MFAI>>About Us >>Staff Directory

Staff Directory

• Ron Doetch, President
• Susan Gravelle, Managing Director
• Sue Ciechanowski, Chief Financial Officer
• Bill Barber, Lab Technician
• Stacy Cushenbery, Teutonia Urban Gardener/Educator
• Shirley Fox, Building Custodian
• Janet Gamble, Farm and Food Education Program Director
• Walter Goldstein, Research Program Director
• John Hall, Farming Systems Outreach and Education Director
• Bridget Holcomb, Associate Policy Director
• Margaret Krome, Policy Program Director
• Estaban Miramontes, Grounds and Maintenance Specialist
• Katie Wied , MFAI Policy Organizer
• Shannah Schmitt , Receptionist and Bookkeeper

Ron Doetch, President

Ron Doetch serves as President of Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and was the Executive Director since 2003. Prior to MFAI, Ron worked with the food division of Itochu, a large Japanese trading company, designing origination programs to connect the Japanese consumer to the American farmer. Ron serves on the board of the Town and Country RC&D, the Boone County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Citizens Advisory Council of the UW Center for Integrated Agriculture Systems, the advisory board of the Wisconsin Integrated Faming System Trials and he is a "thinking partner"/co-project director of the Good to Grow Project, centered in Madison.

Ron keeps a sailboat in Milwaukee on Lake Michigan and intersects frequently with initiatives of the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Urban Ag Network. Ron currently heads up MFAI's Teutonia Urban Gardens project, a one-half acre garden, which serves as an outdoor classroom for the Academy of Learning and Leadership of Milwaukee. The project is also serves a model for managing city storm water while fostering social healing and economic development. Ron is also involved with regional food system initiatives in Chicago. The Great Lakes beckon.

Phone: (262) 642-3303, ext 119
E-mail: rdoetch@michaelfieldsaginst.org

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Susan Gravelle, Managing Director

Email:

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Sue Ciechanowski, Chief Financial Officer

Sue joined Michael Fields Agricultural Institute at the beginning of 2008 bringing with her over 25 years of accounting experience. She has a strong background in personal taxes, estate, probate and private foundation returns gained while working in several large law firms. Prior to coming to MFAI, her position included handling all of the accounting for the Assurant Health Foundation. Sue earned a BS degree with an accounting major from Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin. As a way of giving back to her community, Sue serves as the Secretary for the Mukwonago Community Library Board of Trustees. When not working, Sue and her husband enjoy spending time with their two adult children, traveling, and training and showing their Newfoundland dogs.

Phone: (262) 642-3303, ext. 100
E-mail: suec@michaelfieldsaginst.org

Bill Barber, Lab Technician

Bill Barber, staff ecologist and naturalist, collects and records field data for the research projects at MFAI. He has worked with soil fertility and organic matter studies at the Institute and had specialized in studying root health through measurements of root health with electronic scanning systems. His present work is focused mainly on breeding corn for enhanced nutritional value and specialty markets. In his spare time he contributes to Retzer Nature Center in Waukesha County by managing butterfly counts and in taking care of a special needs young man who is growing up fast. He also volunteers time with special Olympics. He has a B.S. degree in natural resource management from the UW-Stevens Point.

Phone: (262) 642-3303, ext. 107
E-mail: bbarber@michaelfieldsaginst.org

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Stacy Cushenbery, Teutonia Urban Gardener/Educator

Phone: (920) 889-0560
E-mail:
Stacy Cushenbery is the Garden Educator at the Teutonia Urban Gardens in Milwaukee, WI. She is a graduate of the University Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she earned a baccalaurean degree in Cultural Anthropology with a focus on urban communities. She developed her love of gardening alongside her parents, working with them in their gardens in Milwaukee and later after they moved to a rural Wisconsin community. During her summers Stacy worked for local farms in the village of Random Lake, WI learning about vegetable and fruit production on a larger scale.
After returning to Milwaukee she worked with a local organization in Milwaukee, UrBan Anthropology, where she interviewed recent immigrants from western Africa and learned about the cities troubling access to good quality food in certain communities. This started her interest in local urban gardening and farming in Milwaukee. During her education she volunteered and had internships throughout Milwaukee with focuses on food access, immigration, and youth mentoring. Stacy lives in the Riverwest community in Milwaukee where she grows her own produce on a city plot, volunteers as a mentor and still gardens with her parents.
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Shirley Fox, Building Custodian

Phone: (262) 642-5554

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Janet Gamble, Farm and Food Education Program Director

Janet Gamble provides the primary instruction of the Garden students and manages Stella Gardens, a working subscription and market garden of 100 varieties of vegetables raised organically in a hands-on educational setting. She is a Sterling College Grassroots Program graduate, and she has more than 20 years experience in organic and biodynamic gardening. She is on an advisory committee to the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference; helped implement an on-site garden program for Walworth County Jail and has been active in formation of the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training.

Phone: (262) 642-3303, ext. 127
E-mail: jgamble@michaelfieldsaginst.org

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Walter Goldstein, Research Program Director

Walter Goldstein received a Ph.D. in agronomy in 1986. He has worked at Michael Fields since then. His work has entailed conducting studies of biodynamic, conventional and organic farming; breeding and developing corn; and leading or assisting in instructional projects for farm planning, biodynamic farming, and soil fertility management. He helped develop an organic matter budgeter, which is the subject of on-farm and systems trials with farmers and other collaborators in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. His work helped clarify major problems facing farmers with root disease and how that affects nitrogen use efficiency. The major focus of his present work is on developing corn hybrids with enhanced nutritional value for organic farmers. The emphasis is on corn with higher contents of carotenoids and essential amino acids such as methionine, to fit the needs of organic poultry production. Much of this work has entailed developing cooperative projects with universities and USDA/ARS. He also has his own small farm with grazing sheep and orchards.

Phone: (262) 642-3303, ext. 112
E-mail: wgoldstein@michaelfieldsaginst.org

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John Hall, Farming Systems Agronomist

John has been a farming systems agronomist at the institute since 1988 and served as its Executive Director from 1996 until spring of 2003. He obtained B.S. and master's degrees in agronomy from Montana State University in 1981 and 1983. He studied plant breeding and genetics at Washington State University from 1984 to 1988. He was strongly involved in development of the Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial and the Lakeland Agricultural Complex in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. He is an active member of the Mississippi River Task Force and it's steering committee. He also serves on the Wisconsin NRCS technical committee.

Phone: (262) 642-3303, ext 114
E-mail: jhall@michaelfieldsaginst.org

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Margaret Krome, Policy Program Director

Margaret Krome oversees MFAI's policy program. In this capacity, she coordinates the annual national grassroots campaign to fund federal programs supported by the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. Over a number of years, she has helped create and sustain funding for a number of state initiatives supporting environmentally sound, profitable, and socially responsible agriculture, including the UW-Madison's' Center for Integrated Agriculture and the Pesticide Use and Risk Reduction project. In addition to policy work, she conducts workshops nationwide on grant writing and using federal programs to support sustainable agriculture. In 2007, she began a nationwide project to offer grantwriting assistance to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, funded largely by the USDA's Risk Management Agency. Ms. Krome served Wisconsin Rural Development Center for 9 years before joining MFAI in 1995. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Appropriate Technology and sits on the Wisconsin Board of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Ms. Krome writes a bi-weekly editorial column for the evening daily paper, The Capital Times, in Madison, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Phone: (608) 238-1440
E-mail: mkrome@sbcglobal.net

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Bridget Holcomb, Associate Policy Director

Bridget joined our policy program staff in September 2008 and has worked on numerous state initiatives to promote sustainable agriculture and local foods. Bridget has also worked on a federal level to promote conservation programs such as the Conservation Stewardship Program, and testified to the USDA on the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. She is co-chair of the Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and is a member of the Wisconsin Local Foods Network Steering Committee as well as the Buy Local Buy Wisconsin Advisory Committee. Bridget has a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Biology and Environmental Studies and began her career as a Michael Fields policy intern. Most recently, Bridget worked for the Illinois Stewardship Alliance as the Agricultural Policy Coordinator before returning to Michael Fields.

Phone: 608-256-1859 E-mail:Bridget's Email

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Esteban Miramontes, Grounds and Maintenance Specialist

Esteban Miramontes joined Michael Fields in 2003 as the Grounds and Maintenance Specialist. Esteban is always ready to help anyone needing his assistance. He operates machinery, maintains the grounds – inside and out - and drives the hay wagon. Esteban and his son live in East Troy.

Phone: (262) 642-3303

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Katie Wied

Shannah Schmitt

In the Spring 2009 I joined Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in the administration office. I come to the organization with over 12 year’s office experience from graphics & printing, real estate, and sales environments. I earned my Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Graphic Arts & Marketing from the University of Wisconsin - Stout.

Being part of the East Troy community for over 10 years and having roots in a small, rural, agriculture and dairy farming community in central WI, it has great meaning to me to be associated with such a wonderful organization that strives to better our environment and quality of living by educating our farmers & families as well as those across the world.

In my spare time I enjoy spending time with my family, playing volleyball, traveling and enjoying all that life has to offer. Phone: (262) 642-3303, ext 1117 E-mail: shannah's email