Our Team

Board of Directors (2010 - 2011)

• Stephen Gliessman, Chair     
  Professor Emeritus
  Environmental Studies Department
  University of California, Santa Cruz

• Roberta Jaffe, Treasurer
  Co-Director Community Agroecology Network
   
• Jonathan Fox
  Professor
  
  Latino and Latin American Studies Department
  University of California, Santa Cruz

• Christopher Musselwhite
  President and CEO Discovery Learning
   
• Laura Trujillo
  Professor
  Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico

Staff

• Roberta (Robbie) Jaffe: Co-Founder and Co-Director of CAN, Robbie has more than 20 years experience in non-profit management. She is a lecturer in the Environmental Studies department at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is an author of several curriculum guides on using school gardens.
• V. Ernesto Mendez: Co-Director of CAN, Ernesto is Assistant Professor of Agroecology & Environmental Studies in the Environmental Program and Plant & Soil Science Departmentat the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont.  Ernesto is the researcher liaison with CAN’s partners in El Salvador.
• Heather Putnam: Associate Director of CAN, Heather is a doctoral candidate in the Geography department at the University of Kansas where she has focused her research on coffee, alternative trade, environment and development, East Africa, and Latin America. Heather has worked with the CAN partner community in Matagalpa, Nicaragua at the UCA San Ramon coffee cooperative.
• Dan Hermstad: Action Education Director of CAN, Dan brings a strong background in agroecology, education, intercultural relations, and business to CAN.  He has a masters degree in Geography from San Francisco State University, where he taught and worked in outdoor education.
• Daniel Fuentes: Marketing Coordinator of CAN, Danny received his A.A. in Economics from Los Angeles Valley College and his B.A. in Environmental Studies and Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. As a CAN intern in El Salvador, Danny worked on a soil and composting project to help coffee farmers improve their soil.

Friends of CAN (FoCAN) Leadership Team

The following students lead a student-action group at the University of California, Santa Cruz to promote food systems sustainability.

• Rachael Witt, FoCAN Coordinator
• Alison Longman, Farmers Market Coordinator
• Lizeth Gomez, Intercambio Coordinator
• Kaylah Reeves, Outreach Coordinator
• Victor Castro, Marketing Coordinator
• Kate Jaffe, Action Educator