Sue Davis combines her knowledge of business and personnel management with her passion for access to healthy and sustainable food, 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 School Garden Network with high esteem for her Board and staff, the community, and the children and youth impacted by this work. 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 MA in Leadership and Humanities with an emphasis in Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable Communities.

Contact: sue.davis@schoolgardens.org

​​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 management of a one acre market garden. Courtney also 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 enjoys bringing 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 serves. 

Contact: courtney.delello@schoolgardens.org

Michelle is an ecologist, land steward, farmer, and educator with over 15 years of experience in native habitat design, stewardship, and place-based education. She has managed a native plant nursery and educational pollinator garden, 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. 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. In her role with SGN she enjoys creating and promoting garden-based learning ecosystems—bringing life to schools, and schools to life.

Contact: michelle.krieg@schoolgardens.org

Having spent numerous Summers attending and working at Summer camps all around Northern California, Annika found a love for outdoor education and recreation that blossomed into a lifelong passion for environmental justice. She believes that educating the younger generation on the importance of knowing your farmer, how food is grown, and cultivating a connection to nature is instrumental in both combating climate change and 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: summercamp@schoolgardens.org

Leah is an active parent volunteer at Lucas Valley Elementary in San Rafael. She began as School Garden Coordinator in 2022 where she created curriculum and activities each week for their garden club - a garden education program for 1st-5th graders. She is currently the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Director—leading the Student Ally Leadership Team and is a board member of the Home and School Association. Last year she helped form the school’s first Student Anti-bias Team and continues to lead the group this year, performing school-wide assemblies on diversity and allyship, environmental justice, and neurodiversity awareness.

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Leah’s passion lies in combining her current roles and skillset—garden education, DEI work, and art. Her goal as Camp Lead Educator is to foster each camper’s personal growth as a budding gardener—helping them learn to grow their own food, care for the planet, and be an impactful member of their community.

She earned a degree in Studio Art with an emphasis in Painting at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. When not in the garden or managing her kids’ activities, her ideal day involves hiking along the northern California coast, and painting en plein air.

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 14 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, at the moment she has chosen to scale back her operation to focus more energy on her newest crop—her growing family. She appreciates how her role at SGN allows her to extend her farming passion to something equally as meaningful.

Contact: shanon.whamond@schoolgardens.org