our farmily

“no one is special, and everyone is needed.”
― adrienne maree brown

 

core team

  • she/her
    newfane, vt

    amber arnold (she/her) is the co-founder and collaborative director of SUSU commUNITY farm, located in N’dakinna, the occupied ancestral homelands of the Elnu Abenaki people in so-called southern vermont. amber is a Black multiracial momma and child of radical Black, queer, radically regular people who have inspired her to vision and co-create impossible possible futures that center the wisdom, teachings, and traditions of Black, queer, womanist people. amber has a background in gardening, revolutionary mothering as inspired by the work of alexis pauline gumbs, and as an embodied somatic, sound, and plant kin commUNITY earthworker. she is an artist who looks to her ancestors, elders, and the 7 generations to come in guiding her towards co creating afrofuturistic portals of Black love, home, liberation, and a radical reclamation of our ability to dream, vision, and create beyond our current circumstances.

  • they/she
    newfane, vt

    naomi (they/she) is a co-founder and collaborative director of SUSU commUNITY farm in occupied Abenaki land on so-called southern vermont. naomi’s experience as a Black multiracial, afroatlantic non-binary queer femme, descendant of mississippi sharecroppers, informs why they consider themselves a legacy farmer whose work is to reconnect to the wisdom and knowledge present in their ancestral heritage as a way to heal themselves and their lineage and to continue the reparative work needed to be in right relationship with the lands they occupy.

  • khalif (he/him) works as a consultant, educator, and leadership coach in addition to deep engagement in seasonal landscape gardening and ecosystem rebalancing efforts where he makes his home in coastal Maine.

    Khalif has spent over 25 years at the nexus of organizational leadership and social change spanning education, nonprofit and philanthropy sectors and supported many leaders in dynamic institutional and cultural contexts during pivotal times of change.

    He has created partnerships for racial equity in higher education, consulted for nonprofits and community groups on strategy and organizational development, served nine years as the Executive Director of the Institute for Humane Education, served as the Director of a local independent elementary school, and as Program Director in charge of strategy development and implementation for both the Bay and Paul Foundation's PreK-12 Transformative Learning Practices and Indigenous Leadership in Climate Education programs.

    He believes in collaborative, relational leadership that’s grounded in a liberatory mindset and spirited self-awareness as the key to unlocking the transformative capacity in our communities. His work has long been deeply informed by his contemplative practice and sense of play as a musician, poet, and artist. khalif is a mixed African American, cis-gender man born in the Allegheny Mountains.

  • he/him
    youth, belonging, and place director

    jarmal was born and raised on the west side of baltimore, maryland, with a single mother and sister as his main core family and focus. as a youth he experienced traumas in the form of violence in any way it could show up. he reflects that “alongside the beauty that comes with the culture I grew up in came a lot of pain and confusion as to why life looked how it did for me in those years. these things are what shaped me and molded my trajectory to what it is today.” youth is jarmal’s primary focus, as well as building/facilities and coordinating activities and events for youth and community alike. his skills involve working with other people in the community and using his heart and hands to intuitively connect to all. jarmal has experience in behavioral assistance with youth in schools, also physical or mental challenges with people in the community through a non-profit organization for 11 years.

  • bio coming soon!

  • krista (she/her/hers) is able to live out her lifes passions by doing the necessary work to bridge societal divides in all their forms by working to close gaps that exist within our social contruct that feed a narrative that continues to oppress people of the majority- so that all persons have real equitable opportunity. krista has previously worked in economic development, education + policy and as a director of programs and donor advised funds over the last ten years with a strong emphasis to create opportunity- whether that be through policy advocacy or through funding-- for Black and brown communities. through her commitment to create a more inclusive universe, krista also served as the inspired director and founder of detroit parent collective; a social-impact grassroots organization that was carefully designed to bridge families/ communities across metro detroit through a myraid of ways; multiculturalism, nature-based learning, courageous conversations and unlearning{tolearn}. one might ponder; where'd this fuel to ignite change come from? just ask !

consultants

  • they/them

    Dr. Morgan Leichter-Saxby is a therapeutic and community playworker of Eastern European Jewish-American and white British descent. They have spent their life navigating these identities by moving often and in all directions across lines of geography and class, seeing the world through an increasingly queer lens. Morgan has long circled and is now rooted in the occupied lands of the Abenaki people, aka South-Eastern Vermont. As a playworker, their focus is on facilitating the transformative and liberatory processes of play in the lives of individuals and communities locally and internationally.

  • she/they

    amy is a queer farmer, gleaner and wildcrafting witch born in so called guilford, vermont. their ancestors hail, almost entirely from Ireland. the beauty, tenacity and the struggles and priviledges of their people are deeply rooted in the justice work they are called on to do. amy was raised by parents who moved to vermont to garden, do social work, and befriend the old timer farmers of their neighborhood. raised up in the 80s and 90s, they connected with anarcho socialist punk culture and are fiercely dedicated to collective liberation. they have been growing vegetables, herbs and sometimes flowers on family land since the birth of their child in 2004. amy is motivated and inspired by mutual aid projects that strengthen frontline resilience, collaborative solidarity work, joy and survival/thrival. they have always worked alongside lovingly supportive and powerfully vulnerable comrades at the farm, gleaning on other farms and gathering from wild spaces.

board of directors

  • he/him
    Brattleboro, VT

    Steffen Gillom is a practitioner of Conflict Resolution, an activist, an educator and an AmeriCorps VISTA service alum. Steffen is passionate about increasing awareness concerning disability rights and providing mental health services to communities of color and other marginalized individuals. Most recently, the bulk of his activism work is through the NAACP, where he currently serves as President and Founder of the Windham County Vermont Branch of the NAACP.

  • she/they
    Brattleboro, VT

    Em is a mama, community weaver, somatic trauma therapist, dancer/mover, animist spiritualist living on unceded sokoki abenaki land in southern vermont. In their personal, relational & community work they are led by a vision of collective liberation that includes all & weaves generative, nourishing, & braver spaces for safety, connection & belonging. In their clinical practice, they focus on supporting folks in unbinding from internalized oppression & the impact of societal, ancestral, collective & personal trauma to access deeper trust, intuition, security, pleasure, safety, & aliveness in themselves, their relationships & their world. She can be found kitchen-witching, dancing, hanging out in the woods, listening to podcasts about liberation, animism, & astrology, playing games with her family & snuggling with her cat. Some identities that she carries & is unbinding complicity in are white-bodied, mostly able-bodied, cis-presenting, neurotypical-presenting. They are a descendant of European peoples (mostly English & Irish) who were colonizers of Indigenous America/Turtle Island. She is delightfully reconnecting through divination with queer, trans & witch ancestors whose histories were erased, invisibilized, hidden & they are committed to ancestral healing as a liberation practice. Em's website is www.wgreatheart.com.

  • she/her
    newfane, vt

    amber arnold (she/her) is the co-founder and collaborative director of SUSU commUNITY farm, located in N’dakinna, the occupied ancestral homelands of the Elnu Abenaki people in so-called southern vermont. amber is a Black multiracial momma and child of radical Black, queer, radically regular people who have inspired her to vision and co-create impossible possible futures that center the wisdom, teachings, and traditions of Black, queer, womanist people. amber has a background in gardening, revolutionary mothering as inspired by the work of alexis pauline gumbs, and as an embodied somatic, sound, and plant kin commUNITY earthworker. she is an artist who looks to her ancestors, elders, and the 7 generations to come in guiding her towards co creating afrofuturistic portals of Black love, home, liberation, and a radical reclamation of our ability to dream, vision, and create beyond our current circumstances.

  • they/she
    newfane, vt

    naomi (they/she) is a co-founder and collaborative director of SUSU commUNITY farm in occupied Abenaki land on so-called southern vermont. naomi’s experience as a Black multiracial, afroatlantic non-binary queer femme, descendant of mississippi sharecroppers, informs why they consider themselves a legacy farmer whose work is to reconnect to the wisdom and knowledge present in their ancestral heritage as a way to heal themselves and their lineage and to continue the reparative work needed to be in right relationship with the lands they occupy.

  • elder lula christopher
    visionary, wisdom keeper, spiritual activist, healer, ritualist, elder

    lula is an initiated elder in the tradition of the dagara people of burkina faso, west africa. she is a certified ritual leader, completing a three-year apprenticeship program and a two-year study course exploring indigenous african spirit technology and the healing wisdom of africa with elder dr. malidoma some, phd., burkina faso, west africa.

    lula is a visionary, social and spiritual activist, educator, and healer with a mission to inspire Black and Indigenous women of color to create physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and wellness in their lives and in their communities.

    lula’s vision is that women’s gifts as leaders and healers are recognized and affirmed and that women’s leadership is continually developed and nourished through all stages of our lives from girlhood to womanhood through our sage years.

    during her apprenticeship with elder malidoma aome, lula co-facilitated the “ritual healing village” and the “certification for ritual leaders” programs at east coast village in cherry plain, ny from 2013-2016.

    lula has had the opportunity to work with women and communities of color throughout her career. answering the call from the ancestors, 1997-2012, lula launched the boston Black women’s health institute, a grass-roots empowerment and health advocacy organization. In 2017 lula joined with seeds of our ancestors, a mobile interdisciplinary, intergenerational and multi-lineage healing squad in service to movement spaces devoted to healing justice. In 2020 as a member of the sistahs of the calabash lula co-founded ile ase school of ancestral rites. the school serves to offer integrative ancestral medicine, land sovereignty, energy healing and indigenous practices. the school of ancestral rites seek to offer interventions to reclaim our indigenous root invoking self-agency, as well as strengthen the legacy of our traditional medicines in our community.

    lula is most proud of her work as an elder and ritual leader to hold space for community grief rituals. the grief ritual is an act of transformation and deep healing that widens the potential for our shared liberation. in addition to facilitating grief rituals at east coast village from 2017 through the present, lula has held grief rituals for the following communities: sistahs of the calabash and Black lives matter/boston-2020, vision 2020/rites of passage project- 2021, SUSU commUNITY farm -2022 and resist Inc, /movement sustainability commons-2022.

  • she/her
    montpelier, vt

    vermont native sarah waring most recently worked as vice president for grants and community Investments at the vermont community foundation. previously, she worked at the vermont council on rural development, farm and wilderness foundation, and the sonoran institute. waring also worked as the executive director at the center for an agricultural economy. In 2020, she served on the governor's task force for economic mitigation and recovery where she supported the development of a toolkit for municipal engagement for diversity, equity and inclusion. waring resides in central vermont.

  • janet roos, brings her 35+ years innovator in business technology in leading teams in prestigious companies globally with experience in non-profits, financial services, healthcare, consultancy, utilities, and specialty retail. janet proudly serves as the COO/Consultant, for Braided Wisdom a 501(c)(3) organization, whose mission is to empower diverse communities by fostering transformational change through integrating indigenous wisdom teachings and cross-cultural mindfulness practices. janet has graduated from UCLA Training in Mindfulness Facilitation (2018) and Braided Wisdom Leadership Training Program (2021-202).

    she is an International Mindfulness Teacher’s Association certified teacher and is passionate about implementing Mindfulness Best Practices in corporate settings, sports teams, and general groups. She integrates mindfulness for career development, stress management, and life transitions. janet, a four-time elite athlete “Hall of Famer,” champions mindfulness in sports. dedicated to the community, she serves on a couple of nonprofit boards.

  • bio coming soon!

there are no new ideas. there are only new ways of making them felt

— audre lorde