Meet the Team
Board & Advisors
Christina Sbarra,
Founder and Board President​
Christina is an educational entrepreneur with a strong commitment to experiential and nature-centered learning. Over the course of her twenty-five year career, she has been particularly inspired by the pedagogies of Waldorf Education and John Dewey, becoming increasingly committed to holistic approaches to learning that integrate community life and student agency. Christina recently completed a master’s degree in Agro-ecology and Food Sovereignty at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, following a call to be part of bringing vitality and health back into our food systems. A member of Slow Food since 1998, Christina has long enjoyed gardening, cooking for family and friends, and supporting artisan food producers. Christina holds a B.A. in Spanish and Italian, an M.A. in Italian Cultural Studies, a Waldorf Teaching Certificate and a Permaculture Design Certificate.
Lucas Oshun, Board Member
Lucas has been working as an environmental educator and non profit executive for 17 years. From 2008-2016 he led Global Student Embassy, an environmental action education program with operations in the greater Bay Area, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Peru. From 2016 to the present Lucas has led the development of Regeneration Field Institute’s 70 acre agroforestry and bamboo construction training and research campus in Manabi, Ecuador. Lucas currently works as Bamcore’s Supply Operations Director, where he sources carbon negative structural panels made from eucalyptus, pine and bamboo from Latin America and Asia. Lucas is passionate about ecological land use change and believes strongly in the need to collaborate with and support farmers to achieve more vibrant and sustainable bioregions. Lucas believes that clean water, air and food and biodiverse soils benefit all of us, and so it makes great sense that we work together to ensure the future quality of these resources in our communities.
Kristina Rose Baker, Board Member
Kristina is an artist and educator based in Sonoma County, California with a B.F.A. degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has cultivated a diverse career encompassing creative practice, arts education, and sharing her joy of the natural world. Her artwork explores the awareness of her physical body seeking integration with the landscape, using memories, meditations, and collected objects to create images that evoke her experiences of interbeing. Her passion for regenerative gardening began in 2013 on a permaculture farm in Sedona, AZ, leading her to work on farms across Europe, where she gained skills in beekeeping, animal husbandry, forest gardening, and more. She is trained as an herbalist under Mary Blue of Farmacy Herbs in Providence, RI, and has a deep passion for the healing properties of medicinal plants. On any given weekend, you’ll find her rewilding in nature - wandering along trails or diving into the nearest lake or river.
Heather Hannan-Kramer, Strategic Advisor and Board Member
Heather is a trusted thought partner & strategist with a 15+ year foundation in executive leadership around the Bay Area. Her career experience spans across multiple technology verticals, investment banking/venture capital, real estate, green/clean-tech & agribusiness operations. She has a proven track record of working cross-functionally, adding immediate value while always prioritizing people and culture. Heather is a native Californian, a dedicated parent with two young daughters, and an active community advocate here in Healdsburg.
Mentors
Juaquin Lawrence Hershman, Mentor
Juaquin is a master gardener and experienced mentor. For over 40 years, he has been bringing the knowledge and work ethic required to design and create magnificent ornamental and edible gardens for communities all over North America. He has been central to many successful projects in California, including the Bolinas Community Garden and Coastal Roots Farm in Encinitas. Juaquin’s career began with a two-year apprenticeship to Grand Master Gardener Alan Chadwick on a 14-acre Biodynamic, French Intensive farm in Covelo, California. He has since continued to use Biodynamic French Intensive techniques to nourish and beautify the world with fruit, flowers, herbs and vegetables grown to perfection, producing health, vigor, vitality and taste.
Michael Presley, Mentor
Michael has lived and worked in Sonoma County gardens and lands for four decades. Educated as an Atmospheric Scientist, Michael is an avid learner in soil science, botany, and wild ecology. Working with elemental nature, Michael emphasizes hand work and body power in creating beauty and productivity in living systems. Michael enjoys the arts, namely music, dance, sculpture and healing, fostering an open sense of play in all pursuits. In 1982 while at the Farallones Institute in west Sonoma county, he created an heirloom seed bank. He co-created the Oceansong Farm and Wilderness Center, which in 1988 started the very first CSA in the county, and he created the organic tea product line for Taylormaid Farms. Currently, he is the Soilkeeper and Biodynamic farmer and DaVero Farms and Winery in Healdsburg.
Alice Encinas Duvernell, Mentor
Alice is an ethnobotanist who specializes in formulating restorative herbal and aromatic therapies for healing, cosmetic, culinary, and aromatic purposes. After completing formal studies in ethnobotany at the Sorbonne in Paris, she continued her studies in the field in Brazil, where she did her first distillations of botanical extractions. There she created an ‘open house’ laboratory where she taught and collaborated with indigenous cultures and university leaders in the field. For the past 15 years she has been teaching and formulating in Sonoma county through Biophilia Botanicals, the herbal company she founded. Alice is passionate about every gift the earth brings to support optimal well-being, radiant skin, and balance of body and mind.
Jared Minori, Mentor
Jared is a farmer and educator from the hills of Pennsylvania with over 7 years experience in regenerative and biodynamic farming. In college he noticed the increasing severity of climate change and the degradation of our most treasured asset – our soil. This alarming realization gave birth to a lifelong passion for soil and human health, which he now exercises in his role as Farm Manager at DaVero Farms and Winery. He began farming in Colorado in 2016 developing the skills and experience to manage a small-scale dairy operation, vegetable gardens, row crops, education programs, and more.
Since moving to California, Jared has been applying regenerative principles to grape growing in the serpentine soils of north Sonoma County. He seeks to cultivate the farm at DaVero into a regenerative model for the entire grape growing industry and beyond. He leaves us with a quote from E.F. Schumacher: “He who truly possesses knowledge will put it into action.”
Miriam Blachman, Mentor
Miriam learned farming from Bob Cannard at Cannard Family Farm and Green String Farm Institute. She started Medium Farm 8 years ago with help from her first customer, Piccino Restaurant. The farm continues to sell directly to restaurants, from Geyserville to San Francisco, with a focus on growing underutilized crops and specialized varieties sought out by chefs. Before farming, Miriam worked as a cook and baker for a dozen years and studied sculpture and furniture making in college.