Francoise (Frankie) Van Keuren is the Board Chair for Fruitful Commons and a passionate advocate for climate resilience, urban conservation, agriculture, and sustainable living. Originally from New Orleans and raised in Galveston County, TX, she has called East Side Austin home for over a decade.

With 15+ years of experience in project management, fundraising, and leadership across sectors, Frankie most recently served as Executive Director of EarthShare Texas, a statewide environmental nonprofit cooperative. She co-founded the CTX Green Workforce Collaborative and developed ESTX’s Green Leaders Fellowship. Her background includes roles in consulting, program development, and event production in Austin and New York City.

Frankie holds a bachelor’s in International Political Science from Hofstra University and a master’s in Global Policy Studies from UT Austin. She has lived in Cairo, Egypt, and Brazil and speaks conversational Portuguese.

A percussionist and visual artist, Frankie co-founded Blowcomotion, a community band offering free music workshops and an instrument lending library. She enjoys gardening, traveling, and spending time with her partner, young daughter, and two pets.

Carl is a sustainability leader and land steward, working to fund the important work of finding and controlling super polluting non-CO2 gases as the Director of Market Development at climate B-Corp Tradewater, and in his spare time is working to protect and regenerate his family’s ranch deep in the Texas Hill Country.

Carl began his career as an educator with the Teach for America program, teaching math and coaching tennis at Justin F. Kimball High School in south Dallas. He translated his passion for education to the ed-tech startup Civitas Learning while getting his MBA from UT McCombs, leading product development and sales efforts during the organization’s scale-up stage. In recent years Carl’s become very passionate about sustainability, land stewardship and food access, as he took on helping manage his family’s ranch in the Frio River watershed. He’s a Texas Master Naturalist, served as a Sergeant in the Texas State Guard, and one day plans to establish a multi-layer food forest for him and his family, so he’s excited to support Fruitful Commons mission of bringing food forests to every community in Austin.

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. 

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.

Azucena holds a BA in international studies and an MBA, with most of her work focused on conservation, sustainability, and language justice. While earning her MBA, she began working in communications for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Latin America chapter, later joining WWF as a communications officer for the Chihuahuan Desert Program. She then served as a liaison between the Natural Heritage Institute and Monterrey Tech on a Rio Grande water rights mapping project. Azucena co-founded one of the first firms in Mexico offering education and communication consulting for sustainability, serving clients across Mexico and the US-Mexico border, including governments, NGOs, and corporations.

After moving to the US and starting a family, Azucena stepped away from her company due to limited support for working mothers and the distance from her support network in Mexico. She now works as a freelance interpreter for social justice and as an editor and translator for Planned Parenthood. Interpreting has been a humbling experience, allowing her to empower marginalized individuals and witness their transformation.

Azucena’s passion for sustainability remains strong. She has volunteered at her children’s school coordinating zero-waste events and participated in The Regenerative Practitioner training. She is also part of a regenerative development study group in Mexico.

Executive Director

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.

Program Manager

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.