Subcommittees and Current Membership
The Administrative Council, which is often called the AC, is the governing body for the Southern SARE region. The AC appoints the host institution and regional coordinator, oversees the general budget and guides programming. A large part of this responsibility revolves around establishing all grant Calls for Proposals, and overseeing the review of proposals and evaluation of projects. The AC makes sure that the regional program stays on point with its mission, vision, and objectives related to sustainable agriculture production and marketing efforts. The AC meets twice a year: winter (February) and summer (generally August).
The AC is composed of 28 members: 15 selected by the AC through an open nomination process serving 3-year terms (renewable for a second term), and 11 members who are appointed by our partner agencies. These agencies include Land-Grant institutions in Extension and Research, State Departments of Agriculture, USDA-Agricultural Research Service, USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service, US Environmental Protection Agency, US Forest Service, US Geological Survey, and a representative from the SARE National office. Of the 15 members selected from open nominations, seven are producers, three represent non-governmental organizations, one represents agribusiness, and one reflects quality of life issues for the AC. There are also an urban ag seat, veteran seat, and food sovereignty seat. In addition, we have two state ag coordinator representatives serving one year appointments.
The term of membership on the AC is normally three years, with the opportunity to be reappointed for one additional term. Memberships are staggered to assure continuity. Producers and NGO representatives are compensated when attending AC meetings or participating in the program at a PDP workshop or other SARE meetings. The Southern SARE AC conducts its business through a structure of committees. All AC agenda items originate with one of the six current standing subcommittees.
Southern SARE's Administrative Council is made up of six standing subcommittees:
Operations/Nominating: The role of the Operations/Nominating Committee is to develop and recommend budgets and policies for the AC. The committee recommends a list of candidates to serve as officers of the AC. The committee also solicits and recommends new members of the AC as vacancies occur.
Project Review: The task of the Project Review Committee (PRC) is to establish goals and criteria for the evaluation of proposals and the funding of projects. Project Review Committee is a grant review committee that reviews, scores and selects proposals for the following grant programs: Research and Education Grants, Educations Grants, and Graduate Student Grants.
Producer Grant: The Producer Grant Committee’s task is to establish goals and criteria for the evaluation of proposals and the review of Producer Grants. In addition, the Producer Grant Committee is also responsible for the On-Farm Research Grants program. The Producer Grant Committee is a grant review committee that reviews, scores and selects proposals for the following grant programs: Producer Grants, On-Farm Research Grants.
Professional Development Program: The work of the Professional Development Program (PDP) Committee is to establish goals and criteria for the evaluation of proposals, the review of PDP projects, and to make recommendations to the AC regarding grant funding. The PDP Committee is a grant review committee that reviews, scores and selects proposals for the Professional Development Program Grants.
EPIC: The purpose of EPIC is to establish goals and programs to support farmers/ranchers and the ag organizations that serve them across the Southern region.
Communications: This committee facilitates the communication of SARE projects and outreach success stories to promote sustainable agriculture and SARE in the Southern region. It is also a link to other regions and the national office to inform the dialogue about sustainable issues.
Every Administrative Council member serves on one of the three review committees, as well as one of the other standing committees. Some producer members will serve on more than one review committee.
Each subcommittee elects its own chair and vice chair and brings to each Administrative Council meeting a slate of agenda items to be discussed. These can be information-only items or a request for a motion to bring an item to the full Administrative Council for a vote.
The AC also has authorized an Executive Committee made up of the AC Chair and Vice Chair, as well as the chairs of each subcommittee. The Executive Committee, or EC, meets monthly by conference call to discuss on-going Southern SARE business.
The AC is recruited to reflect a wide cross-section of expertise in the Southern agricultural community. Our AC is notable for its wide range of interests, ideas, and for a collaborative working style, and is known for its willingness to be innovative and explore new ways to promote sustainable agriculture. One of the most vital roles played by each AC member is that of liaison to groups they represent. Each AC member not only represents SARE to their group, but more importantly, brings to SSARE the information, goals, and ideas from our partners. AC members should be alert to the needs of our constituent groups; what research is needed, and what training programs would be most useful.
The role of the AC includes guiding the vision of the program, setting goals, providing feedback from groups and being ambassadors from the program to the region. The Southern SARE program gives producers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) the opportunity to serve on the Administrative Council and provide a “voice” for the direction of sustainability across the Southern region.
The following is Southern SARE's current Administrative Council membership
Producer Members
Julia Asherman
Julia Asherman owns and operates Rag & Frass Farm, a 3 acre certified organic vegetable and flower farm in Jeffersonville, GA. She is a first generation farmer who started farming at 22, navigated FSA loans to buy land, and is now entering her 15th year of year-round production for multiple weekly farmers markets, local restaurants, and contracted organic seed production. Julia was a founding member of the Middle GA Young Farmers Coalition, co-founder of the Middle GA Growers' Cooperative, and was named "Land Steward of the Year" by Georgia Organics in 2024. She loves cover cropping, soil science, growing watermelons, and talking about onions!
Dan Glenn
Dan Glenn is the managing director of Deep Grass Graziers, a commercial cow calf and registered seedstock operation focused on forage finished genetics, and also serves as director of his family’s 1,200 acre row crop operation. He is a partner in Sustainable Genetics, an international seedstock marketing business, and the managing director and founder of True South Seeds, a CBD hemp company located in Tennessee. Dan serves on the national boards of the American Forage and Grassland Council, and the National Grazing Lands Coalition. He also serves as President of the Georgia Forage and Grass Land Council.
Amber Kennon
Amber Kennon operates Your Food Farm, a portfolio of family scale bio-dynamic farms in the Ozark foothills of Arkansas, with her husband and children. They are producing eggs, milk, annual vegetables, perennial crops, lambs and cattle on silvopasture. The Kennons have also incorporated agritourism and agriculture education into their operation, by adding a farm-stay experience to share with guests and partnering with Forward to the Basics, an agriculture education and leadership non-profit organization she co-founded in 2021. The mission combines her passion for cultivating hands-on learning opportunities within everyday life and her desire to strengthen the agriculture community with holistic wisdom sharing and collaboration.
Cee Stanley
Clarenda "Cee" Stanley is currently the CEO/President of Green Heffa Farms. From an agrarian family in Alabama's Black Belt, Cee did not see herself as an organic farmer. But in 2018, she co-founded Green Heffa Farms and was selected to be the 2019 Featured Farmer for Hemp History Week. However, in 2019, Cee also found herself being solely responsible for Green Heffa Farms and from there, she began to reimagine the legacy she wanted to leave for her children and grandchildren.
It was from this experience that she developed the farm's commitment to the 4Es: Economic empowerment, Equity, Education, and Environment.
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Raised largely by maternal grandparents who taught her to always grow organically, conscientiously, consciously - Cee was taught to honor and respect the land, that land was true wealth because it produced. She is a student of heritage farming and indigenous traditional knowledge and incorporates honor and reverence to the ancestors throughout the farm's processes, products, and presentations. The packaging's patterns are inspired by the rich tapestry's of the Gee's Bends Quilters, who hail from her home county of Wilcox County, Alabama along with the fabrics of her African ancestry. The plants used in Green Heffa Farm's teas are those with strong cultural connectivity that Cee has studied voraciously.
Maria Dominique Villanueva
Maria Dominique Villanueva (she/her) is the co-founder of Fountain Heights Farms, a BIPOC-centered urban farm in Birmingham, AL. Fountain Heights Farms provides fresh produce to over 50 neighbors and the wider community each week from April through December. Dominique has spent her career in various settings but has always focused on health and justice for marginalized communities. In addition to her justice work, she is also involved in local mutual aid work, is on the board of the RAFI - USA, works with the Alabama Hub of Gulf South for a Green New Deal, and is a coalition member with Hunger-Free Alabama.
Meghan Cole-Jones
Meghan Cole-Jones is the co-owner and operator of Kaluna Farm Retreat, a 160-acre diversified farm and agritourism destination in the North Georgia mountains. She and her family use regenerative and organic growing practices to produce vegetables, herbs and value-added products while also offering farm stays, educational workshops, retreats and farm-to-table meals. Meghan has been farming at Kaluna since 2013, on land that has been in her husband’s family for seven generations.
Brittany Kordick
Brittany Kordick got her start in agriculture as a market farmer with her Contrarian Farm venture and is now one-half of the dynamic duo behind Kordick Family Farm, a USDA Organic and Certified Naturally Grown operation in Westfield, North Carolina, where two persistent souls stay busy proving you can grow heirloom apples organically on a commercial scale, even in the Southeastern United States. Brittany’s official title is orchard manager, but “Jill of all trades” is more fitting, given her duty roster and devotion to multitasking, especially with regards to on-farm research. Because Brittany is a glutton for punishment, always looking to master skills that intersect with farming needs, in recent years she has pursued education in the electrical and HVAC fields, as well as enology and viticulture (for specific application to cidermaking).
Corinna Warner
Cori is the owner and farmer at Tanglefoot Farm, a Certified Organic farm in central Oklahoma.
After a career in the military, Cori found a new way to serve; not in uniform, but through the soil, the food they grow, and the community they call home. At Tanglefoot Farm in Blanchard, Oklahoma, she building something rooted in the values that shaped their lives: integrity, hard work, responsibility, and a commitment to something bigger than themselves.
What began with a small piece of Oklahoma land and a desire to create a healthier place for people and wildlife has grown into a working microfarm dedicated to organic and regenerative agriculture. Before growing their first vegetable, Cori and Brad focused on restoring habitat, planting native species, and creating a place where pollinators and wildlife could thrive.
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Today, Cori grows food with the same emphasis on stewardship. Tanglefoot’s vegetables, herbs, and flowers are grown using organic inputs, while goats play an important role in the farm’s regenerative system. Rather than treating the land simply as a means of production, Cori sees healthy soil, healthy animals, healthy food, and a healthy community as parts of the same system.
As part of her commitment to restoring the local food shed, Cori participates in local farm markets, and also manages an on-farm food hub which offer local produce, meats, dairy, baked goods and bulk foods.
Community outreach and education also play a role at Tanglefoot Farm, and it is a site for the Oklahoma State University's Farmer Apprentice program. Cori also works closely with MidAmerica Technology Center to provide hands-on education for students in their agricultural programs. Cori is also speaks at a variety of educational events, many focuses on supporting veteran and beginning farmers.
Producer-High Density Representative
VACANT
NGO Representative
Cashawn Myers
Cashawn Myers is a father, husband, international organizer, farmer, and teacher who received his Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Florida A&M University, and a Masters of Education, with special interest in curriculum development, from Howard University. As a founding member of HABESHA, (Helping Africa By Establishing Schools at Home and Abroad), Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, GA, Mr. Myers has served as Executive Director since its inception in 2002.
Additionally, to fulfill his passion of connecting youth of African ancestry with their cultural heritage, Mr. Myers created Black To Our Roots (BTOR), a youth leadership and rites of passage program that promotes African cultural values through critical research, community service, and fundraising.
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As a recognized master teacher of 20 years, Mr. Myers has been an invited keynote presenter at regional and national conferences, school systems, colleges and universities. With a culturally relevant approach to youth development, he is known for his dynamic, interactive presentations to teachers, administrators, parents, and students
Mr. Myers travels extensively throughout Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean sharing his experience of sustainable agriculture and healthy living.
NGO Representative
Keisha Rainey
Keisha Rainey is a food systems leader and owner of Roots & Rain, LLC www.rootsrain.org, where she works with organizations, women, and historically underserved farmers to strengthen their agricultural businesses through training, technical assistance, resource development, and collaboration.
With extensive experience supporting farmers and food businesses, Keisha has trained more than 1,000 producers on USDA food safety standards and assisted more than 200 producers through successful Harmonized GAP and GAP Plus audits.
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Her work also includes developing food safety plans, value-added product resources, business development tools, and educational programming designed to help producers strengthen and grow their operations.
Keisha serves as Vice President of the South Carolina Black Farmers Coalition and is actively engaged in efforts surrounding farmer access, agribusiness development, and more equitable food systems. She holds a bachelor's degree in Business from Newberry College and is a graduate of Clemson University's Palmetto Leadership for the Environment, Agriculture and Forestry (PLEAF) program.
Through her work, Keisha is committed to building practical resources, stronger connections, and greater opportunities for farmers and food system stakeholders.
Agribusiness Representative
Taylor Holenback
Taylor Holenbeck is the Grower Services Coordinator at Happy Dirt, whose mission is to cultivate a sustainable food system by providing a viable production and distribution network to customers and farmers. Taylor works directly with farmers throughout the Southeast to connect them with resources, building out annual production plans, on-farm technical assistance, and advocating for regional organic small and medium-sized farms throughout the food system. Taylor grew up on a cattle ranch and farm in Central Kansas, and since moving to North Carolina in 2014, has worked on several small farms, helped start Durham Community Fridges, and plays in several rock n roll bands throughout North Carolina.
Quality of Life Representative
Carrie Furman
Carrie Furman is an assistant research scientist and environmental anthropologist with the University of Georgia.
Furman began her UGA career working with the Southeast Climate Consortium (SECC) on multi-disciplinary projects with the aim of fostering stakeholder adaptive capacity by assessing the relevance, accessibility, and usefulness of climate-based decision support tools and information through sustained community engagement. Furman conducted research with key stakeholder groups including, extension agents and row-crop producers as part of a USDA NIFA grant. She also spearheaded research and outreach funded by RMA and NOAA SARP with organic and African American producers. In 2014, Furman was principal investigator of a USDA SARE-funded project that investigated producer experiences with food hubs in Georgia.
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Research examined whether and how different food hub models contribute to the expansion of sustainable food systems, rural development and farmers’ quality of life. She has continued researching local food supply chains with Georgia Organics for the purpose of facilitating market relations between local farmers, distributors, and Early Care Centers. Currently, she is part of the Floridan Aquifer Collaborative Engagement for Sustainability (FACETS) team that brings scientists and stakeholders together in a participatory process to develop knowledge needed to explore tradeoffs between the regional agricultural economy and environmental quality. She has published in Climatic Change, Agriculture and Human Values, Climate Risk Management, among others.
Food Sovereignty Representative
Hope Ostane-Baucom
Hope Ostane-Baucom is the owner and cultivator of Hope's Love Garden in Mooreseville, NC, and serves as the Food Sovereignty representative on the Southern SARE Administrative Council. A resilient bilateral breast cancer survivor, Hope brings her passion for food systems, equity, and sustainability to every aspect of her life. She is the Communications Coordinator for the Farmers of Color Network and assistant manager of the North Meck Community Famer's Market. Additionally, she works part-time at the Hearts and Hands Food Pantry and operates a mobile seed library at two local famers markets.
Originally from Miami, FL, Hope's journey blends agriculture, storytelling, and community advocacy. Her spoken word artistry has taken her to stages nationwide, including opening for Jill Scott on the "Live in the Moment" tour. Hope integrates her poetic talent into her work to amplify marginalized voices in agriculture and inspire action around food sovereignty and justice.
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A licensed pesticide applicator, Hope specializes in Integrated Pest Management with an organic approach. She earned as associate degree in Agribusiness Technology and was a recipient of the FIRE Internship with NC State's CEFS. She has also collaborated with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council to promote equitable access to farm-fresh food. Through her multifaceted roles, Hope remains committed to fostering community wellness, justice, and ecological balance.
Land-Grant Institutions Representatives
1862 Land-Grant Research
Nathan Slaton
Nathan Slaton is associate VP and Director of Soil Testing at Bumpers College Crops, Soil and Environmental Sciences at the University of Arkansas.
1890 Land-Grant Research
Ralph Noble
Ralph Noble is the Dean of the College of Agriculture, Family and Consumer Sciences for 1890 Research and Extension at South Carolina State University.
Land-Grant Institutions Representatives
1862 Land-Grant Extension
Damona Doye
Damona Doye is Associate VP/Professor of Oklahoma Cooperative Extension with the Division of Ag Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.
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Prior to joining Extension administration in January, 2018, Damona served OSU as a farm management Extension specialist and Rainbolt Chair of Agricultural Finance in OSU’s Department of Agricultural Economics. Her Extension programs focused on farm information systems, rental rates, land values, cost of production and risk management. Damona is past chair of the national Extension Committee on Policy (ECOP) and past chair of the Association of Southern Region Extension Directors. She currently serves as the U.S. Vice-President of the International Farm Management Association. She is a Food Systems Leadership Institute Fellow and a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. Damona grew up on a farm in southwest Oklahoma.
1890 Land-Grant Extension
Raymon Shange
Raymon Shange is Assistant Dean for Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension and Director of the Carver Integrative Sustainability Center. He is also associate professor of the College of Agriculture, Environment and Nutrition Sciences.
State Ag Coordinators
Stephanie Elwood
Stephanie M. Elwood serves as the Program Leader for Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) and Assistant Horticulture Specialist at the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center (SUAREC). With a deep commitment to community impact, her Extension work centers on sustainable vegetable production and the transformative power of horticulture to mentor and uplift system-impacted youth. Through hands-on education, she empowers individuals and communities to build healthier, more resilient food systems.
With over 15 years of dedicated service to SUAREC, Stephanie brings a wealth of experience, leadership, and passion to advancing agricultural education, strengthening community partnerships, and cultivating the next generation of growers and leaders.
Amanda McWhirt
Amanda McWhirt is an Associate Professor of Horticulture and Fruit Extension Specialist with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. She is a state coordinator for the SARE program in Arkansas.
Agency Representatives
EPA
David Champagne
David Champagne is regional ag advisor for Region 4, which covers Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida.
State Departments of Agriculture
Logan Hess
USDA-NRCS
Vacant
USDA-ARS
Vacant
USDA Forest Service-Agroforestry
Vacant
US Geological Survey
Vacant
USDA-NIFA
Vance Owens
Vance Owens is the National Program Leader in the Institute of Food Production and Sustainability, Division of Plant Systems - Production.
Kristy Borrelli
Kristy Borrelli serves as the national SARE program's associate director at the University of Maryland. She leads SARE's National Reporting, Coordination and Communications Office.