Speaker Biographies- Workshop I : Farmers and Neighbors: Building coalitions for farm-friendly communities and neighbor-friendly farms
Lynda Brushette, PhD, Cooperative Development Institute in Barrington, NH, Coalition facilitator
Lynda Brushett is a Senior Partner with the Cooperative Development Institute organized in 1994 to build cooperative leadership and enterprise in the Northeast where she is responsible for work in rural development, agriculture and food. She is the Facilitator for the New Hampshire Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture an informal network that brings together the farm community and the non-farming public with agricultural and community development professionals to enhance the social, economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture in New Hampshire. In this capacity she manages the NH Farm to School Program.
Technical services provided to clients by the Cooperative Development Institute include market and strategic planning, problem-solving, conflict resolution, organizational development, venture feasibility analysis and resource development. Clients are challenged to look creatively at their assets, work collaboratively and reach consensus as they engage in a process of change.
Dr. Brushett has degrees from Lycoming College and American University, and earned her PhD from the University of New Hampshire. She and her family manage a 90 acre tree farm on Nippo Pond in Barrington, NH.
Helen Costello, MS, RD, LD,
Helen Costello is a Registered Dietitian and the owner of Nutrition Crossroads, a food and nutrition consulting firm. She works with clients on food security and community food security projects. Her extensive experience in the field of nutrition includes medical nutrition therapy, nutrition counseling, teen sports nutrition, speaking and writing about nutrition, food security and community food security.
Helen completed her undergraduate degree in Home Economics, Food and Nutrition Concentration, from Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, NJ and a Masters’ in Animal and Nutritional Sciences from the University of New Hampshire and a Master’s in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition, Agriculture, Food and Environment Program, from the Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
Helen’s current professional pursuits reflect her personal philosophy about food and nutrition such that food is a human right and that healthy, nutritious food comes from healthy soils. As a nutritionist she considers herself the intersection between the farm and the fork. She lives in Concord, New Hampshire with her husband and two teenage children from where she gardens, hikes and skis.
Gail McWilliam Jellie, New Hampshire Dept. of Agriculture, Markets & Food, Director of Agricultural Development
Gail McWilliam Jellie is the Director of Agricultural Development for the NH Dept. of Agriculture, Markets & Food, a position she has held since 1993. Prior to that she worked for ten years as an Extension Educator in Agricultural Resources with UNH Cooperative Extension in the Sullivan County office. She has also worked in retail store management with Agway, Inc. In her current position she develops and oversees programs to bring the consumer and producer together in the marketplace. This includes the development and distribution of publications and other information sources, trade show and special event coordination, media efforts, etc.
McWilliam Jellie holds a BS Degree in Animal Science from the University of Vermont and a Master’s Degree in Education from Keene State College. She lives in Charlestown, NH.
Gary Matteson, New England Anemones and director, First Pioneer Farm Credit
Gary Matteson of Epsom, NH, has been self-employed in agricultural production since the inception of New England Anemones in 1981. Specializing in anemones as greenhouse wholesale cut flowers, the business is operated as a family farm with his wife, Sabrina, and three sons. The operation is unusual in that all hybridization, seed production, variety selection, and cut flower production is done at the farm in a continuous, self-contained cycle.
Gary is active off the farm in many agriculture related groups, including the New Hampshire Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture, NH Rural Development Council, NH Farm Bureau, and the board of directors of First Pioneer Farm Credit.
Gary has served in many capacities in Epsom, including Board of Selectmen and Planning Board, and is now town moderator.
Sadie Puglisi,
Education: Sadie Puglisi has her Bachelor degree in horticulture from Cornell University, Masters degree in horticulture from Virginia Tech. She worked as an IPM Specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension, Suffolk County for two years.
Sadie Puglisi is an Agriculture Resources Extension Educator for UNH Cooperative Extension for Merrimack County. Merrimack County includes the state's capitol and is a rapidly growing and changing community. Sadie is & involved in a broad range of programs to help agriculture continue to thrive in the county. Previous to her position in New Hampshire she worked as an IPM Specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension in Suffolk County, New York where she collaborated with county municipals to eliminate the use of pesticides.
Linda Ray Wilson, NH Division of Historical Resources, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer
Linda Ray Wilson is Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer of the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. She has a bachelor’s degree in art history, with special studies in architecture. She helps government agencies, design professionals, conservation and preservation organizations, communities and citizens to respect natural, historical and cultural resources, and to achieve economic and civic benefits from their recognition and reuse.
A resident of Danbury, she chairs the town’s Planning Board and is treasurer of the South Danbury Christian Church, UCC. Linda is a member of the NH Historic Agricultural Structures Advisory Committee; a participant in the NH Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture; and the DHR liaison to the board of directors of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, New Hampshire’s statewide historic preservation advocacy organization.
Speaker Biographies- Workshop II: Before It's Too Late: Local Perspectives on Preserving Farmland
Cris Coffin, American Farmland Trust, New England Policy Director
As New England Director for American Farmland Trust (AFT), Cris leads AFT’s efforts in the region to promote farmland protection, farm viability and farm conservation practices. She works closely with farm groups, land trusts, planners, town officials, legislators, and state and federal agencies on a wide range of issues – from improving the effectiveness of state Purchase of Development Rights programs, to advocating for adequate funding for state and federal farm conservation programs, to helping communities and states develop tools to more effectively plan for agriculture and keep farming profitable.
Before joining AFT in 2001, Cris worked for many years in Washington, D.C., starting as a lobbyist with the Wilderness Society and leaving as Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Herb Kohl. She served on the staff of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry under the chairmanship of Senator Patrick Leahy, specializing in conservation and forestry issues, and is a veteran of several federal Farm Bill reauthorizations.
Coffin holds a law degree from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Geography from University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She has been a consultant to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture and toured county fairs one summer with the Vermont Department of Agriculture’s Seal of Quality exhibit. Raised on a horse farm on Long Island (NY), Cris has worked on many farms and run a family cider operation. She sits on the boards of the Connecticut Farmland Trust and Franklin Land Trust, and lives with her family in Whately, MA.
Steve Hundley, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, NH State Soil Scientist
With 33 years experience as a soil scientist with the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Steve Hundley is the New Hampshire State Soil Scientist and Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) Manager. As Adjunct Professor at the University of New Hampshire, Steve teaches Soil Classification and Genesis. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in Plant and Soil Science, Steve has worked in Minnesota, Florida, and Massachusetts as well as New Hampshire. He has been on two special assignments to the Philippines. In addition to being the FRPP Program Manager for New Hampshire since the program started in 1996, Steve has served on two national assignments for the FRPP program, assisting in developing National policy and funding strategy.
Lorraine Stuart Merrill
Lorraine Stuart Merrill farms in the urban interface of the New Hampshire Seacoast. She and her husband John, son Nathan and his wife Judy, milk 230 registered Holsteins and Brown Swiss at Stuart Farm. A Hoard’s Dairyman columnist, Lorraine is a free-lance agricultural journalist, and environmental and planning technical writer and editor. She is a founder of the New Hampshire Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture, has served on USDA Sustainable Agriculture and Farm Service Agency committees, and is a trustee of the University System of New Hampshire. John and Lorraine were the American Farmland Trust’s 2003 Stewards of the Land.