Staff and Board of Directors

STAFF

Melina Barker, Education Director
Melina has worked professionally educating youth and community members about the local environment and sustainability for over 5 years. She has also worked as an organic farmer, and now owns and operates Meadowlark Farm with her husband. Melina attended the Environmental Studies Masters program at Southern Oregon University. Raised in Ashland, OR, Melina has a great love and appreciation for all that the Rogue Valley offers. She spends her free time hiking, preserving food, and playing with her 2-year-old son.

Tracy Harding, Executive Director
Tracy and her family moved to Southern Oregon in 2001. Utilizing her community organizing skills, she became engaged in local environmental protection and social justice campaigns as well as becoming an active civic participant.  Often including her children in these movements to nurture their love and understanding of community involvement, wild places, equity, and sustainability. A strong food and farm focus has evolved in the last few years as she helped to bring The Ashland Saturday Growers Market into being and joined the Small Farms Program team at the OSU Extension as a program assistant in 2008. Tracy has served on the board of the Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center since 2006.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ruth Bell Alexander
Ruth holds a B.A. from the University of California Berkeley (1965) and a Masters of Education from Harvard University (1967). Ruth has been a tutor and consultant in elementary and middle schools throughout the west. She is the author of two elementary math game books, Number Jugglers and Fraction Jugglers. As a member of the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, she has co-authored four books on health: Our Bodies, Ourselves; Ourselves and Our Children; Changing Bodies, Changing Lives; and Talking With Your Teenager. She and her husband, David, have lived in the Rogue Valley since 1988. They have two grown children, Zachary Bell and Sarah (Poppy) Alexander.  Ruth has been gardening using earth-friendly organic methods since 1969.  Ruth is currently serving a second term on the Ashland School Board.

Chris Fowler
Chris spent 10 years living, skiing, and cooking in central Vermont and Jackson, Wyoming before settling in the mountains south east of Ashland in 1987. Besides 25 years as a chef, he has been a mechanic, brewer, farmer, and carpenter. He is currently a self-employed contractor specializing in natural building and sustainable technologies.

The volunteer work Chris has committed himself to include: Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, board member 1989 to present; Headwaters, board member 1996 to 2006; Mount Ashland Association, board member 2006 to present; Eagle Mill Farm Education Project (now Rogue Valley Farm to School), board member 2001 to present.

Barbara Collins Heyerman
Barbara is a native of the Rogue Valley. A graduate of the SOC, (SOU) Teaching Program, she is now retired from the Ashland School District having taught primary grades as well as co-founding and teaching The Blenders Multiage 1-5 Classroom. She and her husband have lived in Ashland since 1974. She enjoys spending time with their extended family, gardening, reading, sketching, hiking, camping, skiing, traveling, and playing Old Time Music. She is an Advisor for the Robertson E. Collins Foundation for historic preservation and a member of the Friends of the Oregon Caves and Chateau.

Laura Roll, Board President
Laura holds a Master of Science degree in Human Nutrition from Arizona State University and is a Registered Dietitian. Her interest in child nutrition and public health began with her thesis work studying vitamin A deficiency blindness in children of developing countries and a possible solution to this epidemic. After graduating, she stayed on with ASU as an adjunct faculty member teaching introductory nutrition classes and working at the Food Science Laboratory. She moved to Ashland in 1995 with her husband, Treg Scott, and has worked as a clinical dietitian for a variety of organizations in the Rogue Valley and Northern California including Providence Medical Center, Rogue Valley Manor and Medford OB/GYN Clinic, Far Northern Regional Center and Stanford School of Medicine Pediatric Gastroenterology Outreach Clinic. Laura is the mother of two, Shea and Bryn, and currently works at home attending to her family and volunteering time to endeavors related to her passions of child wellness, nutrition and the environment. She enjoys spending quality time with her family, being in nature, cooking with her children and playing/listening to music.

Joan Ewer Thorndike
Joan is a flower farmer originally from Santiago, Chile. Her farm is Le Mera Gardens, now a part of Fry Family Farm. She has just completed her fifteenth year growing and selling certified organic commercial cut flowers to Rogue Valley florists, bridal parties, private homes, restaurants, designers and guest accommodations. She serves on the board of directors of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. She is the mother of two daughters who grew up knowing what a compost pile is, how to eat close to the land and loving all flowers. In the wintertime, Joan coaches 6 year olds on Mount Ashland to ski well and love the snow.

Dana Yearsley
Dana moved to Oregon from Pennsylvania in 1977. Dana is a Southern Oregon University graduate and mother of 4 children. Dana has been an organic flower grower for over 15 years and has been teaching gardening and cooperative games at Willow Wind Community Learning Center for 6 years. Dana has been a ski instructor for more than 25 years and plays lots of tennis. Dana has been involved in the Eagle Mill Farm Education Project since it began in 2000. She currently sits on the RVF2S board and tends one of their farm education sites.