ABOUT US
WHAT WE DO
We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. Our mission is to support and connect farmers and consumers through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). We envision a future where CSA is the backbone of a strong local food system and where all families have access to locally-produced, organic food from small family farms.
CORE PROGRAM AREAS
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Support in finding local, organic CSA farms near you.
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Educational workshops and resources for farmers on topics ranging from crop-specific growing techniques to social media marketing.
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Financial assistance for low-income households in purchasing CSA shares through the Partner Shares Program.
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Along with key partners, developing a national CSA network to provide robust resource-sharing, trainings and discussions for CSA practitioners and advocates.
WHO WE ARE
Executive Director
Carrie delights in eating fresh, local & organic produce throughout the year via CSA. She has an extensive background in food systems, from working on statewide farm-to-school initiatives at the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems to working as a farmhand at Crossroads Community Farm to teaching sustainable agriculture to undergraduate students in Thailand. She enjoys applying her Masters degrees in Public Health and Urban & Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to her daily work at FairShare.
Organic Vegetable Educator
Claire Strader is the Organic Vegetable Educator for FairShare and Dane County UW-Extension. In this shared position, Claire works with organic vegetable farmers serving direct markets. Her previous experience is as a certified organic vegetable farmer, beginning farmer educator, and retail produce buyer. She has worked in the Wisconsin local food system since 1993 and joined FairShare in 2013. Her key projects include on-farm research on cover crops and reduced tillage techniques for organic vegetables, the Organic Vegetable Farm Manager registered apprenticeship, and the annual Organic Vegetable Production Conference serving farmers in Wisconsin and surrounding states.
Program Manager
Liv’s journey with food has followed her around the country (and beyond); from exploring the farmers market as a child in San Francisco, working on an organic farm in Germany, reviewing her college’s food waste system in Massachusetts, to working on an urban farm and assisting with farm classes for Tilth Alliance, in Seattle. She enjoys cooking new food, and has always looked to her CSA shares and ever-expanding home garden for inspiration. She sees an equitable and sustainable food system as a central component to our environmental and social well being, and is excited to promote that work with FairShare.
CSA-IN Network Coordinator
Liliana is a Senior at UW-Madison majoring in International Studies with certificates in Public Policy, Development Economics, and Latino Studies. Liliana has worked as the Finance Director for F.H. King: Students for Sustainable Agriculture, an organization on her college campus. After interning at the U.S. House of Representatives in D.C., Liliana has become increasingly passionate about building relationships across diverse communities and promoting community engagement. Liliana is excited to contribute her efforts toward strengthening our local food system as the Network Coordinator for the national CSA Innovation Network.
Communications Coordinator
Tess is thrilled to bring her passion for local food systems to FairShare as Communications Coordinator. Her previous experiences- from an urban farm in Iowa to a permaculture acreage in India- have helped shape her belief that access to sustainably grown, culturally appropriate foods are crucial to creating a just and equitable food system. She loves growing and cooking her own food, and is excited to call Madison home again after receiving her Master’s of Food & Agriculture Law and Policy from Vermont Law School.
Apprenticeship Manager
While her early years were spent figuring out how to avoid working in her family's garden, since then Sarah has developed a deep appreciation for the power and potential of local food systems. She sees her work supporting the Organic Vegetable Farm Manager Apprenticeship program as building resilience and equity within and across the industry. As a doctoral student exploring farmers' and employees' labor experiences, Sarah is eager to apply this knowledge to her work at FairShare. In her spare time, she enjoys coming up with new ways to prepare CSA veggies, turning her yard into a sea of native plants, and hanging out with her rambunctious dogs and semi-evil cat.
INTERNS
Partner Shares Program Intern
Emma is a farmer, writer, and creative with a love for food, farming, and social justice. She cherishes warm summer memories of her grandparents’ hobby farm and harvesting from her family’s backyard vegetable garden. Emma has since kept her hands in the soil at an organic rooftop farm in Copenhagen, Denmark called Østergro and at Troy Farm during the Covid-19 pandemic. She recently graduated from UW-Madison, where she had the opportunity to conduct research on urban agriculture systems and support programming to improve farmer resilience in Wisconsin’s Driftless Region. Emma continues to be inspired by the incredible wisdom in BIPOC narratives of farming and cooking and hopes to help amplify these voices in local food systems.
Program Intern
(she/her/ella) Megan Spielbauer Sandate is a fourth-year student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, majoring in Economics and Environmental Studies and receiving Certificates in Public Policy and Chican@ and Latin@ Studies. Inspired by Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Megan is interested in learning more about cooperative ownership and community-based markets, particularly within Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. As a member of UW Madison BIPOC Coalition, Megan knows that demanding racial justice is essential to reducing environmental, economic, and social inequities and achieving food justice for BIPOC communities. By joining the team at Fairshare CSA Coalition, Megan hopes to learn more about local Wisconsin farming and how we can connect growers and consumers to ensure that our local food system is sustainable and built to grow our community.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BETHANEE WRIGHT
Board President
Farmer, Winterfell Acres
Bethanee Wright owns Winterfell Acres, an organic vegetable, fruit, flower, and herb farm in Brooklyn just south of Madison where she grows produce for 65 CSA families and several local restaurants on just under 1 acre. Started in 2013, Winterfell Acres has been a FairShare endorsed farm since 2015 and Beth has been active in the organization since 2011 as a Partner Shares intern. Beth lives on farm with her husband, daughter, two Pyrenees, and one farm kitty. She loves helping people reconnect with the Land through good food.
CHERI KING
Board Treasurer
Manager, RSM
Cheri is a CPA with 10+ years experience as a tax accountant, and is a Tax Manager in the Madison office for RSM US LLP. She started her tax career at a small CPA office in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Prior to her move to RSM US LLP (a.k.a. McGladrey), she worked as a Senior Tax Consultant for Badgerland Financial (now part of Compeer Financial).
BRIANA KRANTZ
Board Secretary
Marketing Manager, Campus Sonar
Bri has around a decade of experience working to understand audiences and how to create content that resonates with them. She leads a team of marketing professionals, together spending their days analyzing data and creating strategic plans to responsibly use that data to connect with audiences and drive business decisions.
Previously, Bri worked as Marketing Manager at Nelnet and New Business Marketing Strategist at Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation. Bri lives in the Isthmus of Madison, Wis., where she spends her free time trying to keep a deck garden alive, doing yoga, and hanging out with her cat.
MEGAN COSTELLO
Senior Content Strategist, Morgridge Institute for Research
Megan has +10 years’ experience directing multi-channel communications to inspire and engage audiences. She started in legislative affairs and cut her teeth as the Assistant Dean for Communications in the College of Letters & Science, the largest college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Megan is content strategist turned content marketer—in her current role at the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wisconsin, she manages integrated communications and directs fundraising campaigns to cultivate donors and inspire a culture of philanthropy.
CHRISTOPHER GLUECK
Development Consultant, Wisconsin Watch
After thirty years in sales, marketing, product management and management in the high tech industry, primarily with Wang Laboratories and NCR, Chris transitioned to a development role with the University of Wisconsin Foundation. There, he spent 13 years focusing on personal interactions with alumni and friends ranging from annual giving to major gifts and bequests. Upon retiring from the Foundation, Chris began working part time with WisconsinWatch.org, where he has focused on development. He also engages in a wide variety of physical and social activities, both with family and friends, and enjoys spending time with his grandkids.
LIZ GROSS
CEO of Campus Sonar
Liz is the CEO of Campus Sonar, a specialized social listening agency that partners with colleges and universities. She’s previously served as the Market Insights Manager and Social Media Strategist at Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation. Prior to joining Great Lakes, she was the Director of Marketing and Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha and Program Outreach Coordinator in University Housing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
BILL HERMAN
Former Director of Human Resources, Aprilaire, a Division of Research Products Corporation
Now retired, Bill was the Corporate Director of Human Resources for Research Products Corporation, the manufacturer of Aprilaire indoor air quality products with over 600 employees.
Bill began with Arthur Andersen, an international consulting and audit firm, followed by a move to Madison, WI for the opportunity to be the VP of HR for the Highsmith Company. Of particular note is Bill’s background in managing health care costs. He has been at the forefront of employee health care initiatives and is continuing his efforts at Aprilaire.
RICK KLEMME
Executive Director, Cooperative Extension Services
Rick currently works as the Executive Director of the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP works on behalf of Cooperative Extension Services across the country). He is a retired Director of Cooperative Extension at the University of Wisconsin-Extension. He was a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the UW-Madison and director of the UW-Madison’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems.
KRISTEN KORDET
Farmer, Blue Moon Community Farm
Kristen Kordet owns Blue Moon Community Farm, a CSA and Market farm in the Town of Dunn on Madison’s southern edge. Started in 2004, Blue Moon has been a FairShare endorsed farm for 16 years, and Kristen has been active in the organization through Board membership, farmer endorsement work, on-farm research and training, and outreach. She lives on the farm with her husband, an ecological consultant, and 6 year old son, Cyrus.
SCOTT LAESER
Farmer, Plowshares & Prairie Farm and Water Program Director, Clean Wisconsin
Scott owns and manages Plowshares & Prairie Farm with his wife Chelsea in Argyle, Wisconsin. Their produce farm, now in its fifth season, is focused on growing a diverse array of vegetables for their community supported agriculture program and a local farmer’s market, while minimizing runoff and nutrient loss from fields through use of cover crops, grass waterways, and restored wetlands and prairies.
Off the farm, Scott has worked for Clean Wisconsin, a Madison based environmental non profit organization, since 2015 and is primarily focused on water quality issues pertaining to agriculture. Scott has worked on water quality and environmental issues for over ten years, including stints with the Driftless Area Land Conservancy in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, and Trout Unlimited and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership in Washington, DC.
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AMBER MIDDLETON
Development Director, San Luis Local Foods Coalition
Amber is the Development Director of the San Luis Local Foods Coalition, a nonprofit working to foster an equitable local food system in southern Colorado. She started her nonprofit career serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Local Foods Coalition's Rio Grande Farm Park program. Previously, Amber managed statewide 211 technology and built a statewide AmeriCorps program for United Way of Wisconsin, and is currently earning her Master's Degree in Public Administration. Amber spends her free time exploring Wisconsin with her rescue dogs, Taffy and Roux, and volunteering at SoL Criations Farm Sanctuary.
LAURA MORTIMORE
Farmer, Orange Cat Community Farm
Laura Mortimore runs Orange Cat Community Farm in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. She grows 3 acres of certified organic vegetables, primarily marketed through a 150 member CSA. The farm has been in operation since 2010 and a member of FairShare CSA Coalition since 2011. Laura is grateful to be spending her days bringing awesome food to her community, and her favorite job on the farm is digging giant sweet potatoes.
Being a FairShare Board member is an incredible and rewarding experience. You will have the opportunity to make a lasting difference by helping to define FairShare’s future and be engaged in decision-making on governance, accounting, ethical and legal issues, and strategic visioning.
Our Board members are passionate about providing our communities with fresh, local, organic produce through farmer relationships by putting our own skills to use in supporting FairShare staff and organizational growth. Contribute your ideas and knowledge. Network and meet amazing people. Stretch your intellectual and emotional muscles.
Current Opening(s): The FairShare Board of Directors is seeking a Board member with deep experience in fundraising and donor relations. Proficiency with donor and prospect cultivation, engagement, and stewardship as well as donor database use, strategy, and maintenance—especially for non-profits—would be a significant benefit to our Board.
If interested in this Board seat, please email carrie@csacoalition.org with a note of interest and relevant information about your background and experience.