Emma is a graduate of the joint-degree program at the Yale School of Management and the Yale School of the Environment (MBA/MF) interested land stewardship, working landscapes and how access to capital and market structures impact what problems get prioritized. 

Emma currently works as a senior associate on the investment team at Grounded Capital. Prior to joining Grounded, Emma spent a summer working on the Blue Forest Finance and Investment team, a summer as a member of the Forest Crew at Yale-Myers Forest and the summer prior serving as a research and development fellow at The Climate Service (and a farm hand on two organic vegetable farms). Before returning to graduate school Emma worked as an acquisitions and investment associate at CleanCapital (a renewable project finance company investing in commercial and industrial scale solar and storage projects) and a consultant at ThoughtWorks (a global technology firm that builds custom software solutions).

Clare is a graduate from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where she held internships at The Nest Family Office and Galway Sustainable Capital, while achieving concentrations in finance and entrepreneurship. Currently she works in the Dairy Technology sector at a startup doing finance, strategic partnerships, and operations. Prior to this, she worked for four years at a healthcare startup, Aledade, that focuses on helping primary care physicians treat Medicare patients with chronic conditions. She is passionate about the connection between health outcomes and our food system. In her free time, she enjoys walking her dog, Rosie, with her husband on Baker Beach in San Francisco.

Dr. Julie Kunen is the founder of Passiflora Consulting, which advises mission-driven food brands on their sustainability strategies.  Previously, she was Co-lead of Global Sustainability at Oatly and Senior Director of Sustainability for Oatly North America. In this capacity, she led design and execution of the company’s initiatives on regenerative agriculture and development of nature-based commitments and programming. Her passion for sustainability began with a PhD in archaeology focused on indigenous agricultural practices. Dr. Kunen went on to hold roles in academia, government (USAID), non-profit (Wildlife Conservation Society), freelance journalism, and business consulting before joining Oatly at the end of 2020. Dr. Kunen is also a writer on topics at the nexus of food, culture, and the environment for independent media outlets. She has been an awards judge for the James Beard Foundation, a Fellow of The Explorers’ Club, and an advisor to the Culinary Institute of America for their masters’ program in sustainable food systems and currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Food Tank and the Vilicus Institute.  She lives in rural Montana.

Nic is an organic agronomist and the Northern Plains Regional Manager for Rodale Institute's Consulting department. He is a lifelong organic farmer, having grown up and farmed with his family on their 480 acre certified organic farm in southeast North Dakota, raising small grains, vegetable seed, poultry, and other livestock. He is a Certified Crop Advisor and holds a Masters degree in Agricultural & Extension Education. Prior to Rodale Institute, he worked in Extension for the University of Minnesota and North Dakota State University.

Sami Tellatin will find almost any opportunity to put her hands in the soil. An entrepreneur, environmental engineer and educator, Sami finds inspiration and fulfillment in increasing the human connection to the environment. 

Today, Sami is the co-founder of FarmRaise, an enterprise that unlocks funding for farmers and ranchers seeking to invest in their profitability and sustainability. After speaking with hundreds of farmers across the U.S., Sami and her co-founder were determined to eliminate the financial barrier farmers face in adopting soil health practices. Today, FarmRaise allows farmers to learn which public and private funding opportunities they’re eligible for and streamlines the application process, moving the industry toward one common application that unlocks funding to drive conservation practice adoption.

Sami started FarmRaise while earning an MBA and MS (Land Use and Agriculture) at Stanford University. She previously conducted research and education efforts at the USDA-Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and University of Missouri Extension, focusing on the economic and environmental impacts of cover crops in Midwestern farming communities. She has worked on farms in Missouri and Costa Rica and holds a bachelor’s degree in Biological Engineering from the University of Missouri.

Steffen has over three decades of experience as a biodynamic farmer and herdsman. Currently he is the Director Emeritus of Farming Operations at Hawthorne Valley Farm.  He holds a masters degree in agriculture from the Justus Von Liebig University in Giessen, Germany. 

Steffen was part of the team that brought the farm back to economic solvency and success in the early 90’s. He has served in senior leadership capacity for the past 20 years, allowing Hawthorne Valley to experience tremendous growth and diversification of its farming operations including a more recent major infrastructure upgrade of its farmstead. 

Since 2007 he has been on the Board of Directors of the Biodynamic Association of North America, having served as President, Treasurer and Vice-President.  Steffen has keynoted national and international biodynamic conferences in the US, Switzerland and New Zealand. Additionally he has conducted workshops at organic and biodynamic conferences in the US, China, Switzerland, and New Zealand.  He is member of the faculty at the Hawthorne Valley Farm Learning Center and serves as adjunct faculty at the Pfeiffer Center in Spring Valley, NY.