Gorge Grown Staff
Todd Dierker, Programs ManagerContact via EmailTodd Dierker has managed the Gorge Grown Farmers’ Market since 2008 and is looking forward to helping the market grow. He was also instrumental in planning and developing the Mobile Farmers’ Market project. His 2 terms of service with the US Peace Corps in Southern Africa and Thailand provided a solid foundation for the community development work he continues today. Todd completed a Masters degree in Environmental Education and believes that the dinner table is the best place to start conversations about living sustainably. Todd is a Master Gardener and active volunteer with community gardens in Hood River, where his family feels fortunate to have settled. He is thrilled by the enthusiasm in the region around local food and loves that his 2 kids are growing up surrounded by farmers and fresh food. |
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Michelle McGrath, Outreach ManagerContact via EmailMichelle is our Outreach Manager. She is thrilled to be engaged in the further development of a local food economy, and loves that her job involves community-level conversations around fostering beginning farmers. Michelle grew up on a Christmas tree farm in a rural town, and has always enjoyed getting her hands dirty in the garden. She was exposed to agriculture while growing up, as her parents sold fruit at the farmers market, kept bees, and made wine. Growing up in that environment developed Michelle's desire to constantly renew her connection to land. Michelle earned her M.S. in Ecology from UC San Diego, and it was through the lens of ecology she further developed her interest in agriculture. She has a graduate certificate in Sustainable Business from Bainbridge Graduate Institute with a focus on agriculture. Beyond ecology she has a background in farmers' markets, event planning, meeting facilitation, research and writing. Michelle loves meeting people and listening to their stories, and also likes to backpack, rock climb, garden, and cook. The people and the landscape of the Gorge never cease to amaze her. |
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Rebecca Thistlethwaite , DirectorContact via EmailRebecca joins Gorge Grown as our Director. She was raised in Beaverton, Oregon on the suburban/farmland edge. She studied Natural Resources Management at CSU-Fort Collins in Colorado, and then worked a summer as a Forest Service backcountry ranger in Idaho. Once in Idaho, Rebecca apprenticed on an vegetable farm in Moscow, Idaho. This was the beginning of her farming career, and since she has apprenticed and worked on fruit, vegetable, grain, and livestock farms in Oregon, Washington (including the Gorge!), and California. She returned to school for a Master's Degree in International Agricultural Development from UC-Davis where she had the opportunity to study crop biodiversity and indigenous agriculture in Guatemala and Honduras. Following graduate school, Rebecca worked with the non-profit business incubator ALBA to develop and deliver programs for beginning organic farmers. She and her husband Jim operated their own farming business, raising pasture-based livestock and poultry and direct marketing meat and eggs. She served on the Steering Committee of the California Food & Justice Coalition for five years and currently serves on the Board of the Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association. Most recently, Rebecca and her family spent a year traveling the country volunteering on innovative and ecologically-based farms, learning about their diversity of enterprises, management practices, and marketing strategies in order to produce a book with Chelsea Green Publishers, to be titled "Farms With A Future". She is extremely excited to be returning to the Northwest to work with Gorge Grown Food Network, and is looking forward to meeting the community and working together to build an increasingly resilient, sustainable, just, and economically viable regional food system. Rebecca joins the team January 2012! |
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