BOARD AND STAFF

Board of Directors

Becca Hanson / Chair

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio into a family one generation removed from the family farm, Becca grew up surrounded by people who prided themselves on their midwestern backyard tomatoes.

14-years of growing up in Europe seasoned her with a healthy respect for small farms, a clear vision of a walkable urban-agricultural boundary, and a love of good seasonal local food. A subsequent degree in Landscape Architecture combined with a background in ecology provided a solid foundation in design and its integration with nature.

Becca and her family arrived on the Island in 1983, and in 2003 she was able to move her international practice in conservation-based zoo design to Bainbridge - allowing her time to give back to the community. An opportunity to work with Bart Berg gave her a new appreciation for the work of small farmers in North Kitsap and the need to protect their ability to maintain a flourishing future.

Connie Yenne / Treasurer

Bio coming soon…

Tabitha Baker / Secretary

Tabitha is an island native, having moved here at age 12. In addition to her 30-year marketing and communications career in tech, she has also been a landscape designer (Leigh Design), entrepreneur (Potrisers), and most recently received her professional Permaculture degree from OSU and became a Master Gardener. Returning to the island to purchase a home and (a tiny bit of) land in 2017 fulfilled a life-long dream. “I grew up on this island and moved back for its strong community and natural beauty. Local farms and farmers are key to our resilience, diversity, and a healthy ecosystem. I want farmers be able to afford this way of life, see our agricultural lands protected, and help others experience the energy and beauty that comes from local food and farming”.

Susie Bavo

Susie Bavo grew up in a farming community in Southern California. Her relationship with farming was primarily her own family garden, farm stands and going to school with farmers’ kids. Her dad grew up on a farm in Iowa, leaving as soon as he could, but the farm never really left him. They were always growing something – regular things like tomatoes, peppers, and sunflowers – but also potatoes and peanuts. Her first store-bought strawberry, lemon, and avocado were in college.

Susie graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where Learn by Doing has been core to the curriculum since its founding. This is where her understanding of experiential learning was seeded. She firmly believes that teaching children and their families where and how their food is grown is key to encouraging and celebrating farmers.

Karen Allston

Karen is a native Washingtonian and has lived around Puget Sound her entire life. She is a practicing government attorney who specializes in natural resources, real estate, land use, and Indian law. She graduated from Seattle University School of Law in 1995 (cum laude), and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from the University of Washington in 1989. She is passionate about keeping farms and farmers in Kitsap County and promoting local, sustainable food systems. Karen is happiest when she’s outdoors - whether in her garden, on a beach with her dogs, or roaming trails among the trees.

Staff

Heather Burger | Executive Director

Heather has been nourished, both body and soul, by local farms. Every season brings her joy—carrots and snap peas in spring; the first heavenly ripe tomatoes of summer; jewel-red strawberries on the 4th of July; sweet corn and Charentais melons; Thanksgiving turkey straight from the farm; and the perfect Christmas tree. She is deeply grateful to our farmers for all they do.

Heather’s favorite activities include cooking with the bounty of local farms and sharing meals with friends, shaking up seasonal cocktails, traveling with her husband, and swimming year-round in Puget Sound—sans wetsuit.

During her nine years as Executive Director of Friends of the Farms, she has been most excited by their programming for children and young adults. She is continually inspired by the respect the next generation demonstrates for the environment, for all people, and for the animals, plants, and pollinators that share our earth.

Marit Krueger - Program Manager

“I have always loved gardens and flowers”, admits Marit Krueger, the new Program Manager at Friends of the Farms. Growing up on a property that was packed with flowers and fruit trees, most of her earliest memories were picking one or the other, both for pleasure and for profit. As a little girl, in entrepreneurial bursts of energy, Marit & her big brother would pick crab apples or Italian plums, selling them to the local fruit market for summer spending money. They would devote hours to picking blackberries, making milkshakes to enjoy right away and freezing enough to relive the summer throughout the dark days of winter. She remembers with fondness a Saturday morning chore, picking hydrangeas, camellias, rhododendrons or whatever was in bloom to arrange in every room of the house, and learned early on that picking and arranging flowers was much better than scrubbing toilets so that became her chore of choice all year long! An influential role model, Marit’s Grandma Jo was an avid gardener and flower arranger and she encouraged Marit to surround one’s self with beauty for both self-enjoyment and the enjoyment of others, something that has been a motivator in Marit’s life ever since.

In 1987, Marit married her high school sweetheart, Jeffery Krueger and they both became teachers in the Seattle area. However, both dreamed of buying a home and raising a family with a top priority to find a place that had woods enough for exploration and the building of forts and land enough to surround their future children with the same flowers and fruit trees that had surrounded Marit as a little girl. Those dreams led them to Bainbridge Island and in 1990, they purchased their first, and only home with everything they’d hoped for and more. Marit and Jeff enjoyed raising two daughters on Bainbridge Island and both now married and one with a daughter of her own, are also proud to call this area home.

“Our roots go deep”, says Marit, “but we aren’t afraid to fly away and come back again.” For several years, the Krueger family called Kenya home, living, working, learning and serving community on a dairy farm in the middle of pastureland. Each member of the Krueger household embraced a farming lifestyle and brought home with them a shared passion for cultivating, supporting and encouraging local produce and helping to preserve farmland in our own communities. From raising backyard poultry and setting up beehives to encourage pollination to planting gardens, even if it meant containers on an urban porch, each has continued to find ways to keep farming a priority in their collective lives.

Marit believes that the opportunity to build human connections is what makes communities work and in her new role at FotF, she is excited to do just that–look for ways to help people connect with one another and connect to the land around them. In her own garden and small flower farm, Marit loves to grow dahlias, hydrangeas and other flowers that she sells at her roadside flower stand, Finn Hollow Flowers. She sees this as a small but important way to share beauty and infuse hope into her neighbors, or anyone else who happens by her stand.

Erica Pescha - Assistant Program Manager

Erica moved to Bainbridge at the start of summer 2024 to follow her passions for small farming and sustainable living. She worked on a small farm through the program WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and fell in love with the island and the community. Erica is currently the BI Farmers Market Manager and employee on Full Tilth Farm. Erica helps the Friends of the Farm Organization with their Island School Food Forest Project as well as other local school engagements.