Gorge Grown Board

	Ann Kramer, Chair Ann Kramer, Ed.S LPC is president of Good 4U Inc., a training, publishing and education service begun in 1992. She maintains a private practice in counseling at Cascade Wellness in Hood River. She is the author of two books, Life Puzzle.. Putting the Pieces Together and Life Puzzle for Teens. Her interest in GGFN and building a regional food system stems from her belief that the foods we eat are a vital part of our health—mental and physical and thus, we should be intimately involved in knowing where our food comes from, how it is grown and who grows it.
	Bruce Bolme Bruce Bolme moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1966. He has training in TQM [Total Quality Management] and NLP [Neuro-linguistic Programming]. As a licensed engineer he has worked as an energy conservation and renewable energy consultant and until his retirement in 2004, for the Corps of Engineers as Chief Engineer at The Dalles - John Day Project. He is Treasurer of the Mid-Columbia Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, On the Boards of Washington Gorge Action Programs and Gorge Grown Food Network, active with the Horizons community building project in Klickitat County Washington, and on the steering committee of the Gorge Local Currency Cooperative. Bruce believes our gorge community quickly needs to become more self reliant in local food, local finance and local energy. That is why he supports Gorge Grown, Gorge Local Currency Cooperative [RiverHOURS], supports public power organizations [PUDs] and has converted a vehicle to run on electricity from batteries.
	Brian Hennessy Brian Hennessy was born and raised amid the cornfields of Illinois but fell in love with the mountains of Oregon shortly thereafter and never looked back. When he's not planting, foraging, laughing, canning, cooking or tickling his kids, he runs a commercial writing studio with offices in Hood River and Portland, Oregon.
	Mary "Tita" Comeaux-Fortier, Board Member Tita Comeaux-Fortier, FNP-C is a board certified nurse practitioner in private practice in Hood River and The Dalles. She is a member of the management team of Imagine Thriving, Inc., a nutritional information, education and consulting company. She is coauthor of Foundations for Thriving, a nutritional guide and resource. She is currently pursing additional studies in nutritional therapy and culinary medicine. She believes that healthy food is essential to overall health, vitality and well-being. She works with Gorge Grown Food Network to promote a healthy, sustainable, secure, affordable, accessible, year round, regional food system. She and her husband are converting their small yard into a sustainable, edible landscape using the principles of permaculture.
	Silas Bleakley, Board Treasurer Silas moved to Hood River Valley from Kentucky by way of New Zealand where he lived on a sheep farm and was introduced to the agricultural lifestyle. In Hood River he helped manage a 40 acre organic apple & pear orchard where he learned about orcharding and farm-direct distribution. He then worked on an organic lettuce farm on Kaua?i where he learned about commercial scale produce production and tropical treefruit culture. After returning to the Gorge, he managed a 40 acre vineyard and winery on Underwood Mountain. Here, he helped move it in a more sustainable direction by implementing reduced cultivation to increase cover crop density and improve soil structure. Silas now focuses all of his attention on his own farm and CSA, Mosier Valley Organics, which produces produce from April to November and eggs year round.
	Susan McCourt, Board Member Susan McCourt is a Texas transplant who has lived in the Gorge the last decade. She has fallen in love with the community and its creative spirit. She is a software developer and project manager by trade, while continuing to learn and practice other passions that include parenting, farming, and drumming with local bands. Her involvement in GGFN is driven by a belief in healthy, low mileage food, community independence, and a belief in good ol' country living that pays a living wage. Susan and her husband operate Tuckered Out Farm, raising vegetables, laying hens, cattle, and sometimes pigs.
	Lauren Fein, Board Member Lauren grew up in the Treasure Valley of Idaho and moved to the Columbia Gorge in 2006 following her undergraduate studies in Psychology at the College of Idaho in Caldwell. Lauren joined the AmeriCorps program through the Hood River County Commission on Children on Families to work on public health issues like teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol use prevention, and positive youth development. Lauren pursued her Master’s in Public Health at Oregon State University where she focused on chronic disease prevention through addressing nutrition, physical activity, and health disparities, as well as the political, social, and environmental impacts of socio-economic status on health. Lauren started with OSU Extension in January 2011 and is serving as the Field Faculty Extension Agent for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Education Program in Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam, and Wheeler counties. Lauren will also be carrying out Family and Community Health Programs in Hood River and Wasco counties which will include programs in Nutrition Education, Food Preservation and Safety, Healthy Aging, Financial Literacy, and other health-related topics. When not focusing on public health, Lauren is a novice gardener and an avid outdoorswoman who loves to hike, bike, camp, snowshoe, snowboard, and surf. Lauren also loves to paint, play music, write poetry, cook delicious food and enjoy good company. Contact via Email