Meet the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute Board of Directors


Matt Romero, President
Romero Farms, Embudo, NM. A native of Espanola, Matt and his family farm a very productive few acres near Dixon and Alcalde. Matt also has a gourmet restaurant background – as a line chef with Coyote Café in Santa Fe and in the development of four restaurants in Denver, Colorado.

Erin English, Secretary
Erin is currently working as a project engineer with Natural Systems International in Santa Fe, a cutting-edge firm that integrates sustainable practices into the collection, treatment and reuse of storm and wastewater. She is in the process of obtaining her Professional Engineering (PE) license, as well as becoming a LEED-Accredited Professional. Erin is an avid gardener and was the co-coordinator of Sustainable Santa Fe: A Resource Guide. She helped to bring the wildly popular tribal rock group, Kan’Nal, to Santa Fe last September as a fundraiser for the Institute.
Loretta McGrath, Treasurer
An environmental educator and organic gardener, Loretta was a senior adjunct faculty member of Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado through 2004. She has a wealth of experience in sustainable horticulture and agriculture and served as a faculty liaison between Hedgerow Farm (a twenty- acre organic farm owned and operated by the University) staff and University administration.

Stanley Crawford
Stanley and his wife, Rose Mary, have lived and farmed the Embudo Valley of northern New Mexico since 1969. Stan chaired the board of directors of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market from 1983 through 1997. He has been involved in all aspects of the building project since 1998, is past chair of the board of Northern New Mexico Legal Services, Santa Fe, and the Taos Art Association. He also serves on the board of the nonprofit Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation. Stan is the author of six books, including Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico; and A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm, both published by the University of New Mexico Press. In addition to two non-fiction books, he has published four novels.
Donald Emery
Co- founder and CEO of 20/80 Ideas - a web marketing services company, Donald brings many years of technical business experience with a focus in marketing, sales, strategic planning, technology and reference publishing and e-commerce as a result of professional experience with Smartforce, Novell Corporation, WordPerfect Corporation and Reference Software International. Don earned a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. Donald is an Emeritus Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University and an avid organic gardener.
Lisa Fox
Lisa Fox is a vendor at the Market. She makes Southwest Chutney and has worked with many local farmers for the last six years who grow the food for her product. She also hosts a radio show, "Farming through the Seasons," which features Agriculture Culture in the upper Rio Grande region and has been broadcast regionally for four years. It was from her radio show that she gleaned the content of her new book, Artisan Farming, published in 2008 by GibbsSmith Publishing. Co-author Richard Harris started the idea for Artisan Farming when he found Lisa at the Market after listening to her monthly radio show. Lisa has lived in New Mexico for 14 years and lives near the Colorado border just north of Questa with her partner Pete Mellen. Her certified kitchen is in Costilla, New Mexico. Before becoming an artisan agricultural producer, she had retail stores, was a musician, and participated in political theater. When she lived in upstate New York, Lisa saw how the Green Market saved many farms. She wants to see the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market prosper in its new venue and is excited to use her passion to help agriculture thrive and to save farmland for future generations. Lisa’s son, Kurt, and his new wife, Jennie, live in Mt. Vernon, N.Y.
Lisa Magli
Lisa Magli came to New Mexico five years ago from northern California. She has a background in both business and ornamental horticulture. She sold starter plants and has a keen interest in container gardening and food growing. In addition to horticulture, she’s worked in the hospitality industry, then in retail and real estate and would like to move into human resources in the near future. Lisa is currently a senior sales manager at the Marriot Courtyard in Santa Fe. She also works for Borders as a contingent book seller, but previously was a general manager of a Borders store. She wants to be involved in a nonprofit that helps the community and supports farmers in their efforts. She was formerly on the Wildlife Center board of directors, seeing them through the opening of their new center.

Jill Markstein
Jill comes to the Institute with a wealth of experience in natural foods. In 1982, Jill was one of the founders of the MarketPlace Natural Grocery. As CEO and owner, Jill, along with co-owner Judith Sedlow and staff, was able to build a sustainable and thriving business committed to buying from local farmers and producers and educating the community about the value of buying locally. As a result (with the big box stores on their heels), a flourishing community resource for natural and organic foods, healthy living, conservation and sustainability was created. In 2005, the MarketPlace became La Montanita Co-op, which continues the full cycle of community involvement Jill worked so hard to achieve. Jill has served on The Santa Fe Children’s Museum Board, Kitchen Angels Board, and the Santa Fe Public Schools Food Program, Advisory Committee. She continues to deliver food for Kitchen Angels as she has for the last twelve years.
Erica Peters
Erica Peters was born and raised in Santa Fe, and has been farming nearby and selling organic vegetables at the Market with her brother, Soren, since she was 16 years old. She has served as the director of the New Mexico Organic Commodity Commission. As a Western Culinary Institute (Le Cordon Bleu) graduate, Erica is also a chef offering fine organic cuisine through her business, Contoured Cooking. She is excited to become a member of the Institute to continue her work to promote organic farming and eating in northern New Mexico.
Bob Ross
Co- founder and CEO of 20/80 Ideas - a web marketing services company, Donald brings many years of technical business experience with a focus in marketing, sales, strategic planning, technology and reference publishing and e-commerce as a result of professional experience with Smartforce, Novell Corporation, WordPerfect Corporation and Reference Software International. Don earned a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. Donald is an Emeritus Professor of Marketing at San Francisco State University and an avid organic gardener.
Julia Valdez
Julia Valdez is the director of government affairs for the American Heart Association, Pacific/Mountain region. Her work with the Institute supports important facets in the American Heart Association's 2010 goals, which include supporting healthy food choices, quality physical activity, strong nutrition policies and programs and further research to effectively treat and prevent obesity, a major risk factor of heart disease and stroke. Trained at the Midwest Academy and a 2002 Advocacy Institute Fellow graduate, she began her work in Tobacco Control by working on the ASSIST Project (American Stop Smoking Intervention Study) at the Santa Fe Community Partnership for Substance Abuse Prevention. As chair for the Santa Fe Tobacco Free coalition, she became the Campaign Manager for their Clean Indoor Air campaign. During that time, she also was the chair for the statewide coalition, New Mexicans Concerned About Tobacco. In 1999, the first Santa Fe Smoking Pollution Control ordinance passed. In 2006 the Santa Fe ordinance was strengthened to include bars and patios. Most recently, Julia worked on the successful effort to ban indoor smoking statewide. Julia lives in Santa Fe with two cats and husband/playwright Oscar Rodriguez.
Audre Wenzler
Audre is a partner in a medicinal aromatherapy company called Wisdom of the Earth, which has more than 200 different types of wild crafted or biodynamically produced essential oils and hydrosols that are marketed throughout the US. Audre is involved in the company's sales/marketing, teaching, management and operations, and personally consults with clients on utilizing the essences for optimum health. She has a Masters of Arts in Teaching from the College of New Jersey and was in the Doctoral program in Organization & Management Theory at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. For more than 20 years, she headed Human Resource departments in public accounting and drug development organizations, and brings considerable organizational and policy research/development experience to the Institute. She has a deep personal interest in sustainability, local agriculture and protection of the wilderness.
Sarah Noss, Executive Director
Sarah Noss is a native of Santa Fe. After graduating from Stanford University, she returned to Santa Fe, where she worked for many years in advertising as vice president of Creative Images. After a brief stint in Paris, she ended up in Chicago for almost a decade where she worked in advertising and promotions in the publishing industry. She returned to Santa Fe in the early 90s and started working for a variety of nonprofits as a writer, consultant, fundraiser and grant writer. Formerly, she was the interim director and grant writer at the St. Vincent Hospital Foundation and was responsible for raising the money for the Healing Garden at the Cancer Treatment Center and for creating and funding the Doula Program of childbirth assistants. She helped to fund the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner unit at the hospital and worked on the capital campaign for the renovation of the OB/GYN unit. After the hospital, Sarah was the development director at Cornerstones Community Partnerships, an historic preservation nonprofit that worked in small villages and pueblos throughout New Mexico, and since July 2005 has been the executive director of the Santa Fe Farmers' Market Institute.
closeups