Meet Our Team

Courtney Baines

Executive Director
​courtney@brwia.org

Courtney comes to Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture after years of teaching sustainability and environmental education at Watauga High School and Appalachian State University. She served as the Farm Tour Coordinator and AmeriCorps Service Member for BRWIA in 2012 and 2013. She also created and directed the school garden support program, ​Lettuce Learn. Courtney holds a Masters in Sustainable Development and is working on her Doctorate in Education from Appalachian State University.  When she's not working for BRWIA, you can find her gardening, hiking and playing pretend with her son Aiden and their dog Maple.

Dave Walker

Programs Director
dave@brwia.org

Dave grew up in the North Carolina Piedmont and would visit his grandparents' home places in Watauga County each summer to camp and hike. Dave previously worked as the Program Manager and Grant Writer of High Country Local First's entrepreneurship program, Ascent Business Network. He holds a MA in Appalachian Studies and Graduate Certificate in Geographic Information Sciences from AppState and a BA in American Studies from Sewanee: The University of the South. Dave's Masters Thesis concerned how first-generation farmers become successful in Blue Ridge Appalachia, and he counts himself amongst them as he started Daffodil Spring Farm, in the spring of 2017. Dave also held an internship with AppState's Edible Schoolyard where, he mapped Watauga County's community gardens and encouraged a network amongst the shared growing spaces. When he is not working with BRWIA, you may find him in his garden, fly fishing in Wilson's Creek, or spinning really, really fast at a contra dance.

Michelle Dineen

Market Manager
Michelle @brwia.org​

Michelle is passionate about strengthening community connections between people and the land. She holds both a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and a Master's degree in Public Administration from Appalachian State University and currently serves as Program Director at the Patterson School Foundation in Happy Valley, NC. After moving to Boone in 2010, she quickly became immersed in community organizing and developed a deep connection to her High Country home. Convinced that societal healing is only possible when we are empowered to do work that is fulfilling, economically viable, and harmonious with nature, she aims to help build and and support systems that create opportunities for people to do just that. As Market Manager for the King Street Market and Boone Winter Farmers’ Market, Michelle strives to help create an enjoyable market experience for community members and to facilitate a productive enterprise for participating local producers. 

Rebecca Gummere

Food Hub Assistant

Rebecca grew up living in six different states and two other countries, all before she was eleven years old. After that her family settled for the next decade on eighty acres of beautiful rolling farmland in northeastern Ohio. She moved from Ohio to North Carolina in 2000 and to Boone in 2003. Rebecca loves travel, hiking, snowshoeing, reading, animals of all kinds, and adores cooking (and eating!) and playing in the kitchen. In another earlier life, Rebecca worked at OASIS, Inc. as Associate Director and before that at Grace Lutheran Church as Associate Pastor. Now she is a writer, with essays appearing in national and international publications as well as literary journals. She is currently working on a memoir about her nine-month cross-country journey in a small RV with her two dogs. She holds a BA in American Studies from Wittenberg University, an M.Div. from Trinity Lutheran Seminary, and an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She is thrilled to join the BRWIA team as Food Hub Assistant and is excited about the strong networks developing to support local farmers and to make sustainably-produced food available to more and more people. Rebecca believes in the power of food to bring people together, to deepen community, and to build lasting friendships.

Shannon ​Carroll

High Country Food Hub Coordinator
shannon@brwia.org

Shannon grew up in the Piedmont area of NC and moved to Boone in 1983 after spending a year teaching Biology on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. She has 30+ years of experience providing leadership and support for instructional technology for Watauga County Schools. She retired from Watauga County Schools in 2013 and is currently dividing her time between three part-time positions - being the High Country Food Hub Coordinator, the Lettuce Learn garden coordinator for Parkway School, and helping her husband, Terry, with his SunCatcher Passive Solar Greenhouse business. She also recently earned her Master Gardener certification. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, traveling to visit her sons, and going for long walks.​

AmeriCorps VISTA Service Members

Luci Hancock

Educational Programming Designer
AmeriCorps VISTA
Luci@brwia.org​
​
Luci grew up in Western North Carolina and lived in Boone for several years as a child. She moved back in 2013 to attend Appalachian State University, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Development in 2016. During that time, she was a student resident at ASU’s teaching and research farm, interned at the Watauga County Cooperative Extension Office, and volunteered at farms across the high country. She is returning to Boone after completing a Masters in Agricultural and Extension Education from NC State University. Luci is passionate about creating educational opportunities for producers, gardeners, and anyone looking to get involved in the local food system. She is excited to be serving as a VISTA for Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture.

Lori Ludwig

Financial Sustainability and Management Systems Designer
AmeriCorps VISTA
lori@brwia.org
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Lori grew up in Michigan and lived in New York before moving to the high country in 2009.  After 20 years of performance improvement consulting with global organizations she decided to shift her focus from the corporate sector to serve non-profits and small businesses. Lori holds a Doctorate in Organizational Behavior Management from Western Michigan University and specializes in designing and implementing strategic solutions that optimize human performance and organizational impact. She is excited to contribute to strengthening the local food system through the work of BRWIA. Lori lives in Blowing Rock with her beautiful daughter, cat, dog and husband and you will usually find her on the trails.