Our Board of Directors
The CAFF Board of Directors is composed of farmers and community leaders with expertise in a wide range of areas, including advocacy, business management, communications, finance, education, fund development, and law. The Board meets monthly and is responsible for taking care of the strategic and financial health of the organization.
David Visher
Visher Consulting
Davis, CA
Michael O'Gorman
Michael O'Gorman Farming
Willow Creek, CA
Scott Berndt
Riverside Food Hub
Riverside, CA
Anna Nakamura Knight
Old Grove Orange, Farmer
Redlands, CA
Ben Hartman
Founder & Principal, Sungold Consulting
Bay Area, CA
Charity May
Principal and Founder of Sacred Futures
Mickey Duran
Duran Sales, Inc.
Watsonville, CA
Gowan Batist
Farmer, Fortunate Farm
Caspar, CA
Judith Redmond (emeritus)
Full Belly Farm
Guinda, CA
Sarah Keiser
Wild Oat Hollow
Rogelio Ponce Jr.
Farmer, Sun Valley Berries
Watsonville, CA
Dominic Bruno
RRG Garden Farms, General Manager
Dawnie Andrak
CAFF Board Chair
Sacramento, CA
Emily Schwing
Public Affairs Director, Veggielution
Al Courchesne
Farmer, Frog Hollow Farm
Brentwood, CA
Patricia Miller
Centre Plate LLC
Stockton, CA
Michelle Reynolds
Board Secretary
Sacramento, CA
Deirdre Holbrook
Sonoma Land Trust
Sonoma County, CA
David Visher
Visher Consulting
David Visher has been helping small farmers succeed for 30 years. He is serving his third term as a CAFF Director. Visher built a produce distribution company, farmed 60 acres of specialty crops, and spent nine years with the University of California Cooperative Extension Small Farm Program where he worked directly with farmers and institutions to help small producers in business and marketing. Leaving academia he founded a successful firm that created educational opportunities for farmers and ranchers about business and marketing, strategic planning, and agritourism. Returning to the UC Sustainable Agriculture Program he was a Values Based Supply Chain Analyst for five years. Along the way he has directed seven NGO’s, and since 2002 served as a consultant for the USAID Farmer to Farmer (F2F) program 17 times in 12 countries.
Davis, CA
Michael O'Gorman
Michael O'Gorman Farming
Michael O'Gorman began farming in 1970. In 1990 he got asked to manage the first certified organic farm in Salinas, California. Over the next 20 years he helped build three of the country’s largest organic vegetable operations, converting 6,000 acres of prime farmland into organic production throughout California, Arizona and Mexico. In 2009 he founded Farmer Veteran Coalition, the nation’s leading organization helping military veterans find healing and viable careers on America’s farms. Michael now divides his time between helping his brother on Trinity River Farm, twenty acres of fruit and vegetables on the land he was born on, and advising new farmers.
Willow Creek, CA
Scott Berndt
Riverside Food Hub
Scott grew up on a family farm in South Dakota. During college, the farm was foreclosed and sold to a large farming group which plowed up acres of native prairie for one large conventional corn field. After moving to California, Scott started a 2.5 acre urban farm in Riverside CA. Today, he serves as the co-chair of the Riverside Food Systems Alliance, board member of the Riverside Food Coop, serves on the Grow Riverside conference planning committee, Sherman Indian High School Agricultural advisory board member, and is serving on the California Farm to School Working Group with the CDFA Office of Farm to Fork and works as Riverside Unified School District Food Hub Coordinator.
Riverside, CA
Anna Nakamura Knight
Old Grove Orange, Farmer
Anna is a fifth-generation family farmer, stewarding 80 acres in Southern California. She is the Food Hub Director at Old Grove Orange, the farmer-pioneer in California's Farm to School movement. After 10 years off the farm and 5 years at an investment bank, Anna now works to help small to mid-sized farmers find ways to keep farming forever. She earned a B.A. in Financial Economics from Columbia University, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Redlands, CA
Ben Hartman
Founder & Principal, Sungold Consulting
Ben is the founder of Sungold Consulting, a consulting firm dedicated to helping farmers, producers, brands, and buyers navigate the complexities of sustainable supply chains and the grocery retail industry. He was previously the Director of Category Management and Purchasing at online grocer Good Eggs and Produce Buyer/Department Manager at Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco. After a decade in grocery retail, Ben has taken on various fractional roles with foodsystems nonprofits, producers, agritech companies, and retail marketplaces through his work at Sungold Consulting, with an eye towards building a stronger ecosystem of values-driven food businesses.
Bay Area, CA
Charity May
Principal and Founder of Sacred Futures
Charity May is the Founder and Principal of Sacred Futures, an advisory practice that guides partners in the reimagining, designing and implementing of governance, leadership and ownership models, sustainable growth strategies, and financing vehicles to cultivate renewal and reciprocity between human and more-than-human worlds. Charity is a systems designer, writer and advisor, supporting the governance and strategic development of funds, projects and businesses committed to building towards a regenerative economy.
Mickey Duran
Duran Sales, Inc.
I am third generation in the strawberry farming industry. We are small farmers and also help many small farmers in the Watsonville/Salinas area cool and ship their own berries.
Watsonville, CA
Gowan Batist
Farmer, Fortunate Farm
Gowan Batist was born and raised on the Mendocino Coast into an agricultural family. She studied metal fabrication and sustainable agriculture in college, and farmed in Portland, Oregon on a 150-acre farm before returning to Mendocino to manage the Noyo Food Forest, Fort Bragg Unified School District’s farm-to-school program. During her three seasons as manager of the Noyo Food Forest program, she began composting spent grain from North Coast Brewing Company as a hobby. The hobby became a mission and a career, and Fortunate Farm was founded on 40 acres co-owned by North Coast Brewing Company in 2014.
Caspar, CA
Judith Redmond (emeritus)
Full Belly Farm
Judith Redmond is an emeritus member of the CAFF Board. She spends her days as a farmer at Full Belly Farm in northern California, and as a volunteer for a number of community organizations including CAFF. She is currently involved with organizations like California Climate and Agriculture Network; U.C. Davis Ag Sustainability Institute; and AGree (Transforming Food and Ag Policy). She is a Fire Commissioner with the Capay Valley Volunteer Fire Department and on the steering committee of the Annual Hoes Down Harvest Festival hosted by Full Belly Farm.
Guinda, CA
Sarah Keiser
Wild Oat Hollow
Sarah Keiser is an innovative community builder. Through her vision and leadership, she develops and implements community grazing cooperatives and collaborative land stewardship projects for more resilient communities. Under the banner Wild Oat Hollow, LLC, Sarah’s community-based, sustainable land stewarding concepts empower private landowners and public entities with the skills and support to use grazing ruminants, planned burns and community education to steward their land and commons to a healthy fire ecosystem. As we continue to see large, annual wildfires in California and throughout the west, Sarah has expanded her collaboration to policy makers, fire marshals, Cafire, RCDs, NRCS, UCCE and Indigenous Fire Ecologists to build out regional land stewardship projects.
Rogelio Ponce Jr.
Farmer, Sun Valley Berries
Watsonville, CA
Dominic Bruno
RRG Garden Farms, General Manager
Dominic Bruno is the General Manager of Garden Farms in Knights Landing, CA. Garden Farms is a diversified operation specializing in rice, sunflowers, melons, wheat, alfalfa, hybrid seed and other crops. In addition to farming Dominic has also worked on many conservation and mitigation projects for a variety of species also in the Sacramento Valley. Dominic also serves as a board member on the Yolo Land Trust and is a graduate of California Agricultural Leadership Program Class 46.
Dawnie Andrak
CAFF Board Chair
Dawnie Andrak, board chair, is co-owner of Local Roots Food Tours, offering culinary diplomacy experiences. She graduated in 2017 with a Master of Arts, in the inaugural class of University of the Pacific’s Food Studies program. Dawnie is also a graduate of our Food Literacy Academy, as well as a graduate of the Center for Land Based Learning’s Farm Academy, a program for beginning farmers. Dawnie also founded and currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Capitol WebWorks, LLC, an internet consulting firm specializing in political, governmental, association and nonprofit, and public affairs communications.
Sacramento, CA
Emily Schwing
Public Affairs Director, Veggielution
A native of the Jersey Shore, Emily Schwing came to San José by way of the University of South Alabama, where she earned a B.S. in Meteorology (2011). Emily earned her M.A. in Communication Studies at San José State University (2014), focusing on Environmental Communication. Emily joined Veggielution in 2014 and now serves as Public Affairs Director; Emily coordinates Veggielution’s overall communication and advocacy strategy. When she’s not on the farm, she can be found surfing on Santa Cruz or running with her dog Arlo.
Al Courchesne
Farmer, Frog Hollow Farm
“Farmer Al” Courchesne has been a welcome sight at farmers’ markets around the Bay Area for over 30 years. And just like his peaches, Al is homegrown. He planted his first peach orchard in Brentwood in 1976. Thirteen years later, Al began farming organically in large part because of a commitment he wanted to make to the soil, water and community he lived in. Throughout his farming career, Farmer Al has been a vigorous advocate for sustainable land use, conservation, and organic farming practices. Al lives on the farm with his wife Becky, their two daughters Maddie and Millie, and their ever-present dog Noci.
Brentwood, CA
Patricia Miller
Centre Plate LLC
Patricia Miller works with Centre Plate LLC helping to run an aggregated CSA for local farmers. Previously she worked as Community Engagement Manager with Edible Schoolyard Project based in Stockton, California. She is a co-founder of the Black Urban Farmers Association (BUFA) of Stockton, former Director of Special Projects for PUENTES and a retired Senior Community Service Officer for the Stockton Police Department. She migrated from San Francisco to Alameda and then Stockton as she was drawn to agriculture in the region and has lived and participated in food systems and economic development work for more than twenty-five years.
Stockton, CA
Michelle Reynolds
Board Secretary
Michelle moved to Sacramento from Central Appalachia in 2004. Michelle worked in county behavioral health and coordinated media and communications campaigns that sought to improve economic and social conditions for rural communities. Here in California, Michelle’s passion for sustainable food and farming practices inspired her run for the Board of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. She served the member-owned cooperative organization for almost 6 years in various leadership positions including Board President. Michelle has more than two decades of progressive experience as a communicator, with the last 12 years working in planning and implementing public policy communications. She also has a lifelong love of home cooking, entertaining, and local food.
Sacramento, CA
Deirdre Holbrook
Sonoma Land Trust
Deirdre Holbrook has worked in land conservation for more than a decade, inspired by her love of the land, farming and food. She worked with leading land trusts pioneering agricultural conservation programs including Marin Agricultural Land Trust, and today with Sonoma Land Trust. Prior to that, she served as a communications consultant for Straus Communications with clients including CAFF, Rodale Institute and U.C. Davis. She earned a B.A. from U.C. Santa Cruz and an M.A. from Northwestern University.
Sonoma County, CA
In Memoriam
PETE PRICE
October 7, 2020: Late last month, we lost a friend, devoted CAFF board member and tireless champion in Sacramento fighting for family farms across the state. Pete Price served as CAFF’s legislative representative from 1998 to 2010 and joined the board in 2000 where he chaired the Policy Committee. Working to reform our food and agricultural system, Pete volunteered countless hours, always guided by an unwavering commitment to fairness, justice and sustainability. Pete was determined to retire from CAFF once and for all this December, but a bicycle accident cut that goal short. His legacy, however, lives on.
Learn more about Pete, his contributions to the world of sustainable ag policy, and how we are honoring his legacy.
In honor of Pete, we at CAFF are announcing the creation of the Pete Price Farm Policy Champions Fund. The Fund will provide resources for farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates to engage in California state policymaking. Interested parties can make a contribution here. In addition, CAFF is creating the Pete Price Farm Policy Champion of the Year award, as part of our annual recognition of food and farming champions across the state at the California Small Farm Conference.