompassing 34 communities, in 1990. She has volunteered as an ELF teacher, school board member, Cabot Waste Water Commission member and Cabot Coalition Board member.
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