Session Content Leader
Grounded Vitality (Minnesota)

Laura Fredrickson-Gosewisch is a NCBTMB Board Certified Massage Therapist practicing 12 years as well as a Minnesota-based vegetable farmer and Executive Director of West Side Farmers Market in Minneapolis. With a specialty in managing chronic pain, injury recovery, and prevention, she brings a passion for supporting women farmers in understanding and taking charge of proactively caring for their body.

Program Lead Partner
Kansas Black Farmers Association (Kansas)

After a 40-year career as in public-school special education, Dr. Counts now serves as a director position with the Kansas Black Farmers Association, supporting initiatives in the eastern portion of Kansas. Tammy founded Family Counts & Consultants, LLC, focusing on critical initiatives such as healthcare equity, supporting the homeless and impoverished and empowering both urban and rural farmers. She also serves as the co-director of the Veryl Switzer/Kansas State University Youth Agriculture Camp. 

Farmer Facilitator
Sankara Farm (Missouri)

Izula Mazimillen is a co-steward of Sankara Farm, a 27 acre, black family owned, demonstration and research farm in Kansas City, MO. She is also involved with Small Farm Outreach for the Innovative Small Farmers’ Outreach Program collaborating with Lincoln University’s Cooperative Extension in Jackson County, Missouri, and a member of the Agroforestry Speakers Coalition.

Project Director
Renewing the Countryside (Minnesota)

Jan Joannides is the Executive Director and co-founder of Renewing the Countryside. For the past twenty years, she has been an advocate and organizer for rural communities and citizens who are working to stimulate economic growth and enhance their communities through sustainable uses of their landscapes and resources. From 2011-2013, she served as an Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems at the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA). She holds a master's degree in natural resources from the University of Minnesota and has been the editor and co-author of several books.

Project Advisor
University of Vermont (Vermont)

Beth Holtzman works with small scale farmers in Vermont and the Northeast. She has been conducting sustainable agriculture outreach and education since 1992 for a variety of nonprofit organizations. Recently, she has been working with farm businesses on start-up, business planning and marketing through the University of Vermont’s New Farmer Project and Women’s Agricultural Network. She also coordinates the Vermont state SARE professional development program.

Session Content Leader
Wee Beastie Ranch (Wisconsin)

Ellen Petrick recently moved full-time to her Wisconsin farmstead and following her dream of a diversified homestead complete with goats, chickens and an abundant garden. Ellen brings a deep professional background in body mechanics to her new role as farmer, with over 25 years working as an exercise physiologist, health coach, and fitness educator.  She is a certified Exercise Physiologist with the American College of Sports Medicine and has a specialty in activity with disability and chronic disease, something she personally manages too.

Farmer Facilitator
Hilltop Community Farm (Alaska)

Carey Restino has been growing veggies and flowers since 2011 in the hills above Homer, Alaska. The farm specializes in salad greens, flower bouquets and farming with a great soundtrack and a sense of humor.

Farmer Facilitator
Food Web Farms (Wisconsin)

Michelle Harrigan, along with her husband Dan and her two children, started Food Web Farms in 2014. A small family farm committed to finding how we can best care for the land and provide fresh, homegrown, and well cared for meat and produce for our friends and neighbors. Michelle served as a Stewardship Ambassador with the Women, Food & Agriculture Network/WFAN, a partnership project with Renewing the Countryside and Soil Sisters to empower other landowners to take conservation action and amplifying women landowners as powerful agents of change. With a passion to share what she has learned, Michelle serves as a librarian for the Blanchardville and Argyle libraries. She is a strong advocate for building rural mental health resources and autism awareness and is a mentor for the Water We Swim In.

Project Coordinator
Renewing the Countryside (Wisconsin)

A national advocate and leader for women in sustainable agriculture, Lisa brings a strong background in women farmer programming and outreach and is author of the book, Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers. She founded Soil Sisters, now an award-winning project of Renewing the Countryside that champions women farmer peer-based learning through the Learning Circle model outlined in this proposal and she has led hundreds of women farmer focused events. Lisa is the co-author of multiple books on sustainability, food and entrepreneurship with her husband, John Ivanko, including Homemade for Sale, Farmstead Chef, Ecopreneuring and Rural  Renaissance. For over twenty five years, she and her family have run Inn Serendipity Farm and B&B in Wisconsin.

Program Lead Partner
Kansas Black Farmers Association (Kansas)

Dr. JohnElla Holmes, a retired assistant professor and now CEO of the Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA), is leading efforts to expand opportunities for Black, BIPOC, and women farmers across the Midwest. She is currently overseeing the conversion of KBFA’s 68-acre training farm into an organic grain operation, while also dedicating four acres to GAP-certified specialty crop production to support the Association’s Food as Medicine initiative. Her work blends education, research, and hands-on farming to promote health, equity, and long-term land stewardship.

Farmer Facilitator
Scotch Hill Farm and Innisfree Farmstay (Wisconsin)

A pioneer in organic farming for more than 25 years, Dela Ends and her family have run diversified operations on their farm, including a certified organic vegetables CSA and a goat milk soap and natural skin care products business.  Most recently, she added a farmstay to the business mix. Dela was one of the plaintiffs in the successful lawsuit against the state of Wisconsin to lift the ban on the sale of home baked goods. Committed to supporting more women leaders in sustainable agriculture, she also serves on the MOSES board.

Farmer Facilitator
Campi Di Bella (Wisconsin)

Mary Ann Bellazzini co-owns Campo di Bella Farm to Table restaurant and winery on her family's 20 acre farm in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin.  She has been growing vegetables and grapes as well as raising animals for the farm’s unique weekend dining experiences for almost 10 years.  Providing local, seasonal dinners to guests is the main focus of Campo di Bella, while farming sustainably year round. Mary Ann has recently been elected to her local town board and appreciates the opportunity to represent and work towards building and nurturing her town farming community

Graphic & Website Design
Cloverleaf Design (Wisconsin)

A graphic designer and CSA member for 25+ years and advocate for local sustainable agriculture, Jess has served on a CSA's advisory team for 12 years, helps to organize a rural event promoting Traditional and Green Skills, provides layout for a monthly community newspaper serving the Hay River watershed of WI, and is in the process of developing a rural community arts space. She especially enjoys collaborating with folks to communicate in ways that are welcoming and inspire community building.