Sari Albornoz is a sustainability professional with training as an urban planner and more than a decade of experience in nonprofit leadership. A native Austinite, Sari is dedicated to realizing a vision of a socially just, ecologically regenerative, and radically democratic Austin. She believes that community-driven agriculture projects can move us toward that goal.

As director of Sustainable Food Center’s Grow Local Program for 11 years, Sari led the agency’s support for community and school gardens. She developed and managed SFC’s fiscal sponsorship program, designed and facilitated leadership and team-building trainings for gardeners, provided backbone support for the Coalition of Austin Community Gardens, and advocated for city policies in support of community agriculture. Sari also launched and co-chaired SFC’s Equity Team, which continues to guide the agency in integrating a race and equity lens. In her current roles as a researcher at the City of Austin’s Watershed Protection Department and Candidate for a Master’s of Science in Community and Regional Planning at UT Austin, Sari is exploring the potential for city-owned floodplain buyout land to be used for community agriculture that benefits historically marginalized residents.

Sari has enjoyed the opportunity to contribute to local environmental and food system planning efforts as a member of the Natural Systems Advisory Group for the Austin Community Climate Plan and working groups of the Austin-Travis County Food Policy Board.

Jonathan Barona is a career nonprofit professional and serial volunteer.  In his current role as a Donor Relations Officer with the Austin Community Foundation.  He helps community members and fundholders determine the best way for them to engage in philanthropy. He also oversees the Foundation’s scholarship, fiscal sponsorship, and Special Project funds.  In addition to his professional nonprofit work Jonathan serves as a board member for the Festival Beach Food Forest, Austin Youth River Watch, and represents district 3 on the City of Austin Zero Waste Advisory Commission.  Jonathan is committed to environmental justice, sustainability, and building a better tomorrow.

Ms. Angela Bigham’s educational background focused on Health Care Administration. Since 2011 Ms. Bigham has partnered with the University of Texas Student nurses to provide health assessments for her church family. Since 2014, Ms. Bigham has been working for the Alliance for African American Health in Central Texas, a community health network of leaders. Through this effort Ms. Bigham has partnered with local churches to develop and implement plans for health promotion activities.

Beginning in 2019, Ms. Bigham accepted a position with the University of Texas as a Communication Coordinator concentrating on mental health awareness and COVID-19 Education. During the Covid Pandemic, Ms. Bigham was instrumental in coordinating Vaccination shots to underserved communities by partnering with churches and healthcare providers. Recently, Ms. Bigham has accepted a position as the COVID-19 Community Health Worker with the People’s Community Clinic. She is also on the board of the Saint John Faith Community Garden where she oversees a 2.5-acre garden project, where she hosts classes for mind, body and spirit and fruit tree planting workshops that connects Master Gardeners with the University of Texas Communication Engagement Group. Ms. Bigham possesses a commitment to the health and wellness for this present generation while developing good physical, mental, and spiritual habits for future generations.

As a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Tatianna earned her B.A. in Letters and an M.Ed in Adult and Higher Education. During and after receiving her degrees, she became committed to helping under-served and primarily first-generation college students through Student Affairs at the University of Oklahoma and as an adjunct professor before transitioning her career path to public affairs and institutional advancement.

Tatianna has a wealth of experience in the nonprofit sector, including leadership and fundraising positions for the University of Oklahoma, Teach for America, and as a regional executive director with ALSAC/ St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Most recently she has been leading Solar Austin as its inaugural executive director and managing Aster Collaborative, which she initially founded to help maximize the scope and influence of nonprofit organizations for the greater good. Aster Collaborative now assists corporations and programs globally in the areas of education, health and human services, non-profit management, business development, anti-racism training, political consulting, and much more.

Tatianna has assisted non-profit organizations as a consultant and as a keynote presenter on topics including fundraising best practices, public affairs and board management for nonprofits, diversity, equity and inclusion, generational philanthropy and workplace motivations, and educational issues as well as topics surrounding educational systems more broadly.

Azucena has a BA in international studies and an MBA. However, most of her work has been in conservation, sustainability and language justice. While studying for her graduate degree, she began working in communications for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Latin America chapter. Later she joined WWF as communications officer for the Chihuahuan Desert Program. After that, she served as liaison between the Natural Heritage Institute and Monterrey Tech in a mapping project of water rights on the Rio Grande before starting her own consulting company with 3 other women. They were among the first firms to offer consulting services in education and communication for sustainability in Mexico. They worked with diverse clients in Mexico and along the US-Mexico border: local and state governments, NGOs and private corporations.

After Azucena got married and moved to the US, she started having kids and decided to step down from her company. It was a hard but necessary decision since her support network for friend and family was in Mexico and there is little to no support for working mothers in the United States. However, she never really stopped working. Azucena volunteered as much as she could and when her kids were still young she got a job as a freelance interpreter. She has always been a translator and found interpretation intriguing (at some point in her life she toyed with the idea of moving to Europe to work for UN).

Now that her kids are older and more independent, she works almost full-time as a free-lance interpreter for social justice and editor and translator for Planned Parenthood. She believes in language justice as an indispensable component of social and environmental justice. Being an interpreter has been very gratifying and a huge learning experience that humbles Azucena. She gets to work with people who are disenfranchised, exploited, made invisible because of their immigration status or gender identity. And she gets to see them get empowered, find and use their voices. It is a privilege. On the other hand, her passion for the Earth is unyielding. She takes any opportunity she can to do environmental/sustainability work. For years she volunteered at her kids’ elementary school coordinating waste management to have zero waste events. She enrolled in The Regenerative Practitioner training. Azucena is also part of a group of students of regenerative development in Mexico.

Diane Miller specializes in the design, facilitation and implementation of processes that help diverse groups of people find common ground for action. For the last eighteen years, she has worked with Central Texas non-profits, local governments, businesses and community groups on topics such as land use, transportation, education, and the environment. Diane is a skilled public engagement professional who brings diverse voices into planning processes to ensure more sound and sustainable decision-making efforts. Before launching her public engagement firm Civic Collaboration in 2011, Diane was assistant director for a regional planning non-profit, Envision Central Texas. She has been involved in deliberative democracy field since 2002, serving on the Board of Directors of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation for six years.

Andrea Routh is founder of The Leading Impact, LLC, where she serves as coach, strategic thought partner, and advisor for non-profit executives; empowering and supporting them as they make big impacts in their communities.  She is also an organizational consultant with 30 years of experience in executive management, strategic leadership, board development, facilitation, community outreach and engagement, and advocacy with a trauma informed approach.  Andrea works to educate the public about trauma, toxic stress, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s).  She has helped communities and organizations become trauma-informed in Missouri, Kansas, and Florida.

Andrea served as Executive Director for three non-profit organizations in Missouri and Kansas from 2007 to 2020.  She has founded, organized, merged and closed non-profit organizations, leading them in all phases of their organizational development.  All of these organizations served low-income, underserved, diverse communities so effective community outreach and engagement was essential at every step.

Andrea is also an attorney with three decades of experience in health policy and senior issues.  She brings a unique background of public and non-profit sector understanding and expertise to her clients, with a passion for community outreach and engagement and trauma-informed approaches. 

Jodi Lane is an architectural design and urban planning practitioner who helps individuals and groups increase their capacity and capability to engage in regenerative systems change. Her 29 years of experience in the realms of architecture and community planning have honed Jodi’s expertise in planning and designing for future generations that integrate generous and artful listening, curiosity and respect for diverse social and natural systems. Jodi is a co-founder and board member of the Festival Beach Food Forest and has participated on consultant teams for a number of master plan initiatives in Austin, Texas, as well as in Ukraine and Kenya. Currently she is advancing the City of Austin’s South Central Waterfront Plan and leading an effort to expand the Festival Beach Food Forest as a bio-diverse campus in the heart of downtown. This campus plan incorporates permaculture methodologies as well as generative social traditions and infrastructure. Jodi is a certified LENSES Facilitator of systems-thinking design and has designed and trained 3D modeling courses for Google. She holds a Masters Degree in Architecture from the University of Texas.

Angie Holliday is the Program Manager at Fruitful Commons, and a Community Organizer at the Festival Beach Food Forest. Angie manages projects and programs including our tree-planting and tree-care mini grants ($80,000 distributed so far!), Gathering of Growers educational series, Food Forest development workshops, focus groups, fundraising events, and internships. Drawing from her degrees in Geography and Communications, Angie has a background in managing environmental justice campaigns and research initiatives through a community-development lens. Angie is also a singer and enjoys organizing musical artists and events to bring the community together. She is the co-founder of the creative activist collective, Puppets for the Planet, as well as local musical act Much 2 Much.

Cecilia Hogan is a Brazilian American licensed clinical social worker who studied at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. For eight years she served homeless young parents at LifeWorks as a Case Manager and later Program Services Coordinator. There she started a community garden with the youth as a way to have access to more fresh produce and connect with each other outdoors. After having her first child she left LifeWorks and began working with Giving Austin Labor Support as a doula for Portuguese speaking mothers and providing prenatal support groups with incarcerated mothers. Her experience working with displaced people and those without support networks motivates her to work towards strengthening community, especially through a connection with the earth.