Releaf Staff
Network Manager
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Samantha (she/her) is passionate about local food and ag, particularly cheese, and lives with farmer who runs a small organic farm on their property. Previously the chef at American Flatbread, Middlebury Hearth, she has been involved in food for over a decade. Before that she spent many years working in outdoor and experiential education at Hidden Villa, a nonprofit farm & wilderness preserve in California.
Samantha studied Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (conc. Arabic) at Yale University, where she picked up a healthy love of learning languages. She loves meandering in the woods, discussing paleontology, and is always ready to eat a meal, plan a meal, or reminisce about previous good meals.
Technical Assistance & Resource Manager
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Jennifer (she/her) spent the first 30 years of her life in Los Angeles before finding her way to the Green Mountains. Jennifer initially worked in the music industry and through that, she found herself engaged in a lot of volunteering opportunities with community youth which changed her life choices and her career path. She has spent over 20 years serving at risk and homeless youth in both Oregon and in Vermont. She is passionate about land sovereignty, access to healthy food for all, getting her hands in her tiny garden, and supporting BIPOC youth voices. Jennifer has spent 4 years serving on the Vermont State Commission of Native American Affairs and 2 years as a City Council Member in Montpelier. She is also a mom, wife, avid camper, kayaker, snowshoer, and generally prefers to be in the woods whenever possible.
Director of Operations
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Alyssa (she/her) is a Boricua Jersey Girl who made her way to the Green Mountain state two years ago. A former "city mouse", she fell in love with Vermont (even during mud season!) thanks to her wife (a Vermonter).
Alyssa leverages over a decade of experience in progressive movement organizations, higher education, and social justice programming in her current role as the Director of Operations at Releaf. This role combines her love of project management, strategic thinking, and a well-organized spreadsheet in service of a mission near and dear to her heart: building community for BIPOC Vermonters also committed to a just, equitable, and sustainable future. The descendant of Puerto Rican farmers and restaurant workers, Alyssa is the first in her family to graduate from college (Wellesley College) or hold a master's degree (Indiana University - Bloomington).
In contrast to her urban upbringing, Alyssa deeply enjoys now living at the base of a mountain in Bristol. A theater kid at heart, she will never say no to a karaoke night or dance class. You can find her binge watching reality TV (Bravo universe preferred), baking something complicated for no reason, cuddling her dog, or reading a book by the New Haven River on the weekends.
Releaf Board of Directors
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Jean Hamilton (she/her) is the Director of Mission and Impact for Skinny Pancake, where she manages mission related programming for staff, guests, and community partners. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Jean helped launch ShiftMeals, Skinny Pancake’s local food response to COVID and partner to the BIPOC GrowTeam with Conscious Homestead. She also served as the Statewide Coordinator for VT Everyone Eats, a statewide program contracting VT restaurants to provide emergency meals to Vermonters experiencing food insecurity and hunger. Jean has dedicated her career to building sustainable food systems and resilient communities, with a focus on farm and food business viability, fundraising and grants management, and weaving community connections. Jean lives in central Vermont where she enjoys sharing time with her family and neighbors, eating delicious local foods, and exploring this beautiful earth.
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Susan Yao (she/hers) is a homesteader and educator based in Bellows Falls, VT. She is co-founder of the Vermont Village School, a new microschool in Southern Vermont that reimagines school as a liberatory space, especially for children of color. She is passionate about making Vermont a place where people of color can thrive. She lives in a DIY tiny house with her family.
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Lily Hammerling (they/she) came to Vermont for school from St. Paul, Minnestoa. Professionally, they are working to become a carpenter at a natural design build co-op. In their free time, Lily enjoys spending time outside, foraging, canoeing, and tending to their chickens. Making art, reading, or binge watching tv shows are other ways that Lily finds relaxation, though they especially love to cook, looking at different recipes before creating their own. Lily found Releaf during a time in their life when they needed community and was supported by Releaf’s facilitators and members in a way they didn’t know they needed. As a result, Lily chose to join the board to help support the ecosystem that Releaf nourishes.
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Shingai Njeri Kagunda is an Afrosurreal/futurist storyteller from Nairobi, Kenya with a Literary Arts MFA from Brown. Shingai’s work has been featured in the Best American Sci-fi and Fantasy 2020, Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2021, and Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2020. She has work in or upcoming in Omenana, FANTASY magazine, FracturedLit, Khoreo, Africa Risen, and Uncanny Magazine. Her debut novella & This is How to Stay Alive was published by Neon Hemlock Press in October 2021. She is the co-editor of Podcastle Magazine and the co-founder of Voodoonauts. Shingai is a creative writing teacher, an eternal student, and a lover of all things soft and Black.
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Liv Peña (she/her) serves as the Vice Chair of the Vermont Releaf Collective Board and was a member of the first Releaf Organizing Squad. She also founded the organization in 2020. Liv studied Food Systems at the University of Vermont and has worked across a variety of spaces and roles related to food and agriculture, policy, and racial justice / social change. An aspiring farmer, she comes from a long line of agricultural ancestors in the Dominican Republic, Virginia, and New Jersey. She dreams of creating and contributing to physical and social spaces to advance food sovereignty and justice for Black people and other communities of color in Vermont and beyond.
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Jim Habana Hafner (he/him) recently (July 2022) became the New England Director for American Farmland Trust. Prior, he was the Executive Director of Land For Good; a regional organization focused on farmland access, land tenure security, and farm transfer and succession. Raised in Amherst MA as a Philipino-American with no local cultural community, his main connection his heritage was via vibrant family traditions, visits to/from extended family, travel to the Philippines, and stints living in Southeast Asia. Jim grew up working on local farms and his experience encompasses program management, strategy, and administration in agricultural service and advocacy for organizations regionally, nationally, and internationally. Jim has degrees in International Agriculture (M.S., UCDavis) and Natural Resources (Ph.D. Cornell). He returned to Western MA in 2003 with his young family after 20 years, and 'suddenly realized' that he and his partner, Kelly are now 'empty nesters.' Jim feels privileged to help support Releaf's vibrant and values driven community. Jim serves as the Secretary for the Releaf Board of Directors.
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Elián González (they/them) is white, with mostly Irish descent, and afropuertorriqueñe. They are a care worker who works in the realms of mental health peer support and directly supporting developmentally disabled adults. They are also a novice healer currently exploring the modalities of spiritual herbalism, politicized somatics, and mediumship. Growing, cooking and eating their own food has been a deeply pleasurable and healing experience for them. These days they are excited about continuing to reconnect to lineage through food, experimental farming for climate transition, working with new herbs, and dancing as often as possible.