Agraria_Journal_WINTER_2022

BETHANY RAMSEY Bethany is a marketing and branding professional based in Dayton, Ohio. Her areas of focus are brand identity, visual communications, event coordination, and marketing for communities and nonprofits. She is marketing manager for Agraria’s BIPOC Farming Network (BFN) and sits on the planning committee for the annual Black Farming Conference. She also supports Agraria’s media, merchandising, and marketing efforts. She graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in marketing and has worked for Five Rivers Metroparks, University of Dayton, The 2nd Street Market and The HomeOwnership Center. She sat on the Oregon Historic District Society neighborhood association for six years and is currently a trustee for the Oregon District Business Association and a member of the capital campaign committee for the Westside Makerspace. She also owns Puff Apothecary, a collaborative natural hair salon and boutique. In her free time, Bethany enjoys visiting the Ohio countryside with her family. She is an active PTO president at a Dayton Public School Montessori elementary and enjoys bringing together neighbors, friends, and family for community projects. “I am so excited and honored to be working with a talented, creative, and dynamic group of peers claiming space in the vital industry of agriculture,” she said. “I’ve worked my entire life representing the values and work ethic that my family instilled in me and now I get to work in a team that has that same background and passion.” SUZANNE PERRY SLAVENS Suzanne grew up in the Saddleback Valley in Orange County, Calif., tromping around small eucalyptus groves and plunking down stepping stones across a little place called Serrano Creek. After college, she worked as a naturalist in parks, botanical gardens and environmental education centers, became very interested in the therapeutic effects of time spent in nature, and decided to pursue a graduate degree that would allow her to investigate the relationship between access to greenspace and human health. After completing degrees in Public Health and Environmental Science at the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor, Suzanne developed intergenerational garden programs and worked with older adults as a health educator and horticultural therapist. After that she spent six years developing and managing a permaculture food forest in Orange, California, where she coordinated ecology classes, agroecology internships, and service learning programs. After moving to Ohio in 2020, Suzanne has had the opportunity to learn more about market gardening and small-scale organic farming while working at the Farm on Central in Carlisle and Cook’s Garden in New Lebanon. She is also currently coordinating a youth agroforestry program at the Elder Tree Forest School in Dayton. She lives in Dayton with her husband, Jesse, a professor of philosophy, and their dog, Charlie. “I feel incredibly blessed to be joining the Youth Education team here at Agraria,” Slavins said. “The mission of Agraria resonates with my heart because living close to the land is one of my own greatest sources of strength, health, and peace.” 44 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022