Board of Directors & Staff
Gaining Ground is managed by an active Board of Directors whose members represent diverse backgrounds in the arts, business, law, education, human services, public relations, and community activism.
Board of Directors
Lisanne Wheeler, President
Christa Collins, Vice President
Sigmund Correa, Treasurer
Kristen Van Damm, Secretary
Laurie Engdahl
Yvette Philip
Lucy Rosborough, Emeritus
Staff
We are fortunate to have talented farm and office staff to manage our day-to-day operations. Currently, we have eight year-round employees including an executive director, a director of agriculture, an operations director, a farm manager, a development and communications manager, and three assistant growers. We also typically employ several seasonal staff members including field crew members and a groundskeeper.
Shannon Applegate
Farming Apprentice
Shannon (she/her) is excited to join Gaining Ground as a Farming Apprentice in 2026. She brings a year of hands-on experience in organic and regenerative agriculture, having worked on orchards and diversified vegetable farms in Oregon, Nepal, and Chile. Through this work, she fell in love with the rhythm and physicality of farm work and in the deep connection it creates between people, the land, and community. With a background in public health nutrition, Shannon is especially drawn to farming as a way to strengthen food access and community wellbeing, and she is passionate about supporting Gaining Ground’s mission. She strongly believes that everyone deserves access to nourishing, culturally meaningful, and delicious food. Outside of the fields, Shannon enjoys hiking with her dogs, creating pottery, practicing yoga, baking, and spending time outdoors with family and friends.
Mark Congdon
Director of Agriculture and Volunteer Experience
Born and raised in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, Mark(he/him) joined Gaining Ground as our first Director of Agriculture in 2023. He received his two years of farmer training as a farmer’s apprentice at Caretaker Farm in Williamstown. Mark continued to grow as a farmer managing Saltbox Farm in Concord for 9 years and then Honey Nut Farm in Hopkinton prior to bringing his experience here to Gaining Ground. He is excited for the opportunity to direct Gaining Ground’s expansion onto newly leased land in the Minuteman National Historical Park. Mark loves to travel and experience unique plant life all over the world. He also enjoys hiking, meditation, supporting local farmer’s markets, and being part of a food movement that brings sustainable agriculture to local communities.
Johanna Flies
Farm Manager
Bio and photo coming soon!
Allison Goodwin
Operations Director
Allison (she/her) joined Gaining Ground in 2017. A farm field trip in third grade sparked her lifelong passion for sustainable agriculture, connecting to the land, and increasing equitable access to fresh, healthy food. She has worked on organic farms throughout the United States as well as in Wales, Ireland, Thailand and Australia. Allison currently directs Gaining Ground’s operations including partnerships, produce distributions, and volunteer scheduling. She worked previously at Chelsea Green Publishing and at several environmental non-profits, and earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Marlboro College in Vermont. In her free time, Allison enjoys gardening, hiking, and spending time with beloved family and friends.
Christine Hicks
Senior Field Crew Member
Christine (she/her) began her farming journey when she started working on Cross Street Flower Farm in 2021 (though she credits her time at UMass Amherst as her spiritual introduction to the peaceful ambience of farmland). At Cross Street, after a trial by fire through a rigorous dahlia dig, she quickly became obsessed with the joy that comes with being a member of a hardworking team. She spent two seasons at Siena Farms learning how to grow and harvest vegetables, as well as managing their flower program and their mushroom program. After exploring the other end of the flower world and fine tuning her design skills working as a florist in Cambridge, she is glad to be back in the field with a renewed desire to bring impactful change to the earth and the surrounding community. During her free time she loves sketching and painting watercolors, especially of all the beautiful vegetables that exist!
Jennifer Johnson
Executive Director
Jennifer is passionate about equitable access to healthy food and the healing power of nature. She’s found her dream job at Gaining Ground and loves working with Gaining Ground’s staff, board, volunteers, and partners to grow food and grow community. She earned a degree in communications from Boston University and completed the in-residence Business for Impact program at Georgetown University. Jennifer began her career in marketing communications before pivoting to non-profit development and management. Outside of work you’ll most likely find her making soup, sharing her love of Dolly Parton, or sitting around a campfire with friends and family. She lives with her family in Concord and enjoys reading, running, hiking, gardening, and kayaking.
Kaitlin Katirachi
Farming Apprentice
Kaitlin (she/her) is delighted to join Gaining Ground in 2026 as a Farming Apprentice. Originally from New Jersey, she moved to Massachusetts in 2024 to serve in the TerraCorps at a food-access non-profit based in Leominster. She received her bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Skidmore College, during which time she worked on a regenerative cattle ranch in Texas, studied green roofs in upstate New York, and lived abroad in Australia. Kaitlin cares deeply about local and equitable food systems and is looking forward to the impactful work at Gaining Ground. In her spare time, she loves cooking for her friends, playing boardgames, reading, hiking, and playing ultimate frisbee.
Ava Lublin
Assistant Grower
Ava (she/her) is thrilled to return to Gaining Ground this year for her fifth season. She first began at Gaining Ground in high school as a volunteer before joining the field crew in 2021. She has found her life’s calling in farming ever since. Ava studied agroecology at the University of Vermont and is now fully invested in her farming career. She loves working hard in the fields—tending to the soil and all the life it sustains; one of her favorite parts of the job is sowing as much cover crop as possible. Ava is passionate about fostering reciprocity between us and the Earth and how, through that, we promote justice and wellbeing for people and the land. She is grateful to cultivate this connection at Gaining Ground and to share that connection with the community. When she’s not farming, Ava loves to read, write, wander in the woods, curate the latest memes to share with her coworkers, and relax with her dog and two cats.
Debbie Pullen
Development and Communications Manager
Debbie comes to Gaining Ground with two decades of nonprofit experience. She is inspired by Gaining Ground’s commitment to expanding access to healthy food, and helping the community develop a deeper understanding of the value of locally grown produce. A lifelong home cook, Debbie discovered the joy of fresh, seasonal food by joining her first CSA at Stearns Farm in Framingham back in 2009. Her love of the natural world was nurtured through work at Sudbury Valley Trustees and Land’s Sake Farm. Debbie lives in Sudbury and can often be found traveling somewhere, doing yoga, or enjoying down time with family and friends.
Zoe Tallmadge
Senior Field Crew Member
Zoe (they/she) is excited to be starting their fourth farming season in the greater Boston area and her third season at Gaining Ground! She learned about Gaining Ground in her first week in Boston while visiting with the Boston Area Gleaners, where she was lucky enough to be apprenticing at the time. Zoe was born and raised in North Carolina, and feels that food and water justice and the way that they have affected the South has always been a big part of her life. She finds joy in connecting with the land and through that, finding connection with herself and other people. Zoe loves the way that farming has expanded their ability to do this since graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2023 with a degree in sustainability and the environment and a minor in social and economic justice. In their free time you can find Zoe biking, reading, practicing yoga, collaging, cooking with friends, or enjoying the sun from the comfort of a hammock.
Gianni Venezia
Farming Apprentice
Bio and photo coming soon!
Rachael Walton
Assistant Grower
Rachael is excited to be starting her sixth season farming and her second season at Gaining Ground. Rachael grew up in Arizona but has lived in Concord since middle school, and feels very lucky to have moved to a place with such a vibrant farming community — which helped her discover her love for farming early on. While gaining her degree in Agroecology at the University of Vermont, she spent her summers working on farms in Concord and learning about local food systems. She is inspired and driven by the belief that our food systems can and must be both environmentally sustainable and also equitable and just for every person involved in that food system. She is excited to continue her work at Gaining Ground and do her part in making sustainable and just food systems possible. When she isn’t farming, Rachael loves to hike, read, crochet, and bake lots and lots of sourdough bread.
Maddie Weikel
Assistant Grower and Education Coordinator
Maddie (she/they) joined the Gaining Ground team in 2023 after three-ish growing seasons learning about organic, no-till systems at a different farm in the area. They find joy and power in farming and in the notion that cultivating deep connection to land offers us tools for dismantling systems of harm and for building the world that we want to live in. Maddie believes that we all have a role to play in the work to nourish our communities and that it is our duty to take care of each other and of the land. Since graduating from New York University in 2020, Maddie’s farming journey has moved alongside a reintroduction to Judaism. She is inspired by the many lessons that ever-evolving Jewish tradition has to share about liberatory land stewardship, and vice versa. When not out in the fields, you can find Maddie making to-do lists, collaging, roasting vegetables, yelling, vacuuming, and sharing meals with friends.