MEET OUR TEAM
STAFF
Alejandro Acosta - Farm Coordinator
I was born and raised in San Jose and recently moved to the East Bay. My first experience with Veggielution was back in 2010 and over the years I've experienced it in its different evolutions. After spending 3 years on the Spade and Plow Organics team learning the ins-and-outs of production farming, I came back to join the Veggielution team. Outside of farming, I spend my time downhill longboarding and playing bass.
Antonio Amore Rojas - Cooperative Manager
Antonio was born in Bogotá, Colombia and was raised in Mexico City since the age of 3. When he was 12, he moved to Jakarta, Indonesia for 3 years and then to St Louis Missouri for 3 years where he graduated high school before going to college at Santa Clara University. This is when he first arrived at Veggielution, through an internship that lasted all year. He is excited to return to Veggielution as a Cooperative Development Manager after graduating with a Double Major in Business Management and Environmental Studies. He can’t wait to return to the place where he found Community and continue helping Eastside grown graduates start successful businesses and build wealth for their communities. Antonio also enjoys walking and driving through the Santa Cruz mountains, exploring new places, salsa dancing and photography.
Solandyi Aguilar - Advocacy Coordinator
Solandyi is originally from Jalisco, Mexico. She has been living in California since 2004. Mother of three children. She joined Veggielution in 2020, her passion is learning about health through food. She is a certified health coach, nutritional science, and future plant based chef.
Macaria Avila - Eastside Grown Coordinator
Macky is originally from Jalisco, Mexico and came to San Jose Ca., in 2014. She lives in East San José. Macky has worked in the Somos Mayfair organization as a childcare teacher for about 6 years. She studied her high school in the adult school at Escuela Popular in San Jose Ca. and continues to study at Mission College as a teacher. Macky joined Eastside Grown in 2019. She enjoys working and helping the community because being in the community makes her feel like she is in her town, caring, hardworking and in harmony. Macky enjoys being at Veggielution because as a child she grew up on the ranch milking cows to make cheese, riding horses, making tortillas by hand, and planting in the cornfield.
Cristian Barraza - Operations Coordinator
Cristian is originally from El Salvador and came to US 5 years ago. He lived 1 year in Virginia then moved to San Jose CA in 2017. He joined Veggielution in January 2021 as a Food Distribution Assistant and 5 months later got promoted to Operations Coordinator in his current role he is always doing different tasks every day and willing to learn anything!
Shannon Campano - Administration Manager
Shannon was born and raised in East Side San José and is a first-generation Filipino. She is a recent graduate of San Jose State University majoring in marketing with a minor in Economics. Her goal in her career and daily life is to do good. She is excited to be able to fulfill her career goals and give back to the community that raised her. When she’s out of the office you can find her at Disneyland, a concert, or a broadway show.
Silvia Contreras Martínez - Community Navigator
I feel very excited to be part of the Veggielution family, a pleasure for me to share and learn together with the Community.As a Community Navigator, I want to accompany you in the process of how to learn to achieve their goals and objectives, we will learn about many resources and opportunities for our community. My focus will be to know and follow up on your needs as well as help connect with the necessary resources, identify opportunities and continue growing physically and emotionally during the process. We have workshops where you can implement your skills and abilities, you can also learn to navigate the area of technology and thus have greater knowledge, we will be in constant communication to achieve our goals.
You can contact me by email silvia@veggielution.org or visit me at Veggielution's office at 370 S King Rd San Jose CA 95116 (by appointment). My office hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 8:00am to 4:30pm.
Claudia Damiani - Program Director
Claudia Damiani brings a wealth of experience through her previous roles as Greenhouse and Super Jardinero Manager at Valley Verde, Teaching Associate in the SJSU Geology Department, and 4-H Youth Development Program Representative for University of California Cooperative Extension, among others. She moved to the Bay Area over ten years ago from Perú, and is a passionate and enthusiastic gardener and potter. Whenever she has access to a pottery studio, she focuses on making garden sculptures and planters.
Fernando Fernandez Leiva - Interim Policy Director
Born and raised in Chile, South America, Fernando Fernandez Leiva, came from a working class family led by strong women,his mother and grandmother and two younger brothers. Fernando brings a colorful background in Political Science, has made significant contributions in leadership roles in Chile at both local and federal levels. His transition to the nonprofit sector took him to Cochabamba, Bolivia, to work on a Jesuit church farm, where he learned and supported indigenous urban agriculture practices. In the United States, Fernando managed La Mesa Verde, an urban gardening and food justice program, deepening his community engagement and fostering collaborations to influence policymakers. His journey reflects a life commitment to contribute to structural changes and community empowerment from an environmental and ancestral perspective.
Maricella Fuentes - Communications Coordinator
Maricella was born and raised in Hayward, CA. She previously attended UC Davis, majoring in Sociology and Chicana/o Studies. After college, she joined Veggielution as a Climate Action Corp Fellow helping to reduce food waste on the farm. She is now a Communications Coordinator working in collaboration with Veggielution and the Si Se Puede Collective. She has a deep passion for storytelling and implements that in her work as uplifts the stories of East San Jose. In her free time, you can find her hanging out with her dog and cat, Capitan and Nacho.
Esperanza Garcia - Organizing Coordinator
Esperanza is from Jalisco, Mexico. She first joined our Eastside Grown program with a passion for cooking traditional Mexican dishes like tamales! She is now working as a Promotora connecting families to COVID-19 resources and Si Se Puede Collective services.
Rosa Maria Gordillo Garfunkel - Environmental Education Manager
In the SF Bay Area twenty three years, Rosa Maria has enjoyed discovering and learning about the natural and urban communities in the area. She cherishes the diversity of people and cultures present, and particularly their food. Originally from Guatemala City has made home in San Jose. Holds a BS in Biology and Ms. In Soil Fertility. Her work opportunities in CA have been in Agriculture, and Environmental Education. As Environmental Education Manager, she aims to bring together members of our community to share their knowledge, to cultivate and grow food with our youth, and to instill in them respect for the land and all that it sustains.
Luis Hernandez - Farm Manager
Luis is originally from Lake Chapala, Mexico and came to San José 40 years ago in 1979. He lives in East San Jose. Luis has had “plenty” of jobs including working in facilities, shipping, and janitorial. He worked for 20 years as a groundskeeper and then a maintenance technician for an apartment complex. He was a Community Gardener at the Mayfair Community Gardens for 12 years and then for 3 years at Emma Prusch Farm Park. He first came to Veggielution through our Eastside Grown program before he became our Farm Manager. If Luis is not at the Farm, he is off on his boat deep sea fishing.
Abigail Hindson - Advocacy Manager
Abigail is originally from La Crosse, Wisconsin and is new to the San Jose area. She spent the last two and a half years working at a Latinx non-profit on the East Side of St. Paul, Minnesota, coordinating a community garden, organizing community members around land and food access issues, and helping people apply for health insurance. She previously worked on a farm crew for two seasons at a diversified veggie farm in central Minnesota. Her interests include land access, community organizing and community power, and connecting people to healthy food. In her free time, you can find Abigail Irish fiddling, gardening, doing art, cooking/baking, reading, biking, or taking her two cats on walks around the neighborhood.
Liana Hua - Program Coordinator
It's good to be back at Veggielution as a Program Coordinator for Eastside Grown! Liana started with Veggielution in 2014 as an Americorps member. Before Liana came back to Veggielution, she got her Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and a minor in urban planning at San Jose State University. During her free day Liana likes to garden in her front yard or volunteer at amazing non-profit organization like Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association.
Soitza Gabriela Del Real - Organizing Manager
Gaby is originally from Tepic, Nayarit, México. In 2019, she arrived in San Jose, CA in hopes to find self-employment opportunities. She joined Eastside Grown where she was given the opportunity to meet, exchange and create magical connections with the community. Gabby’s favorite part of her involvement is supporting and serving the community. For her, Veggielution is an organization that makes her feel at home.
Marie Millares - Facility Director
Marie comes to us from the San Jose Downtown Association, where she served as Streetlife Manager for the past two years. Prior to that, Marie was Creative & Program Director at Moveable, following a seven-year stint as Founder and Executive Director of SJMade. Marie is a first-generation Filipina and native to San Jose. She enjoys podcasts, sweet and salty food combinations, and craft time with her daughters--everything from polymer clay to paper mache. She is eager to support work that nourishes and uplifts Eastside San Jose communities through farming and food. Marie firmly believes that place and program are symbiotic, and is excited to support Veggielution's mission by fulfilling facility needs for the farm, staff, programs, and emerging small businesses.
Tadashi Oguchi - Development Manager
Tadashi is a first-generation Japanese-American with roots in Tokyo, Osaka, Davis and currently in San Jose. Prior to joining Veggielution, Tadashi was the Director of Programs and Community Outreach at Recovery Cafe in downtown San Jose, where he built a community for those in recovery from addiction, homelessness and mental health challenges. He is also involved with San Jose’s Japantown as a Board of Directors at Yu-Ai Kai Community Center. With a background in medicine, Tadashi is excited to join the Veggielution team and continue to build a more equitable and healthier community. In his free time, Tadashi enjoys being creative in the kitchen, practicing his violin and ukulele, actively participating in his LGBTQ+ community, and obsessing over his two dogs and two orange tabbies.
Anna Regalado - Eastside Connect Manager
Much like San Jose, where she was born and raised, Anna has strong roots to agriculture. From tending a small bed in a community garden with her mom as a young child, to now caring for a large garden and small flock of chickens with her family, Anna loves to put her passion for growing food and building stronger local food systems to good use. This passion grew during her time at UC Santa Barbara, where she received a B.A. in Environmental Studies with an Emphasis in Food and Ag Sciences in 2019. Since then she's worked at the UC Cooperative Extension office in Santa Clara County in the 4-H and Small Farms programs, and on the Greenhouse Team at Valley Verde, and has now made her way to Veggielution! When she’s not working, you can find Anna gardening with her hands in some dirt or baking with her hands on some dough, but definitely not at the same time!
Liana Salikhova - Eastside Grown Program Manager
Liana started her career in the corporate sector, where she gained extensive experience in project management. After moving to California in 2018 she switched her focus to work that benefits local communities. She was drawn to Veggielution with an interest in community support, empowerment, and growth. Prior to joining Veggielution, Liana was the Community Outreach and Education Manager at San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, where she helped bring the museum’s programs to multicultural and multigenerational audiences. In her free time, she enjoys gardening in her tiny backyard, doing DIY projects, going to concerts and other fun events.
Emily Schwing - Acting Executive Director
A native of the Jersey Shore, Emily Schwing came to the Bay Area by way of the University of South Alabama where she earned a B.S. in Meteorology (2011). Emily earned her M.A. in Communication Studies at San José State University (2014) with a focus on Environmental Communication. Emily joined Veggielution in 2014 as the Outreach Coordinator as a member of the Silicon Valley Health Corps. In 2015, she became Veggielution’s Program Manager. Then as Public Affairs Director, Emily coordinated Veggielution’s overall communication strategy across a variety of media platforms. She is currently serving as the Acting Executive Director. A longtime surfer, Emily is now an avid backpacker. When she’s not on the farm, she can be found in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Lee Stephenson - Environmental Education Coordinator
Lee is originally from Porterville, California. He first came to Veggielution through our Eastside Grown Leadership program in 2016. Lee was first drawn to Veggielution with an interest in learning how he could start growing his own produce and to become more connected to the community. Lee is currently studying horticultural in school and is excited to connect the theories he’s learning with real hands-on experiences on the farm. He hopes to one day mange and own his own orchard.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Brittany Alvarez - Executive Director, Latino Education Advancement Foundation
Brittany Alvarez has been sorting out educational opportunity gaps across the country for over a decade. She currently serves as the Executive Director for the Latino Education Advancement Foundation. She joined LEAF after serving as the College & Career Pathway Director at the Foundation for Hispanic Education, a charter management organization which operates three free, public charter schools in East San José. Prior to returning to California, Brittany spent several years in Washington State working to desegregate AP/IB programs with the Seattle-based nonprofit Equal Opportunity Schools.
She has a data-driven vision with student voice at the center. Brittany uses direct feedback from students and staff as the foundation of her strategic planning and leadership. She has deep, direct experience in program development for historically excluded and under-resourced communities and first-generation college students, specifically supporting postsecondary preparation, enrollment, persistence, and social emotional development.
At LEAF, Brittany launched the LEAF Center for College Success and its first programs, the LEAF College Success Program and Career Exploration and Discovery Program. These programs’ core components include a robust network of peer mentors, college partnerships, and community volunteers currently supporting over 500 students and families.
Ray Bramson - Treasurer, Chief Operating Officer, Destination: Home
Ray is the Chief Operating Officer of Destination: Home, a public-private partnership committed to ending homelessness in Santa Clara County. Having focused on homelessness and affordable housing issues for the majority of his career, Ray has previously worked in leadership roles for a variety of government, philanthropic, and non-profit organizations locally. An alumnus of UC Santa Barbara, Ray spent the year following his graduation with the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps serving impoverished communities throughout the southeastern United States. He is a senior fellow with American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley and a board member for Housing Matters. Ray is also currently pursuing his Masters in Liberal Arts from Stanford University.
Annie Chang - Board Co-Chair, Valley Homeless Healthcare Program
Annie Chang grew up locally in San Jose, and is a graduate of the UC Berkeley – UCSF Joint Medical Program (MS 2013, MD 2015), and later completed her residency at the Ventura County Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program. With experiences in research, public health, and community medicine, she works to foster community-based participatory methods and research to enhance community collaboration and health care delivery. Her career started at Kaiser Permanente National Diversity working to advance the National Standards for Culturally & Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care throughout the health system and nationally. Later in the Joint Medical Program, she completed a Master’s of Health and Medical Sciences (MS) in global health research, examining the intersection of HIV and socioeconomic determinants amongst rural Kenyan communities. Integrating both global and local experiences, she has worked with extensive multidisciplinary collaborations, including the following: UCSF multisectoral agricultural intervention Shamba Maisha, San Francisco General Hospital Newcomers Health Program/Survivors International/UCSF Trauma Recovery Center in refugee health, Ventura County Public Health/Ventura Family Medicine Residency in upstream diabetes prevention, and served as one of the founding members of Veggielution Community Farm - cultivating community partnerships since she was a premedical student. She now works for the Valley Homeless Healthcare Program, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Hospital and Clinics systems. She is passionate about community health, planetary health, and their interdependent social determinants. Annie rejuvenates by exploring natural and cultural history, culinary arts, and sharing conversation with generous company by breaking bread together.
Susan Chen - Assistant Professor, San José State University
Susan Chen is an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging at San José State University (SJSU). She teaches courses ranging from Introduction to Nutrition to Community Nutrition. Her research explores the intersection between community food security and sustainable food systems. To do this, she works alongside Bay Area communities to implement initiatives that promote sustainability and nutrition and are inclusive of all community members. Passionate about training the next generation of food systems professionals, she is the advisor for the SJSU Nutrition and Food Science Club and the SJSU Student Chapter of the North American Food System Network (NAFSN). Prior to SJSU, Susan earned her doctorate degree in Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise from Virginia Tech.
Veggielution’s mission align with Susan’s goal of engaging the local community to build healthier, resilient, and profitable food systems. In addition to a career focused on food systems, Susan’s hobbies are “all things food.” She enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, trying new restaurants, learning about food cultures, and gardening.
Mariana Faerron - Board Co-Chair, CEO, Tico Coffee Roasters
Mariana Faerron Gutierrez is an international professional from Costa Rica, with experience and extensive knowledge in international business, multicultural backgrounds, personal development, international research. She holds a degree in Agricultural Economics from University of Costa Rica, and a degree in Business Administration. After spending several years in the micro lending, consumer goods and biotech industries, she moved to the Bay Area to start her current venture, Tico Coffee Roasters based in Campbell, CA. Tico Coffee Roasters is a boutique company that specializes in unique and exclusive coffees and the finest teas from around the world. Her company has the mission of connecting people with the farmers who work very hard to produce outstanding products. With a strong focus in sustainable/organic products, sustainable and recycling practices in their facility and social involvement in the local community in the Bay Area and overseas, she hopes to contribute to a more just and transparent food system. Mariana has contributed and donated her time to The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, Global Women Leadership Network to support women development and leadership around the world. She invests time on mentoring other women and business owners on entrepreneurship, personal development and career advancement. Mariana loves outdoor activities, traveling, dancing, cooking and coffee!
Jo Lerma-Lopez - Owner, LUNA Mexican Kitchen
Jo Lerma-Lopez has always had a passion for innovating in order to generate change. In the 90’s, Jo’s creativity manifested itself San Jose’s Upstairs Records, which at the time was the only independent record label in the country to have songs reach the Top 10 portion of the Billboard chart multiple times. Jo was a trailblazer in the music industry, at the forefront of bringing independent artists to the mainstream marketplace. For her entire career, she worked to fill a void in radio across the U.S., convincing radio programmers that Latinos could share the playlist with the pop icons of the time.
After over two decades of success in the music industry, Jo started planting the seeds in order to transition to another growing obsession - holistic healing and nutrition. She enrolled in a culinary program and studied to be a natural chef. While diving into the research of the nutritional properties of food, she came to the realization that food can either heal you or hurt you. Many people are suffering from diseases directly connected to their food sources. The more knowledge she gained, the more she wanted to make a difference in the community around her.
LUNA Mexican Kitchen opened in the summer of 2017 in San Jose. An acronym for Local, Unrefined, Natural and Authentic, LUNA sources all of their ingredients from companies with sustainable practices. Their menu revolves around the Mexican trinity tradition of corn, chili and beans. LUNA uses organic, non-GMO corn, and one of their signature practices is the ancient process of nixtamalization for all of their corn products, including their chips and their made to order, hand-pressed tortillas. LUNA’s second location opened in November of 2019 in Campbell.
Toby McChesney - Board Secretary & Fundraising Committee Chair, Vice Provost for Graduate Programs at Santa Clara University
Toby provides visionary leadership and advocacy for the mission of graduate education across the entire University. He works collaboratively with the Provost, Vice Presidents, Deans, and Vice Provosts to further advance high caliber interdisciplinary graduate and professional programs. He is responsible for overseeing academic program development, market analysis, enrollment management, graduate recruitment, marketing, branding, international outreach, and data analytics. Toby also is an adjunct faculty member in the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. In one of his undergraduate courses (business communications), a Veggielution intern did a project with his team to help their big fundraiser (fEAST). It was here that Toby learned about Veggielution and he attended several events and met Cayce and Emily. Toby is on numerous higher education boards given his background and is excited to be part of Veggielution's Board. Having moved to California in 2016, he has wanted to join a local non-profit. Veggielution's mission aligns closely with Santa Clara University and his passions. Toby enjoys helping and leading communities and ensuring the future is better for all.