Our Staff
Lilly Lombard
Executive Director As a community organizer, Lilly co-led the campaign to pass (and recently to save) the Community Preservation Act in Northampton, and served for three years as an elected representative on Northampton’s Community Preservation Committee. Lilly was GFN’s founding Board President.
Laura Hilberg
Administrative Assistant Laura is a master’s student in Conservation Biology, and led our riverfront restoration project as an intern. Laura now oversees our database management and assists the Executive Director with a variety of daily operations.
Alana McGillis
Staff Member Alana is an undergraduate student at Smith College where she is studying Environmental Geoscience with a Concentration in Sustainable Food Studies and a minor in Arabic.
Our Board of Directors
Adele Franks
President A retired public health physician, Adele brings non-profit management and land preservation experience from her time as Co-Chair of the Nonotuck Land Fund. Adele continues on from her position as GFN’s first Vice President.
Joe Blotnick
Treasurer Joe brings experience as a leadership consultant, environmental educator and local food entrepreneur. He served 7 years as a Cooperative Extension Agent in Maine, 4 years as Director of the University of Rhode Island Environmental Education Center and spent 2 years in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic helping a newly forming farmer cooperative become certified as organic.
Annie Sullivan-Chin
Clerk Experienced in organic agriculture, Annie brings a farmer’s perspective to the GFN board of directors. She is currently a worker-owner of the Pedal People collective and is dedicated to the notion of fair, just, and sustainable food systems.
Tom Benjamin
Garden Planning Team Co-Leader As a landscape architect, Tom has more than 20 years experience in environmental design work, often focused on ecological restoration and green design. Tom teaches sustainable landscape design at the University of Massachusetts and Greenfield Community College.
Seth Gregory
Media Coordinator Seth has lent his expertise as a graphic designer to the production of our materials and website since the first days of our organizing efforts. He is currently managing an independent design practice focused on supporting locally-owned businesses and non-profit organizations.
Gaby Immerman
Garden Planning Team Co-Leader Gaby teaches Horticulture and runs the summer internship for the Smith College Botanic Garden. She also provides private residential landscape design and installation services all over the Valley, often with Smith students for a crew. A native New Yorker, she oversaw field operations for NYC’s community gardening program, GreenThumb, and accumulated a range of professional experience in both horticulture and agriculture all over the U.S. before settling down in Northampton in 1999.
Llama Maynard
Volunteer Coordinator Llama is a science education consultant. She loves to haul her 8″ Dobsonian telescope to the Farm via rigged-up bike trailer so that she can share her love and knowledge of astronomy with the GFN community.
Jim Weed
Jim is our newest board member with professional experience in print mailing service. Jim is extensively read in issues around transition and resilience-building, and was drawn to Grow Food Northampton’s tangible actions to prepare for a future of energy and climate disruption.
Current Interns
Gayelan Tietje-Ulrich
Current senior at Smith College majoring in Theater & Landscape Studies with a concentration in Sustainable Food, Gayelan plans, post-graduation, to apprentice at an organic veggie and livestock farm somewhere in beautiful New England!
Our Committees
Fundraising
Donor base development, benefits, sales, grant-seeking, membership development, mailings, etc. Chair:Lilly Lombard
- Adele Franks
- Seth Gregory
- Lilly Lombard
- Jim Weed
- Suellen Walsh-Rother
- Jim Weed
Communications
E-newsletters, website, social networks, media Contact:Seth Gregory
FOG Steering Committee
Plan, create & manage the new Florence Organic Community Garden (FOG) Chair:Art Larson
- Kent Alexander
- Wade Clement
- Adele Franks
- Laura Hilberg
- Gaby Immerman
- Art Larson
- Lilly Lombard
- Trey McCain
- Stephen Mollins
- Suna Turgay
Farm Development Committee
Farmer recruitment, farm incubation research & land management Chair:Annie Sullivan-Chin
- Joe Blotnick
- Adele Franks
- Gaby Immerman
- Lilly Lombard
Our Advisory Board
- Peter Barrer Newton Angino Community Farm
- Lisa Baskin David Ruggles Center
- Cris Coffin American Farmland Trust
- Oona Coy & Ben James Town Farm
- Phil Korman Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture
- Jenny Ladd, Commonwealth Center for Change
- Heidi Nortonsmith Northampton Survival Center
- John Omasta Hickory Dell Farm
- Sam Stegeman PV Grows
- Steve Strimer David Ruggles Center
- Meg Taylor The Farm Education Collaborative
Our Farmers
Crimson & Clover Farm
Nate Frigard and Jen Smith have a combined 17 years of farming experience, were trained at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California Santa Cruz, and have been growing, managing and teaching farming in Massachusetts including Waltham Fields Community Farm, Waltham, MA, and the Farm School in Orange, MA. In 2010, Nate managed the CSA operation at the Farm School. In addition to farming, Jen works as a Land Conservation Associate with Mt. Grace Land Conservation Trust.
Slow Tractor Farm
This spring, Grow Food Northampton signed a three-year lease of it’s 10-acre “East Field” to Slow Tractor Farm, owned by Andrea and Christian Stanley of Hadley, MA. Andrea & Christian are better known for their successful young business “Valley Malt”, that malts locally-grown barley to sell to local breweries. Slow Tractor Farm will be growing oats & barley on the East Field. Additionally, they collaborated with Crimson & Clover to grow grains on 18 acres of the Main Field.
