Brien Darby
Executive Director

Brien supports the staff and programs and keeps the wheels turning by keeping the focus on our core mission and strategic plan. Brien is passionate about urban farming, community building and spreadsheets.

Favorite vegetable: Kale

Alicia Alferman
Office Manager

Alicia keeps the office under control. She’s the voice on the phone and the person behind the social media. She may not know the answer to your farming or policy question, but she’s happy to hear from you and point you to the people who do.

Favorite vegetable: Cabbage (so underrated.)

Sam Davis
Site Coordinator, Juniper Gardens Training Farm

Sam takes care of all things related to operations and maintenance of the farm – he’s the one making sure the farm actually functions. Many of the current and graduate farmers tend to call Sam first whenever they need help or have any questions. Sam is also the farm guardian and watch-dog; he’s always checking in on the farm to make sure everything’s in tact.

Favorite fruit: Watermelon

Lana Dominguez
Program Manager, Food Access

Favorite fruit: Her mom’s garden-grown tomatoes!

Semra Fetahovic
Program Manager, Juniper Gardens Training Farm

Semra co-manages the New Roots for Refugees program by assisting the refugee farmers on-site – basically making sure everything at Juniper Gardens runs smoothly!

Favorite fruit: Peppers, Tomatoes, Eggplants – all the summer crops!

Kathleen Foster
Farmers Market Liaison

Kathleen handles the numbers and figures for the Food Access Programs, and works with our awesome farmers market partners in the greater Kansas City area to keep the programs running smoothly.

Favorite vegetable: Patty pan squash! Making her mom’s fried squash and Gram’s squash pudding always makes Kathleen feel a little closer to home.

Mark Gawron
Program Manager, Metro Farms & Food Systems

Mark engages with a wide variety of people who are starting, operating, and growing farms and community-based food projects and is charged with assisting them in realizing their goals while helping to develop a diverse and strong local food system.

Favorite fruit: Blueberry

Dan Krull
Farm Manager, Westport Commons Farm & Volunteer Coordinator

Dan is particularly interested in permaculture, soil biology self-sufficient agriculture and sustainable farming systems. Dan loves giving tours, lectures and working with volunteers.

Favorite vegetable: He loves all vegetables equally

Amanda Lindahl
Farmer Trainer, Juniper Gardens Training Farm & Graduate Services Specialist

Amanda supports the New Roots for Refugees farmers at Juniper Gardens Training Farm and New Roots for Refugee Graduates by providing hands-on assistance, advice, and mentoring.

Favorite vegetable: Sweet potato because they’re so easy to grow and store for eating all year long.

Mary Nguyen
Director, Community Engagement

Mary makes sure people who are interested or involved in the food system can do so through the work and connections of Cultivate KC.

Favorite Vegetable: Radish

Vincent Nguyen
Director, Development

Vince grows the green! He cultivates our philanthropy to raise the funds needed to support our vital programs in the community.

Favorite Vegetable: Broccoli, because you can pretend you’re a giant eating small trees.

Linda Siemens
Director, Finance & Administration

Linda oversees annual budgeting process and monitoring, human resources, information technology, and the database.

Favorite vegetable: Cherry tomatoes

Ladan Soleimani
Development Coordinator

As the development coordinator, Ladan manages our Salesforce database and assists with grant writing and donation campaigns.

Favorite vegetable: Eggplant

Paul Zehr
Site Manager, Juniper Gardens Training Farm

Paul helps to keep things running at Juniper Gardens, from fixing water lines to amending soil. He also gets really excited about multicultural spaces, which are abundant at Juniper. Paul’s favorite thing to do is nerd out with folks, whether that be cover cropping, world languages, or D&D.

Favorite vegetable: BEETS (roasted with goat cheese, they could possibly be the meaning of life)

PJ Quell & Larry Davis
Volunteers Extraordinaire

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