2010 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kay Branz, President

Kay Branz is Vice President, Communications and Marketing for the American College of Healthcare Executives.  She has expertise in all aspects of marketing, strategic planning and implementation, and in building new organizations. Her career has spanned diverse industries such as healthcare, professional associations, advertising and two non-profit start-ups. Kay is the sixth generation and final member of her family to be born on a Midwestern farm.  However, she has sustained the family farming gene as a dedicated backyard organic gardener.  Kay holds an MBA in marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a B.A. in sociology from Smith College.

Max Grebenschikov, Treasurer

Max Grebenschikov is audit and accounting manager at Brown Kaplan + Liss LLP. He is excited about being the newest member of The Talking Farm Board.  Over the last six years, Max has been working with numerous local not-for-profit organizations as an independent auditor. Max brings a solid background in the areas of not-for-profit accounting, IRS compliance, and organizational governance and management policies. Max graduated from DePaul University.

Jeff Merrell, Secretary

Jeff Merrell is Associate Director of the Master's Program in Learning and Organizational Change at Northwestern University and Principal Consultant of Purple Line Associates, a learning and knowledge management consulting and research firm.

Karen Terry, Vice President

Karen Terry is an award-winning independent writer with three decades of experience as a professional communicator. The published author of more than 150 articles in publications that include the Chicago Tribune and United Airline’s in-flight magazine, Karen also has experience crafting video scripts, Web content, brochures, newsletters, press releases and more for clients ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to the Chicago Public Schools. As a member of the award-winning creative staff at one of Chicago’s leading B-to-B integrated marketing communications agencies, Karen wrote about nutrition, health, food product development and the dairy industry for several years.

Patsy Benveniste

Patsy Benveniste is the Vice President of Community Education Programs at the Chicago Botanic Garden, overseeing the Center for Teaching and Learning (K-12 and teacher professional development) and its programs in Horticultural Therapy and Community Gardening.  Her major personal and professional areas of interest include the Green Youth Farm project, a youth leadership development initiative for underserved teens based on organic gardening and entrepreneurship and Windy City Harvest, a social enterprise in Chicago that provides City College certificate training in urban agriculture as well as internship and employment opportunities for adults.

Sharon Gries

Sharon Gries is a retired Accenture Senior Executive, specializing in the Talent and Organization Performance practice, which includes workforce and organization transformation.  She led the Human Resources Transformation practice area for the Resources (Energy, Chemical, Metals & Mining & Utilities) operating unit globally. Prior to Accenture she had 15 years of industry experience in sales and market and Human Resources with two global firms.Since her retirement, she continues to provide independent consulting expertise helping organizations build capability in their workforce,  assessing executive alignment around strategic initiatives, implementing leadership development programs, and managing significant business transformation efforts. Ms. Gries loves to cook and is committed to serving locally grown, organic, sustainably raised food much of which comes from her garden.  She received her BS degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Debbie Hillman

Debbie Hillman, a Chicago native, was a professional gardener for 25 years.   In 2005, she co-founded the Evanston Food Policy Council (a grassroots organization), and now works full-time on food and farm policy on all levels.   Locally, Debbie is a founding member of The Talking Farm -- the farm with something to say -- an urban farm in Evanston and Chairperson of the Evanston Food Policy Council.  Statewide, Debbie coordinates the Illinois Local Food and Farms Coalition, a statewide rural-urban partnership that wrote the Illinois Food, Farms, and Jobs Acts of 2007 and 2009, creating a new state body, the Illinois Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Council.   Nationally, she is working to promote all aspects of local farm and food systems.

Leigha Kinnear

Leigha Kinnear’s interest in environmental sustainability began thirty years ago as an undergrad at Beloit College while studying environmental biology and working as a naturalist instructor with children at an outdoor environmental education program in New Hampshire.  She has recently channeled her passions for sustainability and nutritious, delicious food through organic gardening courses at the Chicago Botanic Garden and Angelic Organics and successfully planted her first organic balcony garden. Leigha attended the American Gardening Association conference in Atlanta in 2009 and found the urban agriculture movement to be taking root nationwide.  She is excited about helping to spark the joy of growing one’s own healthy, nutritious food and contributing to bringing urban agriculture to her local community.  Leigha has devoted her professional career to workplace education and currently serves as the Manager of Learning & Organization Development at Northwestern University.

Linda Kruhmin

Linda Kruhmin is a current and founding Board member of The Talking Farm and also is their Farm Operations Manager.  Previous experience includes steering committee member of the Network for Evanston’s Future, co-chair of Evanston Food Policy Council and Operations Administrator at The Land Connection, another Evanston nonprofit focusing on local farmer training and food issues. She was an owner of Lake Shore Properties, Ltd. in Chicago, has worked as a certified massage therapist; and held underwriting and management positions in various reinsurance firms. She grew up and now owns part of the family dairy farm in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and has long studied green and sustainability issues.

William Moss

William Moss completed the Chicago Master Gardeners program and joined the Department of Environment to help promote one of the “greenest” cities in America. He supervised and trained landscape crews through the installation of community gardens on Chicago’s southside. William continued to fine tune his horticulture and landscaping expertise while on staff at the Chicago Botanic Garden, where he helped develop and manage new programs for youth, teens, and adults. William’s venture into television began with Discovery’s Rally Round the House, teaching America about gardening, landscape construction, and the ‘plant-O-the-show’. William continues to promote education, natural sciences, and gardening with his captivating and entertaining style. He provides landscape consultation and may also be heard dispensing design and gardening advice at trade shows, symposia, and continuing educations forums. He has made regular appearances on CNN’s Weekend Live and Chicagoland news programs. On TLC’s Town Haul William enjoys helping the townspeople create artistic yet functional landscapes that get people outside.

STAFF

Judy Mendel, Administrative Manager

Judy Mendel has been involved in sustainability issues for years. She is involved with Community-Sponsored Agriculture (CSA), habitat restoration, the Network for Evanston’s Future, and the Environmental Concerns Task Force of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, the first house of worship in the world to achieve LEED platinum status.

PAST BOARD MEMBERS

Carolyn Zezima, Carole Mark, Liane Casten, Doug MacDonald, Harry Rhodes