STAFF

Emma Ainsworth

Food has always held a central role in Emma’s life. She grew up helping her parents in the garden and kitchen, where her family canned and froze harvests to enjoy year round. While in college Emma began working on a production farm and after receiving her bachelors in Global Studies she continued farming. Over the past three years Emma has cultivated produce for farmers markets in New York City and the Hudson Valley, cared for seedlings in a commercial greenhouse, and worked in agriculture education. Off of the farm she can be found hiking, horseback riding, falling down on roller skates, and knitting. Emma is Craigardan’s year-round farmer.

Theresa-Xuan Bui

Theresa-Xuan Bui (they/them), is a queer non-binary Vietnamese-American artist questioning the intersections of the personal and political as a means to critically imagine the future. Through drawing and dancing, they translate their embodied practice into performances of language and sound. They are a princess of the Bui household, a legacy of Vietnamese refugees and vanguard Asian-Americans. Born and raised in Bronx, NY, Theresa moved to Houston, TX before pursuing a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MIC/A). Beyond their artistic practice, they love listening to poetry podcasts, learning about sustainability, brainstorming ontological concepts, belting power ballads, and talking about love. Theresa is Craigardan’s administrative coordinator.

Michele Drozd

Michele Drozd is the co-founder and executive director of Craigardan. Her belief that the creative process helps us imagine and build a better world has led to numerous community and social justice initiatives that use cross-disciplinary collaboration as a tool for systems change. Michele received her BFA in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and went on to work with diverse artists studying design and sculpture. After traveling and working around the world, she became intensely interested in entrepreneurialism, rural revitalization, agriculture, art, environmental conservation, and historic preservation - and the connections between them. She enjoys working with start-up businesses and small organizations when she isn’t making pottery, renovating old buildings, or traveling the world by bicycle with her husband.

Jeremiah Reiner

Jeremiah joins the Craigardan team with a rich background in mental health, outdoor recreation, and a passion for photography. With eight years of experience as a senior clinical coach and trainer at CoopeRiis Healing Community, Jeremiah has honed his skills in helping others on their life's path. Prior to his work in mental health, Jeremiah followed his love for the outdoors, instructing clients in various picturesque locations across the country, from the San Juan Islands to the majestic Colorado Rockies, and, of course, his beloved Adirondack High Peaks. Photography runs deep in Jeremiah's veins, and he has channeled that passion into a decade-long journey as a professional photographer, capturing the beauty of nature and the human spirit through his lens.

Jeremiah is thrilled to return to the Adirondacks, where he now resides with his partner and their two faithful canine companions. During his free time, you can find Jeremiah hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking, and trail running. Jeremiah is Craigardan’s program coordinator.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mary Barringer

Mary Barringer has been a studio artist since 1973, making both sculpture and handbuilt functional pottery. She received a BA in art from Bennington College, and worked as an assistant to Michael Frimkess. Her work has been exhibited widely, in contexts ranging from museums and commercial galleries to craft fairs and pottery tours.

In addition to her studio practice she has taught at craft schools, community colleges, and universities including Ohio State and Ohio University, and has written and lectured on the history of ceramics. From 2004 to 2014 she was editor of The Studio Potter journal. She lives and works in western Massachusetts. Mary is currently serving as President of the Board.

Erica Berry

Erica Berry’s nonfiction debut, Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear, was published in February 2023 by Flatiron/Macmillan (US+Canada), and Canongate (UK+Commonwealth) in March 2023. Wolfish is a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and a semifinalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award. Her essays, which often explore the intersection of feelings and the natural environment, appear in The New York Times, Orion, The Yale Review, The Guardian, Aeon, Literary Hub, Wired, Outside, Colorado Review, and The Atlantic, among others. Winner of the Steinberg Essay Prize, she has received grants and fellowships from the Ucross Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. The 2019-2020 National Writers’ Series Writer-in-Residence in Traverse City, Michigan, Erica is on the summer faculty of the Orion Environmental Writers’ Workshop, and also teaches at Literary Arts, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and the New York Times Student Journeys.

She graduated from Bowdoin College in 2014, and received her MFA from the University of Minnesota as a College of Liberal Arts Fellow in 2018. She now lives in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, where she is a Writer-in-the-Schools and an Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters.

Gayle Burnett

Gayle Burnett has been leading and facilitating courageous conversations regarding diversity, race, and equity for much of her lifetime. She founded Peace of Culture, in 2018, as an expression of her commitment to the work. Gayle is the co-author of Peace in Everyday Relationships (Hunter House Publishers, 2003) which provides information, practical tools and real-life examples to support readers in the development of conflict resolution skills within diverse environments. From 1990 to 2004, she worked with a wide array of diversity and leadership clients, including Ernst & Young, Lucent Technologies, AT&T and the NCAA, supporting increased understanding and effectiveness amongst their employees.

Gayle’s career choices have also been diverse, she began as an assistant vice president and analyst for a Wall Street clearinghouse bank, where she worked in the international markets of Singapore, Sydney, and London. She gained a first-hand understanding of the subtle difference between people that can create misunderstanding, conflict and poor performance. As a past partner and principal of Inter-Change Consultants (1989 – 2003) and as the Atlanta Coordinator for the National Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (1995 – 2000), she worked tirelessly towards ending violence and racism in the world. She joined the Atlanta Public Schools, in 2003, where she served in several capacities, including the Executive Director of Innovation.  Gayle joined the boards of KIPP Metro Atlanta (May 2019), the Georgia Charter Schools Association (September 2019), and Wesley International Academy (June 2021) to continue her service to the children of Atlanta.

Gayle Burnett holds an MA in Economics from the City College of New York, is a Fellow Alum of Harvard University’s Strategic Data Project, and a Gallup-certified Strengths Coach.

Allison A. Eddy, MD

Allison grew up in Ontario, Canada with a passion for the outdoor environment. A graduate of McMaster University Medical School, she trained in Pediatrics at McGill University and Pediatric Nephrology at the University of Minnesota. Her faculty career as a physician-scientist started at Sick Kids Hospital, University of Toronto. Allison is currently serving her second term as the Head, Department of Pediatrics and the Chief of Pediatric Medicine at BC Children’s Hospital. She holds the James & Annabel McCreary Chair in Pediatrics and the Hudson Family Hospital Chair in Pediatric Medicine. Her personal career joys are many including working with patients and families, the journey of scientific discovery and training and mentoring the next generation of physician leaders. Allison places high value on curiosity, kindness, and teamwork. Allison plans to retire to Ottawa, bringing her back to Ontario and within driving distance of the Adirondacks where she and her husband owned a camp for over 25 years — a place she still fondly regards as “utopia”. Allison is an avid skier and hiker and still enjoys regular squash matches. She is energized by projects and is looking forward to having more time for community activities, enjoying the arts and broadening her gardening and culinary experiences. Allison is currently serving as Vice-President of the Board.

Lorene Garrett

Lorene is a native Northern Californian fortunate to have also lived in Okinawa, Italy, Taiwan, Texas, Alabama, Indiana, Tennessee and Ohio.  She holds an MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton, and a BS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University.  A decade ago, Lorene abandoned a twenty-year aerospace engineering career to write full time and study with indigenous healers in Peru.  Her articles, essays, memoir excerpts and poetry have appeared in print.  A 2010 PEN Center USA Emerging Voice Fellow, Lorene is also a Pushcart Prize nominee.  She enjoys working with nonprofits, is passionate about sustainable living, writing, the arts, and spiritual pursuits.  Lorene currently lives and works in a green home in the Bay Area while caring for her mom. Lorene is currently serving as Treasurer of the Board.

Muriel Mallien Luderowski

Muriel grew up in a bilingual (French/Flemish) family in Antwerp, Belgium and earned an MA in Linguistics from the Université catholique de Louvain - Institut Libre Marie Haps (Brussels). In 1978, she moved to Brooklyn, NY with her late husband, Nils Luderowski. When Muriel and Nils moved from Brooklyn to Keene, NY in 1997, it marked Muriel’s departure from corporate finance and entrance into a decades-long relationship with visual art. As a development consultant for The Mattress Factory, an installation art museum in Pittsburgh, PA, Muriel cultivated the museum’s commitment to its neighborhood, and developed a growing interest in how art impacts a community’s identity. After completing an MA in Art History at Concordia University (Montreal), Muriel became affiliated with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and served on their Voluntary Docent Board. As a docent in Montreal, she enjoys the challenge of conveying the interrelatedness of art and its built architectural environment. Muriel lives in an 1825 brick house, a museum in and of itself, in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains.

Loren Michael Mortimer, Phd

Loren Michael Mortimer holds the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in Native American History at Emory University. A public scholar, digital humanist, and interdisciplinary historian, Mike has devoted his career to training creative history-makers to address global challenges at a local level. He received his PhD in History with a designated emphasis in Native American Studies from UC Davis in 2019. From 2020-2021, he was the American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program on Race, Migration, and Indigeneity at Indiana University Bloomington.  As a community-engaged scholar, he has worked on collaborative digital mapping workshops on local Indigenous foodways for Hamilton College.

His current book project, Kaniatarowanenneh Crossings: Indigenous Power and Presence in the St. Lawrence River Watershed, 1534-1842, is the first transnational study of the Seven Fires — a confederacy of Catholic Mohawk, Wendat, Wabanaki, and Anishinaabe mission communities along the US-Canada border that had shared ties to the lands and waters that now comprise the Adirondack Park. As an expert in the Indigenous and environmental history of the Adirondack Park, Mike’s research has been recognized by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, while his digital history projects have received support from Mellon Public Scholars and the American Philosophical Society. 

Kate Moses

Kate Moses is the author of the internationally acclaimed Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath and the memoir Cakewalk, as well as the coeditor of two national bestselling, award-winning anthologies of essays on motherhood, Mothers Who Think and Because I Said So. A seventh-generation San Franciscan, Kate began her career in the editorial department of the boutique publisher North Point Press, where she rose to senior acquiring editor, working with writers including Wendell Berry, Kay Boyle, Evan Connell, M. F. K. Fisher, Anne Lamott, James Salter, and Gary Snyder. After five years at North Point she was named literary director of Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco’s foremost literary center, where she ran a historic reading series featuring writers including Denis Johnson, Walter Mosley, Louise Gluck, and Elena Poniatowska. During her tenure as a founding senior editor and staff writer at Salon, Kate initiated and cohosted a Bay Area women writers’ salon that eventually branched out to establish salons in London and New York; all three salons are still running and count hundreds of highly regarded writers among their memberships.

A devoted teacher and tireless advocate for writers, women writers in particular, Kate has served on the creative writing faculties of San Francisco State University, University of San Francisco, and the State University of New York Plattsburgh, the Key West Literary Seminar, Gotham Writer’s Workshop, and Hedgebrook. In 2017 she established Birds & Muses, which offers consulting, private mentorship, and editorial services for writers as well as intimate writing- intensive residencies in the U.S. and Europe. Kate is currently serving as Secretary of the Board.

Michele Parker Randall

Michele Parker Randall reads and writes poetry and prose and has authored The Museum of Everyday Life (Kelsay Books) and A Future Unmappable, chapbook (Finishing Line Press). Her work can also be found in Nimrod International Journal, Atlanta Review, Tampa Review, Bangalore Review, and elsewhere.

Michele gets to teach Poetry, Personal Essay, Fairy Tales, Reading Lyric, and Literature of Mental Health/Neurodivergent Literature at Stetson University. She will happily talk for hours about all things Poetry, and she feels strongly that neurodivergent narratives and art can make the difference in reducing the stigma imposed on those living with mental illness.

**Are you interested in joining our outstanding board of directors? Please reach out to us at info@craigardan.org

PAST BOARD MEMBERS

Special thanks to directors who have previously served including:

Michele Drozd, Co-Founder

Lanse Stover, Co-Founder

Ron Banaszek

Story Bellows

Austin Frerick

Janelle Schwartz, PhD

David Speert, MD

Brooks Thomas Townsend

Catherine Ross Haskins

Frances Westley, PhD

Andrea l. Volpe, PhD

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Nina Gershon

Dan Keegan

Catherine Ross Haskins

David Speert, MD

Frances Westley, PhD

Everett Moitoza, EdD. MBA

VISION CAMPAIGN ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Susan Bacot-Davis

Elena Borstein

Diane Fish

Jim Herman

Dave Mason

Vinny McClelland

Scott McClelland

Lea Paine Highet

Stephanie Ratcliffe

Mark Shapiro

Pete Suttmeier

Sam Taylor

Aaron Woolf