Our Staff & Board

Nick joined Tilth Alliance in 2024 with over a decade of experience in brand strategy and marketing. As Director of Development, Nick works to grow awareness and support for our work with individuals, corporate and foundation partners as well as community organizations.

Outside of work, you can find Nick working in his garden with his two children or at a farmers market to source the best seasonal bounty to cook for friends and family (his happy place). When he isn’t thinking about food, he’s likely scheming a way to get into the mountains.

Nirvani joined Tilth Alliance in 2002 and manages the educational programs such as camps, afterschool, field trips, service learning, school partnerships, and more. Nirvani works with a team of educators to create engaging curriculum and develop programs that are student centered and meet the diverse needs and interests of our budding gardeners, chefs, builders, healers, activists and environmental stewards.

Nirvani recently moved to Seattle from Brooklyn, NY where she was an educator for 20+ years. Nirvani helped create a school focused on service learning and project-based community organizing. In collaboration with the farmers at the HSPS Youth Farm, she helped design curriculum and programs centered around food access, equity and food sovereignty. She holds a Master in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. Nirvani really appreciates all that the PNW offers including hiking, paddling, kayaking, wandering in the wilderness, that lake life, and being able to grow her own garden. She loves to dabble in crafts, bake, cook, and dance. You can usually find her chasing a sunset.

Kerri has deep roots in food system work, with origins as a chef, culinary educator, and farmer’s market manager. She has been a part of the Tilth Alliance community for more than 6 years, overseeing our pay-what-you-can farm stand and CSA, statewide farm programming, and now working as Managing Director.

Outside of work, Kerri is a toddler mom, an avid thrifter, decent stained glass artist and befriender of all cats.

Ethan Davis is a recent graduate from New York University with an academic background in environmental studies, focusing his research on soil health and regenerative agriculture. He recently moved to Seattle from Connecticut and is actively pursuing his permaculture design certification. In his free time, Ethan enjoys watching and playing sports, gardening, and exploring Seattle.

Lexa manages the summer farm stand at Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands, the Good Food Bag program, and Tilth Alliance’s other market and food access work.

Lexa has worked in community food systems for over 10 years, ranging from being hands on in the kitchen and field to designing local food policy. Her master’s degree in urban and regional planning focused on building more equitable food systems. In her free time, she enjoys cooking up and preserving the harvest, getting out to the mountains and waterways, and foraging for mushrooms. 

As a part of the Development Team, Jordyn works to advance Tilth Alliance’s mission by supporting our fundraising efforts, including our Pollinators membership program, foundation grants, and individual and corporate giving. She is thrilled to bring her fundraising experience and passion for supporting sustainable and accessible food systems to her role.

Jordyn grew up in Leavenworth and Seattle, WA, and in her free time, loves cooking, trying new recipes, paddle boarding, hiking, and going for long walks with her dog Timber.

Tanya supports our multicultural senior meal programs throughout the greater Seattle area with relevant food safety and nutrition education. She also provides nutrition and gardening education to preschool sites and their families in the Farm to Table program. 

Tanya has her Masters in Nutrition from Bastyr University and is passionate about functional and integrative nutrition, sustainable food systems, and helping foster joyful, positive relationships with food. In her free time, she loves hosting shabbat dinners, making cheeseboards, playing with her dog Izzy, and exploring the outdoors. 

Grace has their fingers dipped in several Natural Yard Care pools. They work with the Garden Hotline coordinating outreach events & answering gardening questions while also managing the Culturally Relevant Plants Starts program and assisting with Master Composter/Sustainability Steward activities.

Grace is an overall plant fanatic who enjoys farming, babying their houseplants, pruning Japanese maples, and cooking seasonally with homegrown or local produce. When they aren’t pressing flowers or reading cookbooks, they love gaming, getting creative with oil paintings & resin art, and doting on their cat. Bringing abundance to their life & others while being in tune with the Earth is a must.

Suez manages our youth employment programs which focus on farming, wetland restoration, and personal and professional development. She also manages food production at Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands and distributes produce to the community through our CSA program, pay-what-you can farm stand, U-pick garden, the East African Senior meal program, and donations to local community organizations.

Suez has grown food alongside community members in Rainier Beach for several years and she is passionate about supporting young people of color in leadership roles. 

Rain has worked in Tilth Alliance’s Finance and Administration department since 2024 and has been in the non-profit world since 2016. Rain works with every team at Tilth Alliance to support all things accounting and finance including invoicing, accounts payable, payroll, and reporting.

Rain was born in Seattle and raised in Fremont/Ballard. She raced flat water sprint kayaks on the local waters of Green Lake and learned how to swim at Golden Gardens & Rattlesnake Lake. Rain attended UCSC where she learned to surf and obtained a BA in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican History. In addition to catching waves and attending classes she worked as a sea kayak Naturalist in Monterey Bay. She is passionate about organic gardening/growing/farming because everything we do to our soil impacts our water supply. When not at work she is often on/in/by the water or at home in her garden with her cats.

Chris joined Tilth Alliance in 2014 and is thrilled to support environmental stewardship and community-based agriculture. His work includes projects related to ecological restoration, food forests, composting, green stormwater infrastructure, water conservation and providing technical assistance to other community-based farms and gardens.

Outside of work, Chris enjoys cooking, creating an edible home landscape, helping to restore Seattle’s urban forest in the East Duwamish greenbelt and backpacking. Chris lives with his husband in Highland Park in Southwest Seattle.

Hannah divides her time supporting the Youth and Families programming, leading farm to preschool nutrition education and coordinating with Farm to Preschool partners. She also supports our statewide Farm Department’s programming through project coordination, social media, outreach and administrative tasks.

Hannah has a BA in Food Systems, Nutrition and Health from the University of Washington. She is passionate about the relationship between sustainable agriculture, food sovereignty and health autonomy. In her free time, Hannah enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, tending to her pollinator garden and going on outdoor adventures with her partner and their dog.

Maya works with two programs within Tilth Alliance. She helps the Farm Program with various administrative support and coordination on projects like the annual Tilth Conference and Farm Walks. Maya also works with Youth & Families to teach after-school classes and lead field trips for kiddos.

Maya grew up in Michigan and then attended the University of Vermont, studying Elementary Education and Agroecology, before landing in Washington this summer. Outside of work she enjoys reading, rock climbing, camping, and dancing!

Kael has been a landscaper and farmer in and around Washington for the past 6 years. She’s excited to rejoin Tilth after a summer as the Farm Stand Specialist a few years ago. Kael grew up in Los Angeles and after attending Seattle University and has been working in sustainable agriculture and gardening ever since. She loves playing pool (badly), farming, mushroom hunting and will take any opportunity to drive a tractor.

Laura develops and oversees programs that encompass natural yard care education focused on soil health, resource conservation and pesticide reduction. These include the Garden Hotline, Master Composter/Sustainability Steward programs, our natural yard care classes for northwest cities outside of Seattle, and a culturally relevant plant growing campaign. She is also the primary buyer for plants for the annual Edible Plant Sale and teaches our botany and propagation classes.

Laura has more than 40 years of education and experience working in horticulture in the northwest including studies in landscape horticulture, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Botany from the University of Washington, and work experience in local utility and private garden landscapes as well as the nursery trade. When not engrossed in all things plant oriented she can be found on a beach enjoying the sand, marine birds and mammals and the salty Salish Sea air.

As a part of the Development Team, Kala supports Tilth Alliance’s events and volunteers. She loves bringing people together to experience and champion the mission of Tilth Alliance.

Since starting at Tilth 3 years ago, she’s had to build three new garden beds to continue growing all of the fun things she is discovering. When not in her yard, she’s outdoors playing new sports, backpacking, skiing, and generally avoiding being inside.

Melissa is part of a team of professional horticultural educators that answer gardening questions, teach classes, and do outreach within our community to help reduce pesticide and herbicide use and educate best waste management practices. She also helps manage the Children’s Garden at the Good Shepherd Center. If you ask her what her favorite plant is, it will change from season to season, but she named her daughter after the Calla Lily. 

She is the mom of a spunky little girl and married to a web programmer. They spend their shared time on day trip adventures, gardening in their community garden, and playing online and board games. When the weather cooperates, swimming, camping, and trips to national parks bring her joy.

Issa brings a Master’s degree in Geography and experience spanning transportation planning, digital equity, public health and housing, renewable energy, food systems and environmental work throughout the Pacific Northwest, Hawai’i, and Florida. She has bicycled both the west and east coasts of the contiguous U.S., connecting with remarkable people throughout her journey. A passionate naturalist, Issa spends her time swimming in the Puget Sound year-round and outdoors observing plants, wildlife, and mushrooms alongside her partner and dog.

As site coordinator, Phat assists in maintenance of the Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands, as well as other seasonal tasks.

Phat is a passionate person. Whether it is with his career, relationships, or hobbies, he puts his all into doing the things he love. He’s optimistic to a fault and assumes good intentions from everyone he meets, which gets him into trouble at times. Making mistakes, however, are just life lessons to him and he keeps his head high, even if he thinks about them before he sleeps sometimes.

Benay works as a project manager on our Youth and Families team, helping manage registration, camps, and field trips; teaching; and planning curriculum. She also helps coordinate the Children’s Garden at the Good Shepherd Center, managing the annual vegetable and flower beds (with the help of children and community volunteers). She loves to share her passion for gardening and the natural world with children and adults at Tilth Alliance!

She grew up attending outdoor education programs and camps most summers in the oceans, gardens, and redwood forests of Santa Cruz, CA, which first introduced her to the wonders of environmental learning. As an adult, she attended IslandWood, leading field groups on Bainbridge Island, and completed a Masters in Environmental and Community Education. In her free time, she loves traveling, reading, hiking, plants, Harry Potter, cooking and tidepooling.

Ren (whose job is “lift”) is responsible for weekly produce deliveries, van maintenance, tracking inventory, and fulfilling retail orders through our online Marketplace. Ren also supports the operations and logistics of the Good Food Bag program and Farm Stand.

Outside of work Ren makes weird art, bad music, and is rumored to be several raccoons in a trenchcoat.

Brahmi manages the Farm Program with her co-lead Rae Russell. Through her work with the Coalition for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture (CORA), the Farm Walks program, the Eat Local First Collaborative, and the Sustainable Ag Farmer Forum, Brahmi helps ensure reliable and innovative support for small and mid-sized farmers in Washington.

Along with her husband Jon and their adventurous toddler Juniper, Brahmi loves to spend time in the mountains hiking, biking, snowboarding, and exploring. She loves traveling, eating good food, yoga, quality time with friends and family, and diving into a good book. Brahmi has an MSc in Sustainable Resource Management with concentrations in sustainable agriculture and forest management from the Technical University of Munich.

Reingard leads Seattle’s Master Composter / Sustainability Stewards program. This community outreach program focuses on educating residents about waste reduction, recycling, food waste, and composting. Each year, over 30 volunteers receive in-depth training in these topics, then go out to share this knowledge in communities throughout the city.

To this role, Reingard brings extensive experience in project management and a PhD in Biology. In her teaching, Reingard combines hands-on experience in backyard composting with soil science and imparts the importance of science-based approaches to gardening, soil health, water quality and conservation, recycling, and other related resource conservation topics.

Prior to taking on the position of MC/SS Project Manager with Tilth Alliance, Reingard trained as an MC/SS herself in 2016 and completed the 2019 Compost Facility Operator Training (CFOT) by Washington Organic Recycling Council (WORC) of which she now is a board member.

Rae works in collaboration with Tilth Alliance’s Farm Team to co-manage the Washington State Organic & Sustainable Farming Fund grant program, annual Tilth Conference, Farm Walks program and Farm Walks Podcast. She also provides support for the Eat Local First campaign and Washington Food & Farm Finder database.

Rae is a dedicated foodie and bookworm who loves making art, growing food, building community and exploring our gorgeous PNW region!

Georgina oversees 20+ senior congregate meal sites where immigrant and refugee seniors can socialize, exercise, learn, and eat culturally appropriate, nourishing meals. Her team creatively shares nutrition education and resources around relevant health topics and the importance of eating local, seasonal whole foods. They also plan programming and activities that support social, intellectual, and physical well-being such as farm field trips, Good Food Bags, gardening, and cooking classes.

Georgina has a Master’s Degree in Nutrition from Bastyr University in Washington. She has always prioritized working with historically excluded groups in underserved communities and especially loves to teach seniors, families, and kids of all ages how to incorporate a practical whole foods approach to their meals!

On days off she loves spending time with her husband, son, and family on foodie adventures, breathing in different biomes, spending quiet time near water and being active.

Sharon joined Tilth Alliance (then Seattle Tilth) in 2013. As the Youth & Families Program Director, she oversees educational programming at Tilth Alliance’s gardens and farm for children, youth, families, and schools; partnerships with schools and organizations; and trainings for garden educators, teachers, and families. Sharon is a co-Principal Investigator of the Learning in Places, a National Science Foundation-funded research project. She is a co-leader in the Washington Farm to School Network, and co-facilitates the School Learning Garden Network with Seattle Public Schools, and along with connecting with other national garden education efforts. 

Sharon has been an informal garden educator for over 17 years, and has led programming in Houston, TX, Columbus, OH, and Seattle, WA. She holds a Masters in Public Policy and Administration from Northwestern University, where she focused on food policy and community work. She loves to garden at home when she can with her husband and two sons, and enjoys cooking, reading, and exploring new places. 

Alexandria shares their passion for regenerative practices, water conservation and urban composting as a Garden Education Specialist at Tilth Alliance. They collaborate on the Soil and Water Stewardship program and lead gardening and food classes for adults. As a longtime community gardener in Seattle, they’re serious about growing, cooking and eating nutritious local foods in our urban environment.

For fun beyond the garden and kitchen, Alex enjoys distance running, hiking, playing soccer and watching women’s sports. Alexandria grew up in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, then landed at Seattle University in 2004 to learn about social justice and organize with social movements. They studied abroad in Mexico and Venezuela, then spent time as an electoral observer and activist in Central America, which helped them understand the importance of resilient local communities everywhere.

Marni works as a garden educator with Tilth Alliance. She manages the adult education program, teaches gardening classes, and cares for the Good Shepherd Center Learning Garden, along with our community volunteers.

For over a decade, Marni has worked as a farmer, a gardener, and an environmental educator – spending time with plants and people outside is what brings her joy. In her free time, you can find her birding, cooking, crafting, and adventuring with her partner and pup.

Dakota supports the Development team as a jack-of-all-trades. She assists with fundraising efforts, dabbles in marketing and communications, supports Tilth Alliance’s amazing volunteers, and helps plan and run events.

When Dakota is not in the office, she enjoys climbing, hiking, and traveling. She has hiked both the Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail and has done major hiking and climbing trips in more than a dozen other countries. When not gallivanting outside, Dakota is a couch cuddle bug who enjoys reading, hot tea, and very spicy food.

Melissa has served as Tilth Alliance’s Executive Director since December of 2018.

Melissa has led non-profits working in environmental conservation and sustainability for over 20 years. Before moving to Washington 3 years ago she served on the Steering Committee of Working Lands Alliance advocating on behalf of Connecticut’s agricultural community for over a decade. Organic and regenerative agriculture have become her passion since moving to Washington and taking the reigns at Tilth Alliance. She has enjoyed exploring Washington’s great outdoors backpacking, hiking, snowshoeing, kayaking and cross-country skiing. Melissa has an MBA from IESE business school in Barcelona and a Masters in Forest Science from the Yale School of the Environment. She is fluent in Spanish and enjoys practicing whenever possible!

Zabrina is based at Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands. Here, she can be found coordinating and teaching Youth and Families programs, like summer camp and after school classes. She also designs curriculum, hosts field trips, leads service learning and work parties, and manages the Children’s Garden.

Zabrina has a passion for outdoor, environmental, and garden education – she has been teaching both in indoor and outdoor classrooms for almost seven years. In her free time, you can find her reading, hiking, tending to her many houseplants, or spending time with family.

Cameryn works closely with community members of all ages and the Rainier Beach Youth Stewards to educate, restore, and enhance wetland habitat at Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands.

She is passionate about connecting with nature and you can find her camping or hiking during every season. She loves to cook with seasonal produce, shop farmers markets, and garden at home.

Nala is a southern Louisiana–born chef, Seattle Culinary Academy graduate, and educator with over 10 years of experience. Her work centers food as a tool for connection, healing, and remembrance, drawing from ancestral knowledge, seasonal ingredients, and lived experience. She creates meals and learning spaces that prioritize care, presence, and shared nourishment.

Most of Nala’s work lives in community settings, including dinners, workshops, and collaborative gatherings. In these spaces, she invites people to slow down, share space, and experience what it means to be fed with intention.

Carey has been gardening and teaching classes with Tilth Alliance for over a decade, with expertise in organic gardening, food preservation and permaculture. She works at Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands, manages Tilth Alliance’s community learning garden at Bradner Park, and has also worked as an educator for the Garden Hotline. 

Carey grew up in a family where incredible amounts of food were central to every gathering and so developed a strong love for growing, cooking and sharing food with others. Before coming to work at Tilth Alliance, she taught gardening and nutrition in elementary schools and cooked in restaurants around Seattle. As a self proclaimed garden nerd, she loves to talk about wild and perennial food plants, making herbal medicine, and experimenting with microorganisms through fermentation and composting. Drawing and painting are new hobbies.

Siffre serves as a point of connection between local farmers and eaters, purchasing produce from farmers for the Farm to Preschool program and community members through the Good Food Bag program. Their work helps local farmers flourish and puts their beautiful and nutritious produce into the hands of our preschoolers and neighbors. Catch them in the greenhouse with volunteers every week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays!

Siffre is passionate about building community resilience and is grateful for the connections they continue to co-create in South Seattle. In their free time, they work on illustration projects, producing stylized 2D visual art for stickers, t-shirts and calendars. Find them at a local art market!

Anita leads environmental stewardship and gardening programs, including water conservation, sustainable gardening education and the Soil and Water Stewardship (SWS) program. The SWS program trains community members on land stewardship, social justice and growing food organically at Tilth Alliance’s community learning garden at McAuliffe Park in Kirkland.

Anita has a passion for community healing, regenerative farming, and urban forest restoration. Anita is passionate about building a diverse, inclusive and a caring community connected to the land. She is trained in Permaculture Design, Soil and Water Stewardship and is a Master Gardener. She is constantly learning and experimenting with using local, seasonal ingredients to make her family recipes or herbal teas or medicines. She is an avid yoga practitioner.

Marisa splits her time working with the Farm to Preschool program developing and delivering garden and nutrition lessons to preschools throughout Seattle. She spends the other part of her time with Youth and Families teaching and helping create curriculum for programs ranging from summer camp to field trips.

In her free time, Marisa loves making and eating good food, crafting and creating art using various mediums, and spending time outdoors appreciating beauty!

Board Member Since: 2025
City: Seattle, WA

Most days you’ll find April tending to her bees, mucking out the chicken run, or pulling weeds in her front yard food garden. Before retiring, she spent her days in business meetings, developing marketing programs, managing new talent, and designing computer solutions for her clients. Now, she much prefers encouraging neighbors to grow tomatoes.

As a Tilth Alliance board member, she is thrilled to support getting little kids’ hands dirty, providing space for folks to grow the foods of their childhood, helping farmers across Washington grow good food—and contributing along to the dozen or so other community-enriching delicious programs Tilth Alliance offers. She lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter and her six chickens.

Board Member Since: 2022
City: Seattle, WA

Karen joined Tilth Allliance’s Board of Directors in 2022. She has a longstanding interest in the ways food relates to our health and livelihoods, and she believes how and by whom it’s produced is foundational to our society. She is interested in finding ways that Tilth Alliance can promote practices and policies that speak to all Washington’s regions and people and also advance the organization’s strategic priorities. Karen hopes to to facilitate connections to other civil-society groups, to address systemic issues to support equitable programs, and to meet, learn from, and work with the many awesome people and organizations in WA who are building “a sustainable, healthy and equitable food future.”

Board Member Since: 2023
City: Seattle, WA

Meriem was born and raised in a small town in Algeria, where she remembers going every week to the local farmers market to buy fresh organic produce and sustainably pasture raised meat. She first immigrated with her parents to Montreal (Canada) then with her own family to the United States. Meriem has a scientific background with a focus on computer science and Mathematics. As a mom, a consumer, and an amateur cook, Meriem grew concerned about the impact of the food system on the land, the climate, and the health of the community.

She is interested in supporting organic and regenerative agriculture, helping to build healthy consumption habits, and developing affordable and equitable access to locally grown, healthy, nutritious food. Meriem has now adopted Seattle and the PNW as her home, where she lives with her husband and two teenagers. She enjoys cooking, photography, and hiking.

Board Member Since: 2019
City: Vancouver, WA

Diane has been involved in food and working with growers for 40 years. She served on the board of Tilth Producers and worked at Charlie’s Produce as a buyer and manager of the Farmer’s Own label. She lives in Vancouver, WA with her partner, Chris, 3 cats and a large garden. She works with East West Food Rescue to provide fresh produce to those in need. She serves on the Boards of Clark County Food Systems Council, Friends of Clark County and the Food Policy Forum.

She hopes Tilth Alliance can encourage all producers and gardeners to use organic growing practices and build a sustainable food system that supports all eaters and producers.

Board Member Since: 2022
City: Stevens County, WA

Melinda holds three Masters degrees, two of which surround her first love, agriculture. She is a well-versed professional in agricultural policy and raw milk microbiology. She shares an 80 acre farm with her husband and raises chickens, turkeys, ducks, goats, sheep and pigs. Her next ambition is to invest in growing grain sustainably.

Melinda joined Tilth Alliance’s Board of Directors to help people who want to farm but who experience trauma and poverty. She is always championing the overburdened and wishes to lift up those who are personally invested in farming in Washington State.

Board Member Since: 2022
City: Chewelah, WA

Nils is new to the Tilth Alliance Board of Directors. He looks forwaring to contributing toward helping the board better understand and promote equitable rural and small scale agriculture against a backdrop of the nationwide shift toward localized and regenerative food production practices.

Nils’ life goal, both at work and at home, is to help his community to become a place that feeds itself. He considers it to be his life’s work is to find and implement best practices that will enable local farms, ranches, orchards, dairies, and other food businesses in NE Washington to feed people living in this same area. Nils’ programs have a focus on traditionally marginalized and at-risk populations. He grew up on a small farm in northern British Columbia where his family grew most of their own food and currently produces vegetables on his small-scale off-grid farm near Chewelah, WA. Before buying his farm, Nils had an application engineering career doing modeling and simulation work primarily with automotive and aerospace systems. In addition to being a proud farm and primitive skills nerd, Nils is also an unapologetic data and spreadsheet nerd.

Brooke Lucy is the co-owner of Bluebird Grain Farms, a vertically integrated organic grain farm in Winthrop Washington. Bluebird Grain Farms produces, processes, and sells ancient and heritage wheat, milled products, and handcrafted blends throughout the Pacific Northwest. Brooke brings business management, value added food development, leadership, non profit experience, and on-farm experience to Tilth Alliance’s board. She holds a Masters degree in Educational Psychology.

Board Member Since: 2023
City: Vashon Island, WA

Mark was one of the founders of the Tilth movement and served as the regional coordinator for several years. He farmed for ten seasons at Pragtree Farm in Snohomish County, developed the direct-buying program for a major local supermarket chain, managed the farm program at the Pike Place Market, helped develop food waste reduction programs for the City of Seattle, and served as the communications manager for the King Conservation District.

Mark and his wife, Therese, are members of an agrarian cohousing community on Vashon Island. He’s an active member of the Vashon Island Growers Association and coordinates a community composting project.

Board Member Since: 2025
City: Seattle, WA

Lin has retired from the technology world. After retiring, Lin received her certificate as a Master Gardener in King County and is an active Master Gardener. She is now the technical lead for the King County Master Gardener Foundation and the GivePulse application that is used to record hours along with Teams and Outlook questions that come in from the Master Gardeners. Lin is also part of the “Ask a Master Gardener” email clinic answering King County residents garden related questions and issues that they are seeing. To relax and have fun, Lin enjoys traveling, bike riding, walking, reading and baseball. And most importantly, Lin enjoys her garden, especially growing food to eat, nothing tastes better than what you yourself have grown. Lin practices organic gardening and does not put any pesticides or herbicides in her garden.

Lin joined the Tilth Alliance Board of Directors in 2025. She looks forward to working with the board to better understand and promote equitable rural and small scale agriculture.

Board Member Since: 2025
City: Seattle, WA

Jeannie joined Tilth Alliance’s Board of Directors in 2025. Jeannie is a culinary instructor, natural foods chef, health and life coach, with a passion for combining education, wellness, and community engagement. Jeannie believes everyone should have access to safe health supportive nutritious food and is committed to helping the systemic issues for people facing food insecurity.

Jeannie believes the work and connections created by Tilth Alliance have a important impact on sustainable food practices and productivity throughout the state of Washington which can offer more healthy food sources to the masses.

Board Member Since: 2024
City: Seattle, WA

Ángela Ortez-Zarate is a Seattle-based chef and consultant with more than a decade of experience in culinary arts and operations. She currently manages the Columbia City Farmers Market, where she works closely with local growers and community partners to foster inclusive and vibrant community spaces. Her career also includes leadership roles in restaurants, catering programs, and food system nonprofits, as well as service on the Technical Advisory Committee for Seattle Culinary Academy. Ángela also teaches cooking classes through Tilth Alliance’s Community Education series and is dedicated to advancing food justice, celebrating cultural food traditions, and strengthening resilient local food systems.

Ángela joined the Tilth Alliance Board of Directors to support the organization’s mission of cultivating a sustainable, community-rooted food system. She is excited to deepen her connection with Tilth Alliance through board service, building on her experience teaching in the Community Education series and her commitment to connecting local producers with the communities they nourish.