Staff

  • Lauren Augusta

    Executive Director
    Oakland, CA

    With a career devoted to international training and cultural exchange, Lauren served nine years as assistant director at a "conventional" agriculture exchange program before founding MESA. In 1994, Lauren incorporated the Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture, Inc. (MESA) to promote sustainable farming alternatives throughout the world. Lauren holds a B.A. in Russian Language & Literature from the University of New Hampshire at Durham, which sparked her initial interest to pursue a career in cross-cultural exchange. In 1996 Lauren successfully negotiated the lengthy, "Kafka-esque" designation process for J-1 Training and Cultural Exchange Program status with the United States Information Agency (now under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State), and has since acted as MESA's executive director. When not wearing her MESA hat, Lauren devotes time trying to answer that age old question of "Mommie, what's for dinner?" for her two sons, ages 7 and 10.

  • Leah Atwood

    Program Director
    Berkeley, CA

    As MESA's Program Director, Leah works to develop international and internal partnerships, facilitate program participant support and cultivate new growth opportunities. Leah grew up on a ranch in the redwoods of Arcata, CA and moved to the Bay Area to pursue degrees in Environmental Policy and Spanish at UC Berkeley. She has lived in South and Central America as well as in Bangladesh working on behalf of social, environmental and food justice initiatives. Thanks to her work experience abroad she gained further insight into international agriculture systems and the value of socio-ecologically mindful practices and unconventional multi-stakeholder collaboration. Leah’s prior non-profit experience includes program development for the International Institute for Bengal Basin to address water rights and pollution mitigation and fund development for the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant to provide advocacy for indigent refugees. She currently serves on the board of directors for Planting Justice, an Oakland non-profit creating green jobs and democratizing access to affordable, nutritious food and enjoys teaching yoga at Common Circle Education.

  • Aaron Michels

    Programs and Operations Coordinator
    Oakland, CA

    Aaron joined MESA in February 2010. In college, he worked a year long internship in Bolivia that was very similar to what MESA stewards experience in the US; he trained on an organic farm with the Bolivian NGO Fundación Integral de Desarollo (FIDES - the Foundation for Integral Development). That experience had a huge impact on him, and with MESA he is glad to help offer great experiences to the stewards coming to the US.

    As a part of his bachelor's thesis, Aaron collaborated with community co-managed national parks in Belize and started a non-profit in New Jersey that supported international volunteering. Aaron has worked for international development foundations, as a media producer, in green energy consulting, as a community builder, and as a youth adviser. He's glad to be working to promote global sustainability, international development, and cultural exchange, and he loves the relationships he forms with the MESA stewards and hosts.

    Aaron is active in East Bay co-housing and urban ag, keeps bees, and grafts trees. He likes to make sculptures with light (he calls them "pellucids") and think about being human.

  • Michelle Roses

    Program Coordinator
    Berkeley, CA

    Michelle RosesMichelle Roses

    Michelle is a Bay Area native who is proud of her roots, but dreams of working abroad with MESA Stewards.

    During her college career at UC Berkeley, she helped start a food co-op (the “Local”) for students, faculty and community members on campus. Since 2007 she has been involved in local farmers’ markets and has worked on a small organic farm in the Central Valley. After graduating in 2009 with a B.S. in Conservation and Natural Resources, Michelle traveled to la Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico for a research project on native corn varieties. She lived and worked with a local non-profit organization of indigenous farmers where she learned how to farm with zero irrigation. Michelle is excited to have become a part of MESA, promoting sustainable agriculture and encouraging both farming and cultural exchange.

    When she’s not growing 15 foot corn in her backyard in Oakland, Michelle is probably at the beach either teaching her puppy how to swim or getting her scuba dive tank caught in kelp.

  • Alison Malisa

    Development and Education Coordinator
    Sebastopol, CA

    Alison has been working toward global food security and regional food sovereignty at the international level since 1999, when she spent time in Pátzcuaro, Mexico doing research and community outreach with the local non-profit CESE (Centro de Estudios Socio-Ecológicos). After earning her undergraduate degrees in Global Studies and Spanish at Sonoma State University, Alison interned for four years on an organic farm, where she studied herbal medicine and began her own business of cultivating culinary herbs. A Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania from 2005-2007, Alison organized farmers’ co-operatives and agricultural education programs in rural schools. This is how she met her husband, and co-founded YOU + ME, a networking project that connects farmers to schools and students to each other worldwide.

    Currently pursuing her Masters degree in Public Health at San José State University, Alison teaches Spanish, serves on the board of directors for Earth Camp Collective and the Green Bough Health Cooperative, and is coordinating the first certificate program in International Sustainable Agriculture (CISA) that MESA will launch in June 2011. She lives on a permaculture homestead in Sebastopol with her husband and two children, and likes to spend Saturday morning with friends, perfecting Eggs Benedict.

MESA's Physical Location
Phone: (510) 654-8858
Toll free: (888) 834-7461
Email: info [at] mesaprogram [dot] org
Fax: (510) 225-2314

 

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Celebrating Cultural Cuisine Night 2011!

groupcc.jpgMESA's most spectacular fundraising dinner to date! Check out our slideshow of the evening's gastronomic feats, farmer presentations, and dancing!

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Fernanda's & Ellen's SPRIG for Kids

MESAteaser_ferellen.jpgMESA steward Fernanda Ramos and host Ellen Bartholomew have developed a kid-centered SPRIG featuring garden-to-table education and small grains processing.

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