Breadcrumbs
About Us
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Shawn Harrison – Founder & Co-Director
Janet Whalen Zeller – Founder & Co-Director
Janet has been an activist and educator promoting local family farms, sustainable agriculture, organic food, healthy living and socially conscious business practices for over 30 years. Janet was the director of operations for the Good Earth, opening and managing restaurants in Northern California and Oregon. She was the marketing manager for the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op for 22 years. Janet earned a degree in Communications Studies at CSUS with a focus on interpersonal and intercultural communication. She is a trained mediator and facilitator. Janet is committed to connecting the people who grow food with the people who eat it and creating a local food system where everyone has access to fresh, healthy, organically grown food.
Ali Adams - Events and Cooking Coordinator
Ali moved to Sacramento from the Bay Area in 2008 to pursue her college education. She graduated in 2011 from Sacramento State with a B.S. in Dietetics, a minor in Biology, and a passion for food and nutrition. She has found her perfect niche at Soil Born Farms after volunteering since August 2010, where she fell in love with sustainable agriculture. Her education and experience has lead her to Soil Born Farms where she can combine her love of teaching, cooking, and nutrition to help educate and participate in the well-being of her community.
Sarah Barnes - Education Coordinator
Melanie Choy - Office Manager
Melanie Choy graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA with a B.A. in politics and government. Most recently, she worked as a program associate at The California Endowment, managing grants related to culturally competent healthy systems and health access. Increasing access to fresh produce was on her mind since she was a high school student, when she helped to organize a health food stand in the lunch room. Melanie moved to California in 1998, and her love of cooking and eating combined with access to farmers’ markets began her interest in eating seasonally and locally. Melanie likes working at Soil Born Farms because it combines her professional abilities with her personal interests. Melanie lives in Sacramento with her husband and daughter.
Jared Clark – Ranch Manager
Guy Galante – Education Director
Guy is also a professional photographer and contributed many of the photos on this website. He can often be found along the banks of the American River and along the nature trails of the Parkway near his home in Sacramento. There he photographs wildlife and scenery, and he regularly volunteers for local organizations that work to protect the American River Parkway.
Chris Greer – Second-year Apprentice
Elle Huftil-Balzer - Assistant Farm Manager
Alicia Oldfield - Communications Manager
Alicia’s connection with Soil Born Farms began as a volunteer in 2002 at the farm on Hurley. She joined the Board of Directors a few later and remained a board member until she joined the staff in 2013. She brings over 15 years of outreach, education, community organizing, and organizational change management experience gained from outreach and fundraising work with nonprofit groups in the bay area and Sacramento region. She has also served as Education Coordinator and Assistant Marketing Manager at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op and as an Outreach Specialist for California’s Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave programs.
Alicia is grateful to have the opportunity to work for an organization that is teaching youth and adults about environmental stewardship and organic agriculture while building a resource that will serve our community for decades to come.
Michele Ranieri - Community Outreach Coordinator
Michele is currently the Community Outreach Coordinator. Michele has been with Soil Born Farms for the past two years and supported the organization as a Second Year Apprentice in 2011 and the Greenhouse and Pack Coordinator in 2012. Prior to coming to Soil Born, she completed a Certificate in Organic Farming at Michigan State University and apprenticed at a small farm in Naperville, IL. Before landing on farming as her passion and path in life Michele had a diverse background of experiences; including, a Marketing degree from Northern Illinois University, working for several nonprofits, and 2 1/2 years of recovery work in New Orleans.
Carolyn Reuman – Website Coordinator
Aimee Sisson - Second-year Apprentice
Michelle Smith - Cooking/Nutrition/Event Coordinator
Michelle was born and raised in Sacramento. She graduated from CSUS in 2012 with a degree in Food and Nutrition and a minor in Child Development. While attending college she also earned a certificate from CSUS in Family Life Education. Michelle was introduced to Soil Born Farms when selected for an internship related to her field of study and fell in love with the goals of improving healthy food access to all and making a difference within her community. Through a separate internship with the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, she has seen firsthand how important organizations like Soil Born Farms can be. Michelle has always had a passion for cooking and nutrition and has found a place where she can focus her education and interests simultaneously.
Randy Stannard – Food Access Coordinator
Randy holds a B.S. in soil science from Cal Poly and has over ten years of experience working on organic farms, developing community-based projects and teaching about organic gardening. Randy started with Soil Born Farms as an apprentice in 2005 and now focuses his energy on developing Harvest Sacramento, our fruit-gleaning project. One of his favorite aspects of working at Soil Born Farms is the opportunity to work with community partners, volunteers and other staff toward improving our local food system and sharing the experience of growing and eating healthy food.
Callie Urner – Bookkeeper and Special Projects Coordinator
Callie grew up in the Sierra Nevada foothills and it wasn’t until she moved away that she realized how incredibly special and valuable a place “the country” is. She earned her B.S. in Business & Accounting from Sacramento State in 2008, as well as her California Certified Public Accountants license shortly thereafter. She has worked at various local accounting firms and in small business accounting departments. In addition to that, Callie pursued her discovered passion for agriculture and large animals by interning with a local shepherd, as well as completing an internship at Toluma Farms, a goat dairy on the Northern California coast. Callie feels blessed to be working at a place like Soil Born Farms, which holds the land, education and people in such high regard.
Becca Waltemath - Second-year Apprentice
Becca came to Soil Born Farms looking to gain the skills and experience needed to become a farmer, and the compassion and deeper understanding needed to become a steward of the land. As a recent graduate from Florida State University, she spent years organizing in the community promoting feminism and sustainability, and discoverd a passion for fighting food access injustices, promoting sustainability, and encouraging communities to reconnect with nature and each other through working the land. She completed the Soil Born organic farming apprenticeship and now co-manages the Farm on Hurley Way. John Hansen - Special Projects
2013 ApprenticesAlicia Baddorf, Misha Parfet, Brock Rasor and Paige Shoening
Want to be an apprentice at Soil Born Farms? Apply now! |
Shawn has been directly involved in the development of sustainable food systems and healthier communities since 1993 and holds an M.S. degree in international agricultural development from UC Davis. Shawn is also the recent recipient of Valley Vision’s Regional Environmental Legacy Award and graduate of the Community Leadership Program administered by the University of Southern California and Sierra Health Foundation. Shawn was born and raised in Sacramento and continues to reside here with his wife and two daughters.
Sarah is a native of Connecticut and graduated from Bates College in Maine with a BA in Environmental Studies and an itch to move to the West Coast. A short detour in New York City turned into two years spent writing grants for food and homelessness-related non-profits, and three more teaching elementary school in Brooklyn. She finally left the City to volunteer on farms in Argentina. She came to Soil Born Farms as an apprentice, co-managed the Farm on Hurley Way, and now works as Education Coordinator.
Growing up in Sacramento, Jared always thought he would have to leave the area to realize his aspirations of farming. After completing an apprenticeship in biodynamic agriculture at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, he was pleased to hear about Soil Born Farms. He joined the farm staff in 2008 and has enjoyed developing his skills as a farmer while serving his community with fresh produce.
Antonio began gardening as a child in South Texas, but really found his passion for agriculture after moving to Sacramento in 2003. After several years of home gardening, he joined Soil Born as a volunteer in 2007 - and went through the apprenticeship program in 2009. He ran the Hurley Way site for two years, and then moved on to help found Feeding Crane Farms in Natomas. Antonio feels that coming back to Soil Born is a tremendous opportunity to help build the farm community and Farm to Fork movement in Sacramento.
Guy loves working with Soil Born Farms because it allows him to apply so many skills to a variety of hands-on projects that he knows are having a positive impact on the communities we serve. It is an honor for him to be able to share with youth where their food comes from, to guide them in planting and harvesting it, and to see their excitement when they visit the river for the first time in their lives, or as they watch in awe as a hawk soars above their heads. Guy believes that tending land with such a rich and spiritual history is a privilege, and that it is important to teach young people how to steward the land.
Carolyn graduated from Williams College, worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer for California FarmLink, and then completed the Soil Born Farms organic farming apprenticeship in 2008. She coordinated various food access projects and the American River Ranch Farm Stand, and now maintains the website and databases. She loves working for Soil Born because it allows her to participate in the effort to improve the food system in Sacramento so that it provides a better quality of life for the community.
Prior to her apprenticeship at Soil Born Farms, Aimee worked as a preventive medicine doctor at the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento. As a public health physician, she worked toward the goal of every Californian having access to affordable healthy foods, including fruits and vegetables. She came to Soil Born to continue working toward this goal from a different, on-the-ground perspective. Working on a farm also provides an opportunity to use her doctoring skills, whether it be treating heat exhaustion or tying off newborn piglet umbilical cords. She 
