The AC is composed of 26 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 1890 Extension institutions, 1890 Research institutions, 1862 Extension institutions, 1862 Research institutions, 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 12 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.
Occasionally, AC members request to travel to conduct or support SSARE outreach.
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!
Contact:
Rag & Frass Farm
15176 US Hwy 80
Jeffersonville, GA 31044
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 1200 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.
Contact:
600 Meadowlark Road
Fitzgerald, GA 31750
Tashel Martin
Tashel Martin is a fourth generation farmer who runs an urban farming business that utilizes organic practices named Mama Isis Farm & Market in the city of New Orleans, LA. Fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers (some that are edible) are grown on the urban farm and then sold wholesale directly to consumers and local businesses. Nonetheless, added value items are created from the items that are grown such as teas, infusions, cough syrup, and other self care products.
Contact:
P.O. Box 870132
New Orleans, LA 70126
Tenisio Seanima
Tenisio Seanima is the founder of Nature's Candy Farms, a metro-Atlanta farm delivering certified organic, non-GMO produce, eggs and other items. Seanima practices permaculture techniques on his farm. He sits on the City-Agriculture-Plan Steering Committee for the City of East Point and coaches property owners in sustainable gardening techniques via his consulting enterprise. Seanima served as a member of the National Young Farmers Coalition, and has a history with SARE, serving on an advisory committee and participating as a grant reviewer.
Contact:
Nature's Candy Farms
795 Miller Run
Atlanta, GA 30349
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.
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.
Contact:
Green Heffa Farm
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.
Contact:
Fountain Heights Farms
1201 16th St. N. Birmingham, AL 35204
NGO Representatives
Bonita Clemons
Bonita Clemons is the founder of Dianne's Call, a non-profit organization that connects families to fresh fruits and vegetables. The organization optimizes community health through education and access to healthy foods in underserved neighborhoods. Programs introduce and teach about sustainable farming and farm practices.
Contact:
1420 Brennen Road
Columbia, S.C. 29260
Patrick Lillard
Patrick Lillard serves as a Southern SARE NGO representative on the Administrative Council. He is the vice president for the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (www.tofga.org), and has been involved with sustainable agriculture, conservation, and education in a variety of positions for the past 15 years. He worked on dairies and large acreage grain farms in Australia and New Zealand, and managed a diversified farm in Waco. He earned a B.A. in English, M.S. in Horticulture, and Ph.D. in Agricultural Education. He is also working with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension as a communications specialist.
Contact:
1407 Angelina Circle
College Station, TX 77840
Julius Tillery
Julius Tillery serves on the Administrative Council as an NGO representative. He works for The Conservation Fund as a farm resources coordinator for the organization's Resourceful Communities program and business developer for the National Capital Investment Fund. His work focuses on helping under-served farmers connect to market outlets and resources to improve farm production. Julius has served on the NC A&T Cooperative Extension Small Farmer of the Year committee and is on the advisory board for the Town of Garysburg. Julius is a 5th generation family farmer, growing and selling collards and various green salad varieties at the Garysburg Farmers Market.
Contact:
4324 Pin Oak Drive
Durham, NC 27707
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. 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.
Contact:
University of Georgia
cfurman@uga.edu
Agribusiness
Taylor Holenbeck
Grower Services Coordinator, Happy Dirt
Taylor Holenbeck is the Grower Services Coordinator at Happy Dirt (formally Eastern Carolina Organics), 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.
Contact:
Happy Dirt
2210 East Pettigrew Street
Durham, NC 27703
1890 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.
Contact:
209 Morrison Mayberry Hall
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee, AL 36083
1862 Extension
Bob Scott
Bob Scott is Senior Associate Vice President for Extension at the University of Arkansas.
Contact:
2301 South University Avenue
University of Arkansas
Little Rock, AR 72204-4940
1890 Research
Ralph Noble
Ralph Noble is the Associate Research Director for 1890 Research and Extension at South Carolina State University.
Contact:
Hurst Suite 101, SCSU
Orangeburg, SC 29117
1862 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.
Contact:
1371 West Altheimer Drive
DTAS 217
Fayetteville, AR 72704
USDA-ARS
Joan Burke
Joan Burke is a research animal scientist for USDA-ARS, located at the Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center at the University of Arkansas.
Burke received a PhD in reproductive biology at Oregon State University, a Master’s in animal science from the University of Maine, and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. Burke has been with USDA-ARS since 1999 where she has conducted research on the control of gastrointestinal nematodes in sheep and goats. Her program focuses on addressing problems of small and mid-size farmers including: organic and grass-fed production systems for ruminant livestock, alternatives to synthetic anthelmintics which includes specialty forages, genetic and genomic selection for parasite resistant animals that are also great producers, nutrition and products such as copper oxide wire particles. She was co-recipient of a patent on the use of sericea lespedeza to control parasites in animals, and her team received the 2016 Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer, and the 2015 ARS Southeast Area Technology Transfer Award for the development of technology to aid in the control of internal parasites in sheep and goats. She works closely with producers conducting research and disseminating results. She is one of the founding members of the American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control, which began in 2001. She is no stranger to the SARE program, having received multiple SARE grants over her research career.
Contact:
USDA-ARS
Dale Bumpers Small Farms Research Center
6883 South State Highway 23
Booneville, AR 72927
USDA-NRCS
Terrance Rudolph
Contact:
State Conservationist
NRCS
355 East Hancock Ave.
Stop Number 200
Athens, GA 30601
EPA
Susan Park
Susan Park is regional ag advisor for Region 4, which covers Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida.
Contact:
US EPA, Region 4
Office of the Regional Administrator, 14th Floor
61 Forsyth Street SW
Atlanta, GA 30303
USDA Forest Service-Agroforestry
Annie Hermansen-Baez
Contact:
Science Delivery/Program Coordinator
USDA Forest Service
Southern Research Station
236 Mowry Rd.
Gainesville, FL 32611-0806
USDA-NIFA
Kirsty Borrelli
Contact:
University of Maryland
College Park, Maryland 20742-6715
Phone: 301.405.9912
Vance Owens
Contact:
National Program Leader
Institute of Food Production and Sustainability
USDA-NIFA
Kansas City, MO
US Geological Survey
Vacant
State Departments of Agriculture
Joe Hatton
Contact:
West Virginia Department of Agriculture
270 Mylan Park Lane, Box 13
Morgantown, WV 26501