President

Laura Colligan owns and operates Dirt Rich Farm, a Certified Organic farm in Springville, NY, along with her husband. They make a living growing vegetables, culinary herbs, berries, and seedlings on their five-acre property, which they sell through their CSA, at the farmers market, at their farm stand, at their seedling sale, and to restaurants and other local businesses. Laura is a former board member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, a former Land Advocacy Fellow with the National Young Farmers Coalition, and one of the five co-founders of the Good Farmers Guild of Western New York.

Vice President

Bari studied Philosophy and Environmental Studies with a focus on agricultural ethics at SUNY Geneseo. Learning from mentors, Bari developed a deep passion for and knowledge of ecological agriculture at Heartstone Organic Farm (Dansville, NY), A Way of Life Farm (Bostic, NC) and Frost Valley YMCA Farm (Claryville, NY). Bari is a member of National Young Farmers Coalition and is the Women's Affinity Representative of the organization's Federal Policy Committee. Additionally, Bari is the Farmer Representative on Northeast SARE's Executive Committee. Bari is on the Board of Directors of Unadilla Community Farm and Catskills Agrarian Alliance. Locally, Bari is involved in co-organizing with Good Farmers Guild of Western New York. Currently, Bari works with Providence Farm Collective while her farm, Healing Poem Farm (Java, NY), grows.

Treasurer

Emma Smalley is the owner of Heritage Herd Farm where she tends a herd of goats. She resides in the beautiful hills of Belmont, NY with her husband Sterling and their children.

Board Member

Ethan Hansen is high school physics and agriculture teacher by day and a farmer by nights, weekends and summers. His transition from teacher to farmer and now farm-teacher began by watching too much farm YouTube from his couch. He was fascinated by watching farmers work with nature to improve the environment but soon tired of just watching. He started working at Erba Verde Farms in East Aurora where he continues to work in the dairy, pork and chicken business there and co-founded Legacy Pastured Beef where he manages a 60 head grass-fed beef herd based in Strykersville. Then, partly as a result of realizing that his physics students were more interested in hearing about farming than in learning physics, he founded and runs the East Aurora High School Sustainable Agriculture program which includes a school farm and class. The program's goal is to graduate students who appreciate the health, economic, social and environmental benefits of a sustainable local food system. He is passionate about advancing local agriculture and helping to make farming a viable career option for the next generation.