Sheryl Cunningham grew up in a small farming community in northwest Ohio. She graduated from Bluffton University in 2000 with a degree in English and then worked as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Albany, Ohio for ReUse Industries, a reuse and recycling non-profit developed to create jobs from the waste stream. After her year of service, she pursued a master’s degree in English at Ohio University and also worked for OU Campus Recycling. She graduated from OU in 2003 and taught as an adjunct professor in the English and Women’s Studies departments. In 2004 she moved to the west coast to earn her PhD in Communication from the University of Washington in Seattle.

After completing her PhD program in 2008, Dr. Cunningham was hired by Wittenberg University and made her move back to the midwest, putting down roots in Yellow Springs. She teaches courses in rhetoric and media studies and does research in the areas of political communication and environmental communication; her most recent publication is about national news coverage of fracking. She also serves as the faculty sustainability coordinator at Wittenberg and is the chair of the Sustainability Task Force, working with students, faculty, and staff on sustainability projects, the latest of which is helping to create a native plant research garden on campus.

Isabel Brumley is the 1890 Program Liaison at Central State University and the United States Department of Agriculture. She has been with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for six years, first as a Grants Management Specialist and now with the office of advocacy and outreach. . Her degree is in Social Work from the Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC. She also holds a Grants Management Certificate from Management Concepts in Washington, DC.

While on a detail through USDA/APHIS, she served as the Administrative Officer for the Screwworm (SW) Program in Panama. Her duties involved managing and providing direct bilateral USA/Panama oversight for the screwworm program. Her activities included: financial reporting and review; budget planning, execution and oversight; communications; human resources and personnel management; physical security management; purchasing and contracting; and information technology requirements.  She is currently responsible for direct outreach to beginning ranchers and farmers in the state of Ohio and for building capacity for Central State University by identifying funding opportunities, and offering scholarships and internships to students. 

Glenn Gall, a northern Ohio native, has been involved over the last decade with numerous natural solutions to restore a livable planet.  He trained with Peter Bane, Darren Doherty, Dave Jacke, and Mark Shepard in permaculture, and also taken training in climate science, biological farming, and livestock management.  Glenn does small-scale fruit, vegetable, and livestock farming, and teaches agricultural methods that impact soil, water, climate, and provide nutrient rich food.  These methods include permaculture, holistically planned grazing, water harvesting, agroforestry, and biological farming.  He is now a dealer for plant and soil bio-mineral solutions and cover crops, and assists the organization Biology for a Livable Climate in promoting the restoration of ecosystems, biologically capturing carbon, and restoring water cycles to reverse global warming.

Vickie Hennessy grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and received her BS and MS in Ecology and Systematic Biology from San Francisco State University in 1980. Vickie joined the faculty at Sinclair Community College as a professor of biology where she taught a variety of biology courses, including courses she developed in Tropical Ecology (a field course in the country of Belize) and River Ecology-focusing on local Ohio rivers.

For 8 years, Vickie served as president of the Green Environmental Coalition (GEC), a grassroots environmental organization with a focus on public participation and reducing threats to our earth, air and water.   She continues to serve as an environmental activist and educator in the community and has been successful in several campaigns including banning fluoride from Yellow Springs' drinking water; establishing a community bill of rights that bans fracking and injection wells from the village; establishing a ban on the aerial spraying of pesticides to control mosquitoes; developing an eight acre conservation preserve on village owned land to protect resident beaver, their wetlands, and other wildlife in this ecosystem.  Currently Vickie’s focus is on initiating a plastic bag ban and making Yellow Springs a zero waste community.

Laird Schaub has lived over four decades in intentional community, and has served as the main administrator for the Fellowship for Intentional Community for the last 20 years. In addition to being an author and public speaker, he's also a meeting junkie and has parlayed his passion for good process into a consulting business on cooperative group dynamics.

Nancy Lee Wood, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology at Bristol Community College (BCC) and Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Post-carbon Education, teaches courses and organizes events focused on sustainability. She currently is guiding a 60-credit Sustainability Studies Program through the curricula committee at BCC, working with colleagues throughout New England in developing a New England Resilience Group, and as advisor to the BCC student group - Seeds of Sustainability - promoting local agriculture throughout southeastern MA.

Sherry Chen has lived in the Springfield/Clark County area all her life; her passion is the improvement of food security in her home community. She was one of a trio of three citizens who restarted the Springfield Farmers’ Market in 2006, co-managing it for its first four years, and is responsible for setting up the EBT program currently used there. She and her husband produced and sold free range, slow growth, organic chicken and eggs at both the Springfield and Worthington Farmers’ Markets for four years. They are very active members of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association. Sherry is the current chairperson of the BW Greenway Food and Farming Team, which publishes the Local Food Directory for this area and she has taught several local food information sessions as part of that endeavor.

Sherry has co-presented at the Miami Valley Planning Association conference on Barriers to Local Food Production, with other members of the Partners For The Environment Food Team. She served as the Farm Manager under a Farm to School Planning Grant in Springfield City Schools, and with Jonna Johnson, formed Springfield Ohio Urban Plantfolk (S.O.U.P.) which is now cooperatively working under a Farm to School Implementation Grant with Springfield City Schools and Community Solutions.

Macy Reynolds has been interested in gardening and sustainable habitats for most of her adult life. After 30 years as a public school teacher (English and Computer Science), she became a Greene County Master Gardener right after her retirement in 1996. She has completed four Master Gardener State Specializations in invasive weeds, trees, insects, and bees. She has also taken botany courses at the University of Dayton with emphasis on native plants and prairie restoration. Macy has spent many volunteer hours removing invasive plants, working to restore prairies, and harvesting and planting native plant seeds in natural areas. Her own native garden has been on many native plant tours including the Midwest Native Plant Conference of which she was one of the founding members. She also works with native plants at the Woman’s Park in Yellow Springs and has presented many talks on pollinators and native plants. She is currently involved in a local foods effort in her community. Macy is president of the Yellow Springs Tree Committee which plants and cares for trees in public areas of the village as well as providing education for citizens about choosing, planting, and caring for trees.

Birthright member of Middleton Ohio Friends Meeting (Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends, Conservative). Head of School, Olney Friends School (2003-2011); Business Manager, Olney Friends School (1999-2003); Self-employed co-owner of Sidwell Division, Raven Rocks Concrete, Beallsville OH (1975-1999). Co-Founder and Treasurer of Raven Rocks, Inc. a 1250 acre wilderness preserve and alternative energy demonstration center near Beallsville, OH (1970-Present). Founding and current President of the Barnesville Area Rails to Trails Committee; Past President and member of the Barnesville Rotary Club. Other board service: Ohio Association of Independent Schools; Friends Council on Education; Barnesville Blue Ribbon Economic Development Committee; and current Executive Director of Captina Conservancy Land Trust. 1968 B.A. (History and Secondary Education) graduate of Wilmington College