Our Team

FARM COORDINATOR

Iris Fen Gillingham grew up on Wild Roots Farm, an off-grid regenerative farm in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Iris became involved in climate justice work at the age of 9 when her community rose up against the threat of fracking. Between 2014-2019 she worked with Earth Guardians and helped launch the climate justice organization Zero Hour. Her passion for change and positive voice have been featured in articles and videos by Vice, The New York Times, CNN, and Teen Vogue, along with international TV stations and local media outlets. She was also featured in the National Geographic film “Paris to Pittsburgh”, and has received local awards for her work in Sullivan County, including the SPARK award. Working with the Livingston Manor Summer School students in their garden, running internship programs, and hosting workshops on her family’s farm inspired her to found Gael Roots Community Farm. Iris wants to support people of all ages (especially young people) to build connections to their food, energy resources, and local ecology, with an emphasis on creating stronger relationships between themselves and the natural world. She is passionate about fostering collaboration and connection at Gael Roots. Iris attended SUNY Sullivan and received a degree in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic in Maine.

BLACK MESA TO CATSKILLS COORDINATOR

Raeanna is a 22 year-old member of the Dine (Navajo) Nation. She belongs to the Chíshí (Chiricahua) Dine'é clan and born for the ‘Ashííhí (Salt) clan. She is from the Black Mesa Plateau in Northeast Arizona on the Navajo Nation. Growing up in the rural high desert on ancestral land, Raeanna became an active volunteer for the grassroots organization, Tó Nizhoní Aní (TNA) which means "Sacred Water Speaks". TNA was formed in 2001 and its mission is to protect Navajo Water. Since its formation, TNA has successfully campaigned to end the use of pristine groundwater for coal mining. Currently, Raeanna is a student at Diné College and when she is not studying, she is usually busy helping at the family ranch or relaxing with her cat, "Gidi Mao”.

Raeanna was an intern at Wild Roots Farm in 2022 and was involved in the visioning for Gael Roots Community Farm in the fall of that year. She found her time in the Catskills to be a valuable learning experience exploring and learning in a place so ecologically different from the desert. This year she will return in a new capacity, supporting fellow native young people to join the farm crew in the Catskill Mountains. She is the Co-creator of the Black Mesa to Catskills Exchange Program.

FARMING & WILD FOOD MENTOR

Amy believes the natural world is the best teacher and has used that as a philosophy for living. She has demonstrated this while mentoring nearly 40 interns and homeschooling her two children over the past 25 years. She is passionate about continuing to learn from the wild by observing, listening, foraging and exploring.  Amy is also drawn to improving soil and food systems by nurturing the microbial life and all that we cannot see on the land.  While she loves to learn about and envision sustainable agricultural practices, she also knows that the place we live, shapes us.  In her efforts to domesticate and plant on their small farm, that land slowly uncultivated her and taught her to be more wild! This affects how she grows food, herbal medicines, saves seeds, and tends to sheep, cows, ducks, and chickens.   Developing a close relationship with what grows on the land, Amy is a fiber artist using sheep wool, flax, and dye plants to make clothing. The Wild Roots Farm landscape has been inspired by traditional building and land practices while keeping room in the landscape for wild berries, trees and plants to intermix with domestic food systems.  She has led many workshops about farming, food, and is a certified breath facilitator.  Amy brings people together to cook and bake with the outdoor wood-fired oven which creates transformation in community.  

CLIMATE JUSTICE & FARMING MENTOR

Wes Gillingham has wandered the forest and swamps here on the ridge between Youngsville and Livingston Manor his whole life. It was those experiences tracking bobcats, deer, bears, and snowshoe hares that cemented his relationship with the land. Tracking wildlife to learn their behaviors along with knowledge and stories from Old timers really steered where he would go with his life. Although graduating from the University of Maine his real education comes from his extensive experiences in rural and wilderness America. Wes is a co-founder and Associate Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, and coordinates collaborative efforts working with regional, state, and national partners on Extreme Energy Extraction and fossil fuel infrastructure fights. He serves on the advisory board of the Center for Earth Ethics and has personally lived off the electric grid for almost 40 years. He and his wife Amy coordinated a 150-family CSA vegetable operation for ten years. As a board member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, is co-chair of the policy committee, working on New York State and National farm policy. While as an Acting Director of Field Programs for the National Audubon Society Expedition Institute, he taught graduate and undergraduate environmental education throughout North America. Leading backpacks and canoe trips in wild North America made him realize how special the Catskills are and how rare his connection to this place is. Those experiences give him the passion to help build Gael Roots Community Farm for the sake of our community and the planet.

EDUCATOR & FARM TEAM MEMBER

Nicole Colvin Griffin is currently apprenticing to the land on Wild Roots Farm. She lives in a yurt and is the caretaker of Wilding Village. She is an environmental educator with 20+ years experience working with children at Wild Rose Farm School, Peabody Mill Environmental Center, Waldorf Pioneer Schools and homeschooling programs. Nicole is Certified in Transformational Breathwork and Permaculture Design. She works with medicinal plants. She is a facilitator of women’s spaces. Nicole is an artist, crafter, herbalist, and wild forager. She raised three children who are now off in the world. Her eldest, Raven, has worked on Wild Roots Farm and helped envision Gael Roots Community Farm.

BOARD MEMBER & 2024 FARM TEAM

Kanenishon (Ga-na-ee-soon) Arquette is wolf clan, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk), and was born and raised in the Mohawk Nation community of Ahkwesáhsne. She spent her early years immersed in the Mohawk language, culture, and traditions. Kanenishon was a student at the Akwesasne Freedom School until grade 9, where she learned traditional cultural practices, including ceremonial speaking, Mohawk history, legends, narratives, archery, fishing, traditional medicines, basket making, beading, leatherwork, gardening, food preservation, and seed saving. She has continued volunteering with the Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment to collect trash, participate in their seed giveaway, collect maple sap, and grow traditional foods. She knows the importance of connecting children with the natural world and the value of community service. She believes Mohawk children should learn their language early in life and be outside to have a relationship with the natural world. Kanenishon graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor’s degree in childhood/early childhood education. She chose social studies for her area of concentration because so little is taught in schools about Native American history. Kanenishon wants to utilize her familiarity with the Mohawk language, culture, and history to share knowledge with future generations. She continued her education and graduated in 2022 with her Masters MSEd in curriculum and instruction, focusing on language revitalization. Kanienishon is currently a mindfulness instructor in the local school districts in and around Akwesasne, working to introduce positive coping strategies to children who deal with stress and anxiety.

BOARD MEMBER

Mimi McGurl is a freelance director, dramaturg, and landscape gardener in the Catskills. She has collaborated with the Farm Arts Collective on several projects (including Dream on the Farm 1 and 2) and with the North American Cultural Laboratory (Courage, The Weather Project, Shakespeare’s Will, and The Lost Book of Lakewood House). She has taught writing classes and directed plays at the Catskill Art Space, NYC’s WOW Cafe Theatre (the Paul Robeson Project), Chashama, San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Theatre Rhinoceros, and Highways in Los Angeles. She has also been adjunct faculty at NYU, ACT’s MFA program, Mills College, the University of California, Irvine where she received her MFA and Stanford University where she received her PhD.

BOARD MEMBER

Ife Afriye Kilimanjaro, Ph. D., (she/her) is a grandmother, author, researcher, educator, activist, traditional healer and spirit-warrior whose life and work are informed by her deep commitment to healing, justice and co-creating a better world. She co-founded The Wind & The Warrior, a spirit-healing workspace for movement leaders-activists and serves as Co-Executive Director / Managing Director for Soul Fire Farm Institute.

BOARD MEMBER

Doreen is Professor of Global Environmental Politics at the College of the Atlantic (COA). She teaches courses on climate justice, land and climate change, comparative climate change and biodiversity politics, and French and European political institutions. Her courses span theory and practice, with theoretical groundings in political ecology and practical political engagement in real-world struggles for climate justice and social change. Doreen held the inaugural Zennström professorship in climate change leadership at Uppsala University, Sweden, in 2015-2016.

Doreen’s professional work beyond teaching and COA straddles intersections between biodiversity and climate policy and politics. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on Accelerating Climate Action. She is advisor and consultant to international climate justice organizations and social movements on issues related to land, livelihoods, and climate change, in particular against carbon markets and carbon offsetting. In UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations, she serves as advisor to a group of developing country governments on the issue of loss and damage. She is active in a number of national and international alliances of climate justice organizations working against carbon offsetting and the commodification and financialization of nature.

BOARD MEMBER

Anita retired in 2019 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) after a 24-year career in ecological restoration where she focused on conserving, restoring, and managing native plant communities and streams, and implementing practices that aided in the recovery of federally listed and at-risk species. She has been a collaborator in small and large stream barrier (dam, culvert) removal projects; wetland restoration (including mountain bogs); pollinator habitat; longleaf pine savannah habitat; bottomland hardwood habitat; prairie habitat; and stream restoration using natural channel design principles. She has served on USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) State Technical Committees, as a Service project manager for habitat restoration on agricultural lands, and provided expertise to NRCS District Conservationists in developing ecological restoration projects and long-term conservation easements on agricultural lands. Throughout her career she actively cultivated successful and long-lasting partnerships with federal, state, and local agency officials as well as non-governmental organizations, academic partners, and industry. In collaboration with these partners, she developed successful grant proposals from various funding sources (federal, state, and private) for restoration project assessment and implementation. Her career with the Service enabled her to work in central Alaska, the lower Mississippi River Valley, North Carolina, and Georgia. Prior to her work with the Service, she served as an interpreter/educator focusing on experiential learning for students attending Yosemite Institute. She currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina and frequently explores natural areas and visits friends within the U.S. and Canada in her motorhome with her two canine companions.