Melody Reese, Co-Chair
Bio
Melody grew up on a small farm in rural Kentucky. It is there where she learned how to care for the earth and how the earth cares for us. Her upbringing ignited a love for fostering connections between people and place. Melody went on to obtain a MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Campbellsville University and an MS in Environmental Education from Antioch University, New England. She has spent the last decade and a half building her knowledge and fostering connections in a handful of different states and countries. She’s excited to join the work of Seed Savers Exchange and is looking forward to finding ways to further engage with the food system community.
Jill Wagner
Bio
Jill Wagner is a horticulturist and the owner of Future Forests Nursery for 30 years, specializing in tropical hardwood species and native Hawaiian species for restoration. She has held a Federal Threatened and Endangered Species permit with the State of Hawaii since 2008 and has done forest restoration project for the State of Hawaii, the National Park Service, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, Kamehameha Schools, Pu’u Wa’a Wa’a Ranch, and more. She has been the director of the Joseph Rock Arboretum– a safe haven site for Hawaiian dry forest species– in Kona, Hawaii, since 2020.
As the founder and director of the Hawaii Island Seed Bank, Jill designs seed banks and provides training in seed banking all over the world to help projects scale, to support regional biodiversity, and to provide a valuable resource for the next generation. Her global initiative is called, Seed Ark.
www.josephrockarboretum.org
Katie Ann Hunter
Bio
Katie founded Forgotten Farms in 2016 as a not-for-profit farm. Under her leadership, Forgotten Farms has established the first nonprofit, agro-ecological farm in their network of farms providing sustainably-harvested, organic, non-GMO, heirloom produce and pastured meat and eggs from heritage breeds to individuals and families in need, combating food insecurity in the community and raising awareness to shrinking biodiversity through their conservation efforts while providing meaningful employment to underserved individuals. Forgotten Farms hosts the Floyd County Annual Seed Swap among other seed sharing events and maintains local community seed libraries.
Anna Stange
Bio
Anna Stange has been saving seeds for nearly 30 years and is still excited about learning more! Anna is the all-around garden volunteer in her current hometown of Blue Island, Illinois. With the help of Seed Savers Exchange’s Community Seed Resource Program, she started an annual seed exchange in partnership with the library, park district and local Ag extension service, which led to starting a local seed library. Anna is currently in the process of mentoring community members to take her place caring for the seed library and a local community garden as she readies for a move to Florida. Her favorite tomato is Luiggi, favorite bean is Midnight Missoula black turtle bean, and she is currently growing out an accidental, purple-podded, black pole bean. Her mission is to keep native, heirloom, and open-pollinated seed stocks in the public commons, where they belong.
Becky Griffin
Bio
You can find me nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Blairsville, Georgia where I work out of the Mountain Research & Education Center as University of Georgia Extension’s Community & School Garden Coordinator. I consider myself a seed saving enthusiast although my husband, who has to move jars of seeds in the refrigerator to get to the soda, may prefer the term eccentric. I enjoy teaching gardeners about all aspects of gardening including beneficial entomology (pollinators!), healthy soil, and seed/plant selection. My current project is the Great Georgia Pollinator Census. The integrity of bean seeds and their role in our North American heritage is a passion for me and I am starting to work with school gardeners to save and grow more seed types, incorporating appropriate geography and history lessons. I am excited to work with this group!
Curzio Caravati
Bio
Curzio is a Lifetime Seed Savers Exchange member who specializes in saving large seed, like
potato, garlic, and perennial onions. He networks mostly in Facebook groups with anyone interested in
growing these specialty crops. In Kenosha, Wisconsin he has founded KUFIFarm.ORG, a non-profit
with the goal of educating the community about urban farming, including beekeeping.
Jill Bishop
Bio
Since saving her first seeds, striped cavern tomatoes, Jill Bishop has been an avid seed saver. She believes seed security is key to food security, and works to build stronger local seed saving networks, teach seed saving skills, and inspire confidence in others to get growing and saving heirloom seeds. After growing seeds for her business, Urban Tomato, on borrowed land for over a decade, she now happily grows and saves seeds on her urban seed farm in Peterborough, Ontario.
Steph Hughes, Co-Chair
Bio
Steph works with SeedChange as the Regional Coordinator for The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security in Atlantic Canada. As part of this work, she administers a regional seed bank in Nova Scotia, runs training and networking activities for farmers and seed growers, and supports a vibrant network of local seed libraries and community organizers. She is honoured to be in a position to amplify and support the work of the community seed movement through the CSN.
