Farm to Table Board and Staff
Board
Susan Wilger
Board Chair
Susan is passionate about working to promote public health, policy and equity through community engagement. Working in the non-profit sector for over 35 years, her expertise includes organizational systems, public policy, resource development and program management. Susan has served on numerous local, state and national boards, advisory committees and policy committees. She currently serves as Past Chair of the New Mexico Food & Agriculture Policy Council. In 2021, Susan received the NM Public Health Association Larrazolo Lifetime Achievement Award. Susan has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a Master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Texas.
Carlos Navarro
Vice Chair
Carlos is an anti-hunger activist and blogger. He volunteers as the convener for the Interfaith Hunger Coalition and as state coordinator for Bread for the World in New Mexico. He is retired from the University of New Mexico, where he worked as editor for the Latin America Digital Beat, an online news site of Latin American affairs. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications/Journalism and a Master of Business Administration degree in International Trade.
Clark de Schweinitz, JD
Treasurer
Clark came to northern NM over 50 years ago, and after passing the NM Bar, began practicing with the non-profit legal assistance program Northern New Mexico Legal Services, representing low-income clients and community groups. He is retired after 36 years of practicing law and has continued his involvement in many of the issues that are dear to his heart, helping to found the NM Food & Agriculture Policy Council, of which he was the chair for many years. He has also been a long time board member Farm to Table. He lives in Espanola Valley.
Anthony Wagner
Secretary
Anthony is a fourth generation farmer whose family has been growing fruits and vegetables in Corrales and Socorro for over 100 years. He has been working with Farm to Table since 2010 to bring New Mexico grown produce into the schools, an initiative that now includes senior centers and early childhood education programs throughout the state. School children eagerly await his watermelons each year. His family farm is a central part of the community in Corrales, hosting annual events such as a corn maze, pick your own produce, and festivals, as well as selling produce at their farm stand and serving up hospitality at their cafe. Anthony is retired from working at Sandia Labs and has been part of the NM Food & Agriculture Policy Council for many years. He serves on the Governing Committee for the Policy Council as well as being a long time member of the Farm to Table board.
Clarence Hogue
Board Member
Clarence is Diné/Navajo, originally from the community of Fruitland in northwest NM and grew up along the San Juan river and the northern edge of the Navajo reservation, and now resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which he considers his second home. Deeply rooted in community-based work, Clarence remains connected to his heritage and continues to manage his family farm which has been passed down through generations from his great grandparents. He has fond memories of the time when more families used to grow their own food and community members would take care of one another through food sharing. His approach to his professional work draws on the teachings of his cultural traditions and elders and the type of work he has been most involved in are those addressing issues and needs that impact rural and under-resourced communities the most. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communications from Brigham Young University. His professional experience spans multiple fields, including human services, Tribal community development, non-profit community building, youth program development, health equity research, and local food systems and agriculture promotion.
Sergio Mata-Cisneros
Board Member
Sergio Mata-Cisneros serves as a Local Government and Community Manger for PNM. Prior to that he was the Government Relations & External Affairs Manager at The Food Depot and also oversaw the New Mexico Regional Farm to Food Bank Program, which partners with local farmers and ranchers to purchase and distribute food through the food bank network, addressing food insecurity throughout New Mexico.
Sergio also served as the Director of Special Projects at Hollis Public Affairs in New York, NY, where he specialized in advancing innovative projects, forging partnerships, engaging with communities, and developing legislative strategies for the firm’s clients.
Previously, he worked at Bread for the World in Washington, D.C., where he developed grassroots campaign strategies, analyzed legislation, led coalitions such as the Interreligious Working Group on Domestic Human Needs and the Interfaith Working Group on Foreign Assistance, and advocated on Capitol Hill. Sergio has also worked with various nonprofits in D.C., New York, and New Mexico, focusing on the federal budget, taxation, immigration, equity-focused policies, U.S. humanitarian and poverty-focused international assistance, and empowering young adults in advocacy efforts.
Jonas Moya
Board Member
Born and raised on his grandmother’s farm and cattle ranch in Tucumcari, New Mexico, Moya is a fourth-generation agriculturist with deep roots in New Mexico’s diverse agriculture industry. Most recently, Moya served as the Executive Director for the New Mexico Farm Service Agency (FSA). Prior FSA, he was the Executive Director of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Assocation and Civic Engagement & Policy Manager at New Mexico First, an organization dedicated to building consensus on critical issues facing the state. Moya holds a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics and Business from New Mexico State University.”
Staff
Dr. Cathy Day
Executive Director
Dr. Cathy Day has worked in and around agriculture for much of the last 27 years. Most recently, she was a faculty member of the University of New Mexico researching farmer and rancher training programs. Whether working as an agricultural extensionist with the Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa, as an apprentice at Arctic Organics farm in Alaska, or as a policy advocate with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, she has focused on building agricultural systems that better support people and the planet. In her time on the faculty of Stetson University, she built out a new climate change curriculum while directing a program that supported farmers in reducing water pollution to Florida’s sensitive aquifers. Her PhD focused on how farmers in four counties in New Mexico dealt with the impacts of climate change. Dr. Day believes that Farm to Table’s mission is a key element of the vision of a prosperous, equitable New Mexico.
Pam Roy
Founder and Policy Director
Pam was born and raised in Santa Fe. She has spent a lifetime focused on community initiatives, and food and agriculture issues. Pam is the Executive Director of Farm to Table, a New Mexico organization working on regional food and farm systems initiatives; farm to school and senior centers; and which focuses on local, state, tribal and national policy. She coordinates the New Mexico Food & Agriculture Policy Council, Santa Fe City and County Food Policy Council, serves as the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union Government Relations for New Mexico, is a partner of the NM Grown Coalition and the Office of the Governor’s Food Initiative. She helped to start “farm to school” in New Mexico as part of Farm to Table’s mission in 2001 and was an originating partner of the National Farm to School Network. She recently served on the Board of National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Pam has a Masters degree in International Agriculture and has worked on food, agriculture and policy initiatives in other countries over the years.
Maya Martinez
Farmer Innovation Program Director
Maya has worked in local government for over 27 years. In this capacity, she oversaw department budgets, contract development and management, and Water Conservation Programs. Maya received her Degree in Political Science from New Mexico Highlands University. She is from Santa Fe and has twin teenage daughters. Maya has been involved in fundraising events, school organizations, sports booster groups, parent /teacher groups and volunteering with and in her children’s schools, activities and sports. Maya enjoys spending time with her daughters and family at their lake house, attending her daughters’ sporting events, local sporting events, and participating in her church community.
Edith Martinez
Farmer Innovation Program Administrator and Policy Associate
Edith has worked in local and state government for over 25 years. She has overseen department budgets, grant programs, human resources and youth programming. She also coached junior high and high school volleyball in Santa Fe for over 10 years. One of her passions has been to help those who are underserved by providing the daily essentials to the youth and their families in her community. Edith loves the outdoors to include fishing and camping with her family. She has assisted United Way in their grant selection process and continues to assist local non-profits with her husband and family.
Helen Henry
Design and Communications Support
Helen has spent many years working with artists and communities – doing on-air programming for WXPN-FM in Philadelphia, as the Program Director for the Folklife Center of International House, and as the Program Associate for Marketing and Artist Services at Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a statewide grant-making program supporting touring for Pennsylvania based performing artists. After moving to New Mexico, she helped manage grants and scholarships at the New Mexico Community Foundation. In 2011 she started doing administrative work and communications for Farm to Table, and also worked in the same capacity with the NM Alliance of Health Councils. Food, farming and community are dear to her heart, and she helps to manage the Milagro Community Garden. She has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design from the Philadelphia College of Art.
Kierstan Pickens
Communications & Development Support
Kierstan is a grant writer and nonprofit professional with two decades experience in many facets of management, events, and fundraising. For the last decade, she’s applied these skills to building local food systems. Prior to contracting with a few beloved clients, (Farm to Table included) she was most recently the Executive Director of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute. Born and raised in the northern plains of Colorado, Kierstan learned early the value of localism from her father, who owned a small welding business. She moved to New Mexico in 1998 to attend college, fell in love with the desert southwest, and never left. Since then, she has applied her passion for local food and the environment through professional and personal pursuits. When she’s not working to dismantle the industrialized food system, she volunteers as a Santa Fe River steward, grows vegetables with her neighbors in a geodesic dome, and gets outside as much as possible.
Yana Merril
Accounting
Yana has worked for non-profits since 1988 and has a consulting business focusing on non-profit accounting. She was on staff at the New Mexico Environmental Law Center as their Director of Administration & Finance and has also been the Financial Director at NMCF and LightHawk. She has worked with Farm to Table as a consultant since its inception.
Photo of Anthony Wagner: Seth Roffman
Photo of Helen Henry: Edith Martinez
Photo of Maya Martinez: Anonymous
Photo of Kierstan Pickens: Kierstan Pickens
All other photos: Helen Henry