Welcome to Your 2027 Planning Committee
OSA’s Executive Director, Cat McCluskey, is serving as co-chair alongside Chris Smith from Utopian Seed Project. In addition to our National and International Planning Committee, we’ve added a robust team of Regional experts from the Southeastern region to help inform the first Conference outside of the Pacific Northwest. Click on each Committee member below to learn more about this incredible team.
Desirae Abella
Hokte Land Relations Consulting
Desirae Abella
Desirae Abella is an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and of Omaha and Cherokee descent. She is the founder of Hokte Land Relations Consulting LLC and is recognized for her leadership in advancing Tribal food sovereignty and community-driven natural resource stewardship. With a decade of experience in agricultural and natural resource conservation, including five years working directly with Tribal communities, Desirae leads initiatives that strengthen local food systems, support culturally grounded practices, and build long-term resilience.
She holds a B.S. in Plant and Environmental Science from Clemson University and an M.S. in Plant Sciences from The University of Arizona. Her professional experience includes roles with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Natural Resources Department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. She lives in North Carolina on the ancestral homelands of the Cherokee and is committed to empowering Indigenous communities through land-based relationships, cultural revitalization, and sustainable resource management.
Vivian Bernau
Seed Savers Exchange
Vivian Bernau
Vivian Bernau brings a lifelong passion for agricultural biodiversity and deep expertise in plant genetic resources conservation to her role as Director of Preservation at Seed Savers Exchange. Her career has been devoted to safeguarding crop diversity and ensuring that seeds—and the stories they carry—are preserved for future generations. Before joining Seed Savers Exchange, Vivian served as Lead Scientist and Maize Curator at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Plant Introduction Research Unit in Ames, Iowa. There, she managed the nation’s largest maize germplasm collection, overseeing more than 20,000 accessions and developing innovative, data-driven strategies to maintain, evaluate, and distribute genetically diverse material to researchers and growers worldwide.
Vivian holds a Ph.D. in Horticulture and Crop Science from The Ohio State University, where her research focused on drought tolerance and local adaptation in chile peppers of southern Mexico. She also earned dual bachelor’s degrees in Agronomy and Horticulture from Iowa State University. At Seed Savers Exchange, Vivian brings deep expertise in genetic resources, curation, and global collaboration to advance the preservation of heirloom seeds for generations to come.
Jay Bost
Laughing Springs Farm
Jay Bost
Jay farms at Laughing Springs Farm with his family outside of Boone, North Carolina where they focus on maize, medicinal herbs, seed crops and variety trials as perennial tree crops mature. He has a special fondness for Mesomerican domesticates (like beans, squash, amaranth, peppers, and tomatoes) and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Jay was a ‘farm coach’ with GoFarm Hawai’i on the island of Oahu for 8 years and helped launch the Hawai’i Seed Growers Network. He teaches intermittently at Appalachian State University (and briefly taught long ago at Warren Wilson College) and works with The Culinary Breeding Network.
Having farmed for 10 years in Hawai’i and spent years in the Caribbean and Latin America, he tries to bridge the crop diversity and genetic pools of these places with those of his now home, Appalachia. The Organic Seed Growers Conference has long been an important part of Jay’s life and a place of connection and inspiration, he was on the planning committee for the virtual conference in 2022 and is thrilled to be part of bringing the OSGC on the road.
Heron Breen
Fruits of Our Labors
Heron Breen
Heron Breen was raised in and now farms in Central Maine. Plant breeding, seed increase, seed production, varietal maintenance/reselection, and just general good times encompass about 7 active acres each growing season with isolation plots across 2 counties. Heron also provides contractor and consultant services on seed production and business operations to other seed producers and sellers.
Amy June Breesman
Local Contexts, Good Way Farm
Amy June Breesman
Amy June (Eastern Shawnee) is a farmer, seed keeper, and artist. She serves as Outreach Coordinator for Local Contexts, a global non-profit organization building digital tools for Indigenous Peoples around the world to find, access, and manage their cultural (including biocultural) materials.
Dan Brisebois
Tourne-Sol co-operative farm & The Seed Farmer podcast
Dan Brisebois
Dan Brisebois has a secret agenda. He wants gardeners and farmers to grow some of their own seeds! Dan is the author of The Seed Farmer and Crop Planning for Organic Vegetable Growers; and the host of the Seed Farmer podcast. Dan runs the Farmer Spreadsheet Academy and blogs about farming and seeds at www.danbrisebois.com. Dan Brisebois is also a founding farmer at Tourne-Sol co-operative farm in Les Cèdres, Quebec. Tourne-Sol grows organic seeds for an online seed store and a wholesale rack program; and grows organic vegetables for 500 weekly veggie baskets.
Georgina Catacora-Vargas
Academic Peasant Unit “Tiahuanacu” – UCB & Sowing Agroecology
Georgina Catacora-Vargas
Georgina Catacora-Vargas, Ph.D., is a Bolivian professor, researcher, and policy advisor specializing in agroecology, biodiversity, and sustainable food systems. Her transdisciplinary work incorporates a gender and human rights perspective, with a focus on women’s and peasants’ rights. Georgina conducts participatory action research and has practical experience in national and international regulatory and policy development and implementation within her areas of expertise, including within the UN system. She advocates for youth as active sociopolitical actors and for art as a transformative strategy in education and research.
Georgina is currently a professor of agroecology at the Peasant Academic Unit “Tiahuanacu” of the Catholic University of Bolivia and at the Master’s Program on Agroecology and Ecological Production of the Simón Bolívar Andean University. From 2021 to 2026, she served as president of the Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology (SOCLA). She is also a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) and an advisor for the Agroecology Fund.
Leeza Chen
Utopian Seed Project
Michelle Dang
SeedChange
Michelle Dang
Michelle is the Research Coordinator at the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, a program of SeedChange. In this work, she collaborates the University of British Columbia, farmers, and researchers to run the Canadian Organic Vegetable Improvement Project (CANOVI), a national vegetable variety trial and plant breeding network for organic and ecological vegetable farmers. Through CANOVI, Michelle hopes to develop more capacity to efficiently organize participatory research networks, contextualize agronomic data to be of use/value to farmers and seed growers, and support growers to build skills in variety trialling, seed production, and plant breeding.
Outside of this work, Michelle co-runs an urban farm, Xa Lát Farm, specializing in growing flowers and Asian vegetables for local markets. Through her time both in the lab and the field, Michelle is especially passionate about how researchers can support farmers in making agriculture more farmer-led, ecological, sustainable, and accessible. (she/her, Toronto/Tkaronto)
Jeanine Davis
North Carolina State University
Jeanine Davis
Dr. Jeanine Davis is an associate professor and extension specialist in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University. She is located at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center near Asheville, NC. For over 38 years, her NC Alternative Crops and Organics Program has helped farmers improve the profitability of their farms by growing new crops, transitioning to organic agriculture, and adopting more sustainable production practices. She has led and cooperated on a wide range of research and extension projects.
Current projects include several multi-state agroforestry projects (forest farming, silvopasture, and alley cropping), developing seed systems for forest farming, ginseng seed projects, black Perigord truffle production research, commercial production and marketing of Chinese medicinal herbs, and testing of new tomato lines for organic production.
She has published over 150 peer reviewed publications and given over 800 invited presentations in the U.S., Canada, and Chile. She is also the lead author on the book “Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and Other Woodland Medicinals”. She is a founding board member of the Organic Growers School, board member for the Veterans Healing Farm, and an advisor to the NC Herb Association and the NC Tomato Growers Association.
Melissa DeSa
Working Food
Melissa DeSa
Melissa is a seed steward, artist, educator, and ecologist in Gainesville, Florida. She is the co-founder of the non-profit Working Food, and the Seed and Garden Program Director. She supports regional seed biodiversity through research, seed saving, and education. Her work centers on sharing the skills and resources for growing food and saving seeds as a pathway to building resilient food communities alongside farmers, gardeners, youth, and community groups.
Jim Embry
Sustainable Communities Network, Cumberland Seed Commons, Atrus Ballew Farm, Slow Food USA
Jim Embry
Jim Embry is a renowned activist, educator, and director of the Sustainable Communities Network, dedicated to building just local food systems. An agrarian intellectual activist based in Kentucky, his work is guided by his Six Pathways to a Sustainable Future, a framework that uses the power of imagination and storytelling to craft regenerative, justice-centered communities. A central pillar of Jim’s activism is his “seed work”. He champions seed sovereignty and biodiversity, particularly through preserving the heirloom seeds of the African diaspora to reconnect people with their cultural heritage.
As a co-founder of the Cumberland Seed Commons, and a eight-time delegate to Slow Food’s Terra Madre, he cultivates seeds as “ancestors with stories,” viewing their preservation as a sacred act of resistance. Because of these efforts, Jim was awarded the 2023 James Beard Leadership Award. Whether managing his 30-acre organic farm or promoting seed saving and rematriation, Jim integrates agricultural education with social justice. His efforts emphasize that food systems are the “fulcrum point of transformation” for human and ecological well-being.
Amyrose Foll
Virginia Free Farm
Amyrose Foll
Amyrose Foll is a Virginia-based farmer, U.S. Army veteran, and food sovereignty advocate whose work centers regenerative agriculture, land stewardship, and resilient community food systems. A former firefighter-paramedic, nurse, and healthcare professional with a background in Biology, Healthcare, and Sustainable Agriculture, Amyrose brings a uniquely grounded perspective to the intersections of public health, farming, and climate resilience.
Edward Johnson
Oregon Tilth
Edward Johnson
Edward Johnson III is the Director of Communications and Marketing at Oregon Tilth, a nonprofit organization and national leader in organic certification, education, and advocacy for more than five decades. In his role, Edward leads organization-wide brand strategy, organizational communications, and integrated marketing efforts that support biologically sound and socially equitable agriculture. With more than 25 years of experience, Edward is an award-winning communications executive and omni-channel strategist recognized for translating complex systems, data, and policy into clear, compelling, human-centered stories.
His work spans digital strategy, executive and board communications, customer experience, media relations, and large-scale growth and impact reporting. Aligning storytelling with measurable organizational outcomes. Edward’s leadership blends strategic rigor with creative inspiration, strengthening trust and connection across diverse audiences while supporting organizational growth and mission alignment. He holds a Master of Project Management and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design and serves as Board Secretary for the Organic Seed Alliance. Based in Palmetto, Florida, Edward is passionate about using communications as a catalyst for positive change.
Chris Keeve
Chris Keeve
Chris Keeve has been doing seed stuff for a decade as a farmer, organizer, educator, and researcher with seedkeeping communities in the U.S., including Nonbinary Botany, Truelove Seeds, the Utopian Seed Project, and the Heirloom Collard Project. They are also a critical geographer and food scholar, enlivening their seed work with oral histories, creative mapping, and community-based agroecological methods. They get excited about geographic storytelling, the messy archives of garden spaces, radical possibilities through seed, and the sorghum harvest. Learn more about their work at chriskeeve.com.
Aba Kiser
Aba Kiser
Aba Kiser is the Assistant Director of Outreach with the Organic Seed Alliance where she has the enormous honor of managing the Organic Seed Growers Conference. Returning recently to her birth dirt near Washington, D.C., Aba has spent nearly two decades developing sustainable agricultural initiatives across the Pacific Northwest. Aba’s work is a tapestry of regional value chain development, culturally relevant frameworks, and groundbreaking events like the Cascadia Grains Initiative and the International Quinoa Research Symposium. In 2020, she earned recognition as Capital Press’ Western Innovator for her commitment to data equity and participatory frameworks.
Extending beyond the fields and conference halls, Aba moonlights as a performer and media producer, founding Watershed Productions to blend her love for media production with her dedication to culturally relevant food and farming initiatives, including the Eastern Plantways Project which reveals how Indigenous agriculture and curation shape the historical eastern forest region of Turtle Island. Aba is currently building drainage through small scale cover crop rotations and trying to figure out how to grow food in a subtropical rainforest with her extended family near Annapolis, Maryland.
Organic Seed Alliance
Katie Learn
North Carolina State University
Katie Learn
Katie Learn is a Research Associate with the Alternative Crops & Organics program in the Department of Horticultural Science at NC State University. She’s lived in the Asheville, NC area for the past 10 years, settling there after working on organic farms across the United States where she discovered her passion for horticulture. She has farmed in Hawaii, California, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Vermont.
She received her Master of Horticultural Science from NC State in 2023, with a focus on organic and conventional heirloom hybrid tomato research. She now focuses on research, extension, and education related to truffles, organic tomato production, Chinese medicinal herbs, hops, and other alternative crops.
Katie recently stepped into the role of local conference coordinator for the Organic Seed Alliance’s 2027 Organic Seed Growers Conference and is excited to support the national web of seed people.
Justice Madden
Cultivate Charlottesville
Justice Madden
Justice Madden is a storyteller, grower, and land-based practitioner whose work centers healing, nourishment, and collective liberation through seeds, land, and cultural memory. Raised in Newport News, Virginia, she developed a deep appreciation for the intersections of food, community, and tradition, which continue to shape her praxis of care and reciprocity.
For the past five years, Justice has worked across urban and rural landscapes throughout the Southeast as a nomadic gardener, collaborating with Black and Indigenous farmers, seedkeepers, and cultural leaders. When she’s not outside, she enjoys practicing yoga and being bossed around by her whimsical, yet defiant, terrier named Russell.
Shelby Mandonado
Water’s Edge Farmstead
Shelby Mandonado
Shelby Mandonado is a farmer, organizer, and mother with a passion for collaborative models of community building based around our shared love of the land. With deep family roots in Atlanta, Georgia and Asheville, North Carolina, Shelby is dedicated to uplifting and preserving the unique culture of the South. Shelby is currently proudly serving as the Associate Director of Membership and Programs for the Southeastern African American Farmer’s Network, where she works to support the visibility and viability of Black farms and farmers across the Southeast and Caribbean.
Alongside her work with SAAFON, Shelby is the steward of Water’s Edge Farmstead, a small, intentionally managed farmstead located in Candler, NC. Shelby is a founding member of the Appalachian Grower’s Seed Collective. Shelby is a heart-driven animist and land steward, working to honor the intimate webs that hold all of us – whether we be human, fungi, plant, insect, animal, or otherwise – together. Believing that the only future we can guarantee is the one we mutually create, Shelby is dedicated to supporting the viability of agrarian lifeways through her work and personal endeavors.
Roxanne Masters
Roots ‘n Earth Family Farm
& Kindred Seeds
Cat McCluskey
Organic Seed Alliance
Cat McCluskey
Co-chair of the Organic Seed Growers Conference, Cathleen McCluskey was appointed Executive Director of Organic Seed Alliance in 2025. She brings over 20 years of invaluable experience in seed systems, including serving in a number of positions with OSA since 2010, most recently as Policy and Advocacy Director.
Cathleen is an interdisciplinarian, and her research on the ways in which context influences the relationship between humans and seed has informed OSA’s work during her tenure. Her expertise and leadership skills position her to guide the organization in further stewarding equitable, inclusive programs rooted in participatory methodologies and aimed at putting the power of seed in the hands of growers. Cathleen holds a PhD in Environment and Resources and an MS in Agroecology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and currently serves on the National Organic Standards Board.
Amirah Mitchell
Sistah Seeds
Amirah Mitchell
Amirah is a farmer, seedkeeper and community educator who has worked in agriculture and food justice since 2007. She holds a B.S. in Horticulture from Temple University, studied agriculture in Brazil and Panama, and has farmed in Massachusetts, Georgia and Pennsylvania. She gives community workshops on seed-keeping and agroecology.
In 2021, Amirah founded Sistah Seeds to connect black and brown growers to our culturally-important seeds. Sistah Seeds is one of a small but growing number of black-owned seed businesses in the U.S., changing the landscape of the seed industry. Together, we are part of a multi-ethnic, multi-national movement of farmers and seed-keepers, working to preserve our heritage and create a strong agricultural future for our communities.
Dilip Nandwani
Tennessee State University
Dilip Nandwani
Dr. Nandwani is a Professor of Organic Agriculture at Tennessee State University (TSU) in Nashville, TN (USA). It was the philosophy and opportunities of the organic movement that brought him to a career in agriculture, which now spans twenty-five years. Dr. Nandwani working with U.S. Land Grant institutions since 1999 and has expertise in organic agriculture and horticultural sciences, and provides statewide direction and leadership for initiatives in Transitional to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP), Urban Agriculture and Sustainable Copping Systems. Dr. Nandwani is currently serving on the boards of USDA National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), Tennessee Organic Growers Association (TOGA), Southern Cover Crops Council (SCCC), Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), served as Chair, Organic Tropical and Subtropical Fruits workgroup of International Society of Horticultural Science (ISHS).
He is editor of several books on Organic Agriculture, Sustainable Agriculture, Urban Agriculture and Genetic Diversity in Horticultural Plants (Springer, Netherlands), serves on the editorial board of the Organic Agriculture Journal, and has published over 300 articles and received over $25M in grants and contracts. Dr. Nandwani is Fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS), has received several awards and honors, consulted and travelled globally for international agriculture development program.
Nereida Sanchez Rubio
Semillas Collibri
Nereida Sanchez Rubio
I am a woman who cultivates and cares for plants and seeds. I live in Mexico. I have been a seed guardian since 2010, after creating, along with other women, the Semillas Colibri Project, for the production, conservation, marketing, and planting of open-pollinated seeds.
Mary Saunders Bulan
Little Farm
Mary Saunders Bulan
Mary is an agroecologist and regenerative farmer based in Black Mountain, NC. She and her partner run a small diverse farm and grow seeds as members of the Appalachian Growers Seed Collective. With academic training in farming systems, crop genetics and ethnobiology, Mary conducted research on buckwheat diversity in China, and no-till cover crop management in the US. She worked for 10 years as an agriculture professor, teaching courses, mentoring student research and managing campus farms. Mary reveres the seed keepers and ancestors, following the invisible threads that connect us through space and time.
Chris Smith
Utopian Seed Project Farm
Chris Smith
Regional Co-Chair of the Organic Seed Growers Conference, Chris Smith is executive director of the Utopian Seed Project, a crop-trialing nonprofit working to celebrate food and farming. Within this work, Chris collaborates on The Heirloom Collard Project, hosts a seasonal Trial to Table event series, and publishes Crop Stories, a crop-specific multimedia project. His book, The Whole Okra, won a James Beard Foundation Award in 2020, and he is the co-host of The Okra Pod Cast.
In 2023 Chris received the Organic Educator Award from The Organic Growers School and was named a Champion of Conservation by Garden & Gun. Chris is a Grow Appalachia 2025 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellow. His new book, Saved by Seed will be published in Fall of 2026. More info at utopianseed.org.
Ira Wallace
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Ira Wallace
Ira Wallace is an organic grower, author, speaker, visionary and worker/owner of the cooperative Southern Exposure Seed Exchange where she coordinates outreach, education, and new seed grower contracts. Southern Exposure helps people keep control of their food supply thru seed saving and sustainable gardening. Ira serves on the board of the Virginia Association for Biological Farming. Ira is a cofounder of the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello www.HeritageHarvestFestival.com.
She was named a 2019 Great American Gardener by the American Horticultural Society and is a 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award Finalist. She is author of the Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast. Her new state specific book series including, Grow Great Vegetables in Virginia, are available online and at booksellers everywhere.
Brennan Washington
Southern SARE
Brennan Washington
Brennan Washington is the Southeastern Outreach Coordinator for Southern SARE. After serving on the Southern SARE Administrative Council for six years, Mr. Washington assumed this position in September 2015 where he promotes the SARE program to 1890 Universities, non-profit organizations working with farmers and directly with minority and limited resources farmers across thirteen southeastern states, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Brennan and Gwendolyn Washington own Phoenix Gardens, a small, diversified farm that produces sustainably grown produce, herbs and fruit. The farm is slowly transitioning to a teaching and research farm. In 2021, they were awarded the Georgia Organics Barbara Petit Pollinator award for outstanding service to the organic and sustainable agriculture movement.
Brennan is a graduate of the Southern University Small Farm Agricultural Leadership Institute and the University of Georgia’s Advancing Georgia Leaders in Agriculture leadership program. He has served as a board member or advisor to Southern SARE, Georgia Organics, the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (SSAWG), the Wallace Center Advisory Group, the Wallace Center EPA Mississippi River Climate Change Project and the Rodale Southeastern Operations Center. In 2024, Brennan was awarded the TM Mitchell Leadership award in recognition of outstanding service to producers through the extension system. Prior to moving full-time into agriculture, Brennan spent twenty years in information technology.
Amirah Mitchell
Amirah is a farmer, seedkeeper and community educator who has worked in agriculture and food justice since 2007. She holds a B.S. in Horticulture from Temple University, studied agriculture in Brazil and Panama, and has farmed in Massachusetts, Georgia and Pennsylvania. She gives community workshops on seed-keeping and agroecology.
In 2021, Amirah founded Sistah Seeds to connect black and brown growers to our culturally-important seeds. Sistah Seeds is one of a small but growing number of black-owned seed businesses in the U.S., changing the landscape of the seed industry. Together, we are part of a multi-ethnic, multi-national movement of farmers and seed-keepers, working to preserve our heritage and create a strong agricultural future for our communities.
Amirah Mitchell
Amirah is a farmer, seedkeeper and community educator who has worked in agriculture and food justice since 2007. She holds a B.S. in Horticulture from Temple University, studied agriculture in Brazil and Panama, and has farmed in Massachusetts, Georgia and Pennsylvania. She gives community workshops on seed-keeping and agroecology.
In 2021, Amirah founded Sistah Seeds to connect black and brown growers to our culturally-important seeds. Sistah Seeds is one of a small but growing number of black-owned seed businesses in the U.S., changing the landscape of the seed industry. Together, we are part of a multi-ethnic, multi-national movement of farmers and seed-keepers, working to preserve our heritage and create a strong agricultural future for our communities.
Have a question about the Planning Committees? Reach out to Aba Kiser.
