Board of Directors
Grace Marasco-Plummer, Chair
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Grace helps develop and manage externally-funded research and outreach projects of the Appalachian Energy Center and the Research Institute for Environment, Energy and Economics (RIEEE) at Appalachian State University. She is interested in various aspects of relocalizing the food economy and how home gardening contributes to sustainable food systems. She is also committed to connecting University expertise and resources with community needs while providing experiential learning opportunities to engaged students.
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Jessica Martell, Vice Chair
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Jessica is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Appalachian State University. Research fellowships in British and Irish archives have supported her work on the impact of industrial food chains upon modern literature and culture. She also researches Irish agricultural cooperatives and alternative food economies. She teaches courses on British, Irish, American, and World Literatures as well as food studies, film, and Literature and the Environment.
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Janett Castillo, Secretary
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Janett is the garden coordinator for Beatitude Gardens, a program of Blackburn Community Outreach in Todd, NC. She moved to Northwestern North Carolina from South Texas as a child and in her adolescence here developed a passion for growing food. Janett graduated from Appalachian State University in 2018 after studying in the Sustainable Development department. She has worked as a farm fellow at the SD farm and as part of a greenhouse management team at Little Saps, a small business in Grassy Creek, NC. In her current position, Janett hopes to make a lasting impact on the local food system by making sustainably grown local produce more easily accessible to families in rural Ashe and Watauga counties.
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Laura Graham, Treasurer
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Laura grew up in a home where all the food was homegrown, canned, preserved as much as possible. After moving to Boone in 1963, she has tried to maintain this way of life with her own children during much more modern times. These ideals lead Laura to found the Preserve Heritage Agriculture & Regional Markets NOW! non-profit and later help create The Kids' Corner at the Watauga Farmer's Market. Laura also coordinates the Tuesday Lunch Program to provide free lunch to college students every Tuesday and assists with the Children's Food Bags program to help feed children with low food security as part of her mission to enhance and sustain local food production and consumption.
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Julia Showalter
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Julia is a lecturer in the Biology Department at Appalachian State University. She also manages the sustainable gardens on campus including the Appalachian Roots Garden, the Sustainable Development Civic Garden and the Garden at the Child Development Center. She has helped in the development of the Watauga Seed Library and helps to organize the Kid’s Corner at the Boone Farmer’s Market. Her interests are dendrology, agroforestry and permaculture.
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Freda Smith
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As a resident of Boone for 40 years, Freda has owned her own business, Freda Smith, CPA, and volunteered with many non-profit organizations including OASIS, Watauga County Children’s Council, Blue Ridge Community Theatre, United Way and Boy Scouts. Freda loves to read and work in her flower beds, and is an avid quilter. As a small business owner since 1981, she understands the challenges facing small business and women in the workplace. She joined the Board of Directors to share her experiences and expertise to help BRWIA and local farmers to be successful.
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Carla Ramsdell
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Carla is a faculty member in the Physics and Astronomy Department at Appalachian State. She is passionate about bridging the gap between scientific research and the general public in the areas of climate change, energy generation, and efficient cooking strategies. She is a licensed mechanical engineer and, prior to Appalachian State, spent 17 years working in the power industry. Carla comes from an Italian background and loves cooking and gardening. She has merged her love of science, food and environmental advocacy by creating a college course, research and public outreach platform on energy awareness related to our food system called “Know Watts Cooking: The Physics of Energy Efficient Food.” Carla is excited to join the board of BRWIA and contribute to the work of this organization promoting a vibrant local food system, a critical component to a sustainable food future.
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Ms V
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Ms. V served as an Educational Interpreter for the Deaf for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools and Volunteered with Special Olympics of North Carolina for two decades. After moving to West Jefferson in 2012, she served on the Board with the Ashe County Farmers Market and started her own natural soap company with the catchphrase, “Your Skin Will Tell Your Life Story!” Ms. V says, “Many believe the phrase had to do with my soap and skin care. However, being a woman, an African American woman, this phrase has also been my motivational story throughout life. It’s been a phrase that keeps me grounded, humble, aware of my surroundings, my daily survival, courage to take on challenges; and a constant reminder that I too can help others to be great!” In her free time Ms. V likes, horticulture, collecting day lilies, traveling, cooking and a great debate!
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Edith Mubanda
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Edith joined the board in May 2017. After a fulfilling career in public health nutrition at AppHealthCare, and adjunct teaching at Appalachian State University, she retired in 2015 to pursue projects that focus on sustainable development and help people out of poverty. Edith also is involved in community development work in Uganda, the country that raised her. Her work there aligns with BRWIA's vision of an equitable local food system and healthy ecosystem. Being with BRWIA staff and board members renews her faith in humanity, that there are people out there that want to make a difference in communities. Edith enjoys traveling, photography, the outdoors and facilitating better life experiences for families with small children.
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Debra Patterson
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Debra (Deb) Patterson and Kenneth (Ken) Jones are the Innkeepers at Meadowsweet Gardens Inn.While Ken is native to the area, Deb discovered this coolest corner of North Carolina in 2000. She fell in love with Joe Campbell house while looking for a small vacation retreat. Deb has spent her career in nursing and has a passion for taking care of people. She was in psychiatric clinical practice for many years before switching to public health consulting. Besides people, Deb loves to cook, garden, read and walk and bike. She has a love for herbs and herbal medicine and has studied this over the years as well as aromatherapy. Cooking up tinctures, medicinal ointments, essential oil therapies and making bath salts, scrubs, potpourris and other delights is her way of relaxing. The dream of owning a small Inn and taking care of people has been realized!
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