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 young son.

Leland Fulton, AmeriCorps Volunteer
Leland hails from the wet, muddy foothills of Oregon's Coast Range. Leland is a graduate of SOU in Environmental Studies and Outdoor Leadership and has been a happy resident of Southern Oregon for several years. Leland has spent countless hours exploring the mountains and rivers of our wonderful region. A local high school running coach, his passion for outdoor education is matched only by his desire to foster an active, healthy lifestyle amongst our youth. What better place to pursue this passion than at our weekly harvest meals? You are likely to find him either at a RVF2S farm site, in the classroom, or running around with a bunch of Grizzlies.

Tracy Harding, Executive Director
Tracy and her family moved to Southern Oregon in 2001. Utilizing her community organizing skills, she quickly became an active civic participant by engaging in local environmental protection and social justice campaigns. Often including her children in these movements to nurture their love and understanding of community participation, wild places, equity, and sustainability. Tracy's farm and food system involvement lead her to creating The Ashland Saturday Growers Market and joining the OSU Extension Small Farms Program as a program assistant, both in 2008. Tracy has served on the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center board of Directors since 2006 and is actively involved with Rogue Farm Corps as a member of their advisory committee.

Susan Muller, Education Assistant
Susan moved to Southern Oregon in 2007 and is a recent graduate of Southern Oregon University's Environmental Education Masters Program. Appropriately enough, her focus during her studies was farm education. On the farm in Talent that she runs with her husband, she helps take care of poultry, cattle and pigs. In addition to her farm business, Susan serves on the board of the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market and stalks chickens with her son.

Rebecca Slosberg, Education Assistant
Rebecca loves any excuse to be outside and feels lucky to have a career sharing this love and enthusiasm of our local environment. Rebecca has worked as an interpretive park ranger and environmental educator all over the country from Alaska to Florida. She spent several years as an educator at an outdoor science school in California and moved to the Rogue Valley to get her Masters degree in environmental education at Southern Oregon University. Rebecca is also the coordinator for Bear Creek Watershed Education Partners. Rebecca enjoys being out in the Rogue Valley, whether it's hiking, skiing, backpacking, chasing after her toddler or helping kids get their hands dirty.

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; Headwa ters, 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.

Deborah Gordon
Deborah completed her medical and family practice residency training through the University of California at San Francisco and the Family Practice Center in Santa Rosa, California. She was drawn to the beauty of the Rogue Valley as well as the outdoor and cultural opportunities we enjoy here. Deborah moved here in 1985 as the first Medical Director for the Clinica Del Valle, then called Clinica Azteca. Her current medical practice incorporates Classical Homeopathy, Family Practice, hormonal and nutritional therapies at Madrona Homeopathy in Ashland.

Ever since she learned to garden during a medical school rotation in Takilma, Deborah has valued fresh, homegrown and organic food. A late in life introduction to competitive rowing sparked her interest in combining challenging athletics with a support for farms, and thus was born the idea of the Siskiyou Challenge. She is still rowing competitively as well as gardening and raising chickens for eggs and meat at her home in Ashland.

Barbara Collins Heyerman, Board President
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
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.