Welcome to Zenger Farm

We are a working urban farm that models, promotes and educates about sustainable food systems, environmental stewardship, community development and access to good food for all.

Friends of Zenger Farm Staff and Board


Staff

 

Sara Cogan, Farm Manager

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Sara grew up outside and loved the ocean, but never thought much about food except that she liked to eat it. After graduating from Middlebury College with a BA in Environmental Studies and Geography, and a newly acquired interest in the curious world of food, Sara traveled through France and Italy, working on small family farms and getting a taste for the farming life. In 2002, Sara arrived in Portland and soon found herself back in the dirt, working for two seasons as a farm apprentice at Sauvie Island Organics. With the basics of farming under her belt, Sara began working at Zenger Farm in 2006, sharing her love for plants, chickens, soil, and worms with kids and adults visiting the farm. Also that year, Sara co-founded the Portland Fruit Tree Project, harvesting city fruit for those in need. Today, she serves on the board of the PFTP. In 2009, missing the rhythm of the farm day, the quiet satisfaction of weeding, and the feel of a stiff back, Sara transitioned to Farm Manager here at Zenger Farm, and loves her job.

sara@zengerfarm.org

 

Laleña Dolby, Director of Development & Communications

Laleña grew up in the fertile Willamette Valley on a fruit tree rootstock nursery where she spent her days stealing flowers from her father's garden, eating cherries off the old Bing tree, and napping in the shade of the bean trellis on summer afternoons. Laleña knows where good food comes from and wants others to have this hands-on knowledge as well. Most recently, she worked at the Portland-based nonprofit, Ecotrust, helping to produce the Farmer-Chef Connection Conferences, lectures with renowned authors such as Michael Pollan, Deborah Madison, Joel Salatin, and Michael Abelman, and community suppers to celebrate the bounty of the Pacific Northwest. A member of the Slow Food Portland board since 2005, Laleña has spearheaded educational activities designed to promote good, clean and fair food. She has written for Edible Portland magazine, served as a Growing Gardens mentor, and is an active member of Portland's Community Garden program. She is thrilled to be at Zenger Farm working to gain widespread community support for Zenger's programming, thereby ensuring a robust food system for generations to come.

lalena@zengerfarm.org

 

Alice Froehlich, Education Director

Alice strives to provide opportunities for youth to connect directly with the living things around us. She brings deep respect for the earth, stewardship and genuine fun to outdoor education. Plants are her first passion; she has studied and explored ethnobotany, wild edible plants, growing food, mosses, liverworts, plant evolution, plant systematics, and plant physiology. Alice’s other wild interests include mushroom hunting, bird watching, and lichen investigation.

A native of Minnesota, Alice came to the Pacific Northwest in 1996 and has fostered a deep connection and love for the land here. Since arriving in Portland in 2001, Alice has taught outdoor education programs for The Audubon Society of Portland, Growing Gardens, the City of Portland Community Gardens program, and Portland Public Schools. Spring of 2008 she received a Master’s of Science in Science Teaching from Portland State University’s Center for Science Education, her thesis work focused on the Sustainability of Outdoor Classrooms at Public Schools.

alice@zengerfarm.org

 

Prairie Hale, Community Involvement Coordinator

Prairie grew up in a ranching family in Northeast Oregon. After broadening her horizons with a degree in Peace and Global Studies and Ecology, she traveled the country working on family farms. Eventually she found herself in the Utah desert, growing okra taller than she was and working as a nutrition educator with the Extension service. Missing her family, Prairie returned to Oregon in 2007 and began working at Zenger Farm in 2008. Prairie loves her job of connecting people to the farm, engaging volunteers and organizing community workshops. She is passionate about making good food and a healthy environment a reality for everyone. Outside of work, Prairie urban homesteads with her housemates. They grow 1500 square feet of vegetables and fruits and care for a flock of 8 hens. She makes it back to eastern Oregon to herd the cows a few times a year.

prairie@zengerfarm.org

 

Jill Kuehler, Executive Director

Inspired by her summers spent in her grandmother’s garden digging for worms, Jill still cannot keep the dirt out from under her fingernails. While in the Peace Corps in Guatemala she helped a rural elementary school install a garden that continues to provide food for school lunches. Commitment to connecting children with their food source has been her passion ever since.

Before becoming the Executive Director of FZF, Jill was managing the Lents International Farmers Market, a program of Friends of Zenger Farm, for two seasons. In addition to the LIFM, Jill also directed The Sauvie Island Center, a Portland non-profit organization teaching children about farms, the food they grown and the landscape in which they exist. Jill also spent two years as the Wellness Coordinator at Abernethy Elementary, developing a model wellness program centered on the school’s Scratch Kitchen and Garden of Wonders where students learn to grow, prepare and eat good food.

jill@zengerfarm.org

 

 

 

 

Board

 

Peggy Acott

Peggy Acott is a fifth generation Oregonian, though peopled with bankers and merchants and politicians, not farmers. It was a chance organic vegetable gardening class with Peter Chan at Portland State University that really kick-started the momentum of what was to become a devoted love of edible gardening, and the real beginning of a life's passion around the basic right of access to good food for everyone.

 

Fast forward about two decades. An active gardener, working at Portland Nursery and looking for more meaning in her job, the invitation presents itself to participate in the community ‘give back' activities of the nursery. She writes a job description and pitch for an as yet mythical position of Community Outreach Coordinator. It's accepted. She has a new mission. More than a decade and a couple awards later (and self-promotion to Community Outreach Director), she is solidly, happily giving support to numerous gardening and urban farming programs (including Zenger Farm). Passionate about the issues of food insecurity in her ancestral home-state and children learning about good food and connection to the land that provides it, she is proud to be serving on the board of Zenger Farm.

 

Carrington Barrs
Carrington is co-owner of B&G Builders, Inc., which is a local developer and commercial general contractor specializing in Green Building. The company was formed to fulfill two best friend’s vision of developing and constructing socially, economically and environmentally viable projects. This vision is based on the principle of being stewards of our community through strong sustainable design and construction practices. Carrington serves as a resource for creative problem solving and solid communication throughout design and construction projects, working well with owners, end users, community members, architects, consultants, suppliers and subcontractors. Prior to forming B&G, Carrington was employed by Walsh Construction for 9+ years as a construction superintendent completing notable projects such as Ecotrust’s Natural Capital Center and Portland State’s Epler Hall, both LEED certified buildings. Carrington has an undergraduate (University of Florida) and master’s degree (University of Washington) in Construction Management and is a LEED Accredited Professional. Personal interests revolve around his love for his family, the outdoors, music and improving the quality of life for others around him through community involvement and his work in sustainable building.

 

Linda Colwell
Linda Colwell learned to cook on the end of her mom's apron strings, picked strawberries for .10 cents a pint in Hillsboro, and fished commercially for Chinook in a wooden dory off the North Oregon coast. She went to Paris to hone her cooking skills and found the connection between production and quality. Linda was the Executive Chef for Merrill Lynch, Boston, founded the Garden of Wonders and created the Abernethy Scratch Kitchen for Portland Public Schools. Linda is the founding Director of Eat Think Grow, a group that supports Portland Public Schools in Farm to School and School Garden Education. She served the Chefs Collaborative and Slow Food Portland between 1998 and 2009. Linda farms 1000 sq. ft in Portland and works one day a week on a 145-acre organic farm in the North Willamette Valley. 

 

Eric Engstrom, AICP

Eric Engstrom is a Principal Planner with the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. Eric has been a planner with the City of Portland for 15 years, working on a variety of land use and strategic planning topics, including infill development strategies, urban natural area protection, and zoning code reform. He has a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State University, and an undergraduate degree from the Evergreen State College. Eric is currently leading the development of the Portland Plan, and an overhaul of the city's comprehensive plan. Eric grew up in rural Washington County.

 

Kyrie Thompson Kellett, Secretary

Kyrie Thompson Kellett spent much of her childhood in rural Oregon but did not learn much about agriculture until she convinced an advisor to let her get college credit to intern on the only organic farm (at the time) in Walla Walla, WA. This experience, coupled with a degree in Environmental Studies and Physics from Whitman College, sparked an interest in the relationship between food and the environment. Over the next several years, she completed a Master's degree in applied anthropology focusing on agriculture, education, and culture and worked for the National Park Service, Flagstaff Youth Gardens, and other farm/outdoor-education organizations. She currently works as a senior exhibit developer at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry on new projects related to environmental issues and all things science.

 

Katie Pearmine, Co-chair
Katie Pearmine grew up on a vegetable farm outside of Gervais, Oregon and remains committed to connecting people to their place through local food and farms. Katie spent ten years working on various consulting and communications projects at Celilo Group Media including, launching the first edition of Chinook Book, acting as Oregon Field Representative for American Farmland Trust, publishing three editions of the Farming Sourcebook: for sustainable and certified agriculture, and acting as Assistant Publisher for the business magazine, Sustainable Industries. Katie is currently working at the Oregon Department of Agriculture in the Agricultural Development & Marketing Division as the Grants Coordinator for the USDA's Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

Shelley Stevens

Shelley Stevens currently works at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide as VP Global Marketing & Branding. She attended the University of Oregon as well as completed an MBA at Marylhurst University. Prior to Waggener Edstrom, Shelley worked at Wieden + Kennedy on iconic brands such as Starbucks, Old Spice and Levi's. She is a native Oregonian whose parents (although divorced) both planted gardens annually. And, she was then fortunate (or smart?) enough to marry an avid gardener. She is kept in shape by chasing her two small children around, and can't wait for them to be old enough to attend Summer Camp at Zenger Farm!