Staff

Liliana Chazaro, Food System Change Agent (AmeriCorps) email
Anne Evans, Nutrition and Garden Education Coordinator email
Sarah Grandin, Garden Educator (AmeriCorps) email
Matt Harnack, Garden Educator (AmeriCorps) email
Kris Jensen, Executive Director email
Kiara Jones, Food System Change Agent (AmeriCorps) email
Karly Larson, Garden Educator (AmeriCorps) email
Eron Sandler, Program Director email
Sheila Vreeburg, Bookkeeper and Office Manager email
Justin Wiener, Garden Educator (AmeriCorps) email 
Nicole Wires, Food System Change Coordinator email

Liliana Chazaro is a Food System Change Agent and member of the Silicon Valley HealthCorps. She is a full-time student at San Jose State University majoring in Global Studies with a concentration in Latin America, and minoring in Environmental Studies. She plans to merge the two areas of study to help develop sustainable communities. On her spare time she volunteers with Veggielution, an urban community garden in San Jose. Liliana works with the Backyard Gardener Network to start backyard gardens in an effort to increase the access of fresh, healthy, and sustainable food in East Palo Alto. 

Anne Evans has an M.S. in Nutrition and is a Registered Dietitian.  She recently moved to California by way of New York where she spent the last 2 years working as the head nutritionist for an HIV/AIDS Adult Day Treatment Program.  Anne has extensive experience in nutrition education, curriculum development, garden based learning, and community outreach.  In Seattle, Washington Anne managed the implementation of a Farm-to-Cafeteria program at a local public school through coordination and collaboration of farmers, school administrators, kitchen personnel, parents and the community. For Lettuce Link in Seattle, she also developed and taught a nutrition education program for third and forth graders which included nutritional science lessons as well as cooking demonstrations and tasting exercises. 

Sarah Grandin is a Garden Educator and member of the Silicon Valley HealthCorps (an AmeriCorps program). She teaches Garden Club at the East Palo Alto Charter School and will soon be teaching gardening and cooking at Girls to Women. Born and raised in San Francisco, Sarah has been cooking in Bay Area restaurants since she was fourteen, and she took a year between high school and college to work as a line cook in Paris. Currently, Sarah is a junior at Stanford majoring in Comparative Literature and Art History, with a minor in Modern Languages. When not in the library, she can be found tutoring, working as a research assistant for the Cantor Centor for the Visual Arts, catering, and frequenting local farms and farmers’ markets.  

Matt Harnack is a native Californian, self-proclaimed eco-geek, and committed to making films about environmental challenges and their solutions. Matt received his Bachelors from UC Santa Barbara and his Master of Fine Arts from Stanford University. During the summer before Stanford, Matt traveled across the country in a vegetable oil and solar powered bus, teaching youth and adults about sustainability. At Stanford he created four short environmental films including his thesis, Fossil Fuel Free Film that featured Collective Roots. Matt is a Garden Educator and member of the Silicon Valley HealthCorps.  He is co-teaching at the EPACS garden where he hones his skills as an educator and environmental activist.

Kris Jensen is our new executive director. He joins Collective Roots with many years experience as a successful fundraiser in local nonprofits, most recently as the director of development at Swords to Plowshares, a veterans rights organization, in San Francisco. Kris has also worked as the vice president of development at Avenidas, a senior services agency, in Palo Alto and as the director of development for the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland. Prior to being a fundraiser, Kris spent several years as a geriatric case-manager and job trainer for the developmentally disabled. A Bay Area native, Kris graduated from San Jose State University and lives in the hills of Cupertino with his wife, a family of deer, several coyote, a couple of bobcats and a whole lot of wild rabbits. Kris is excited to bring his life-long love of gardening and his commitment to food systems change and social justice to Collective Roots.

Kiara Jones is a Food System Change Agent and member of the Silicon Valley HealthCorps. She is a full-time student at Wesleyan University majoring in African American Studies and Theater with a concentration in Public Health. She spent a summer producing, hosting and researching for an hour long a public affairs radio show, Lens on the Earth, at WESU 88.1 Middletown. The show aimed to air new Earth and Environmental findings supported by the National Science Foundation, feature on site interviews with scientist and scholars alike working in their fields, and keep local Middletown, CT listeners informed on environmental bills passing through congress and community events. As native of East Palo Alto, Kiara sees the value in coming back and working in her community to help build a more sustainable living space.

Karly Larson is currently a Garden Educator at East Palo Alto Charter School and a member of the Silicon Valley HealthCorps (an AmeriCorps program). Born in Oregon and raised in Southern California, Karly studied Art and Design with a concentration in Photography and Digital Imaging at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo where she received her BFA in 2005, with a minor in Anthropology. A recent move to the Bay Area, as well as her experiences living in the varied food cultures of Southern and Central California, have sparked an intense interest in the fields of nutrition and sustainable agriculture. Karly hopes to continue her studies in this field through the Masters Program at San Jose State University in the fall.

Eron Sandler is the Program Director for Collective Roots. Eron worked for many years on organic farms and as a teacher and coordinator for environmental and educational non-profit organizations. Eron studied Environmental Education at both Hampshire College and earned an M.S. in Environmental Studies at Antioch New England Graduate School. Her travels and experiences learning about cultures, food, and farming in Europe, India, the Philippines, Mexico and Thailand greatly influence her views on food security, nutrition, community and education. She is inspired by growing food, establishing community relationships and getting people excited about being in the garden. 

Sheila Vreeburg brings 30 years of experience as a bookkeeper and office manager. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art, Magna Cum Laude, from Notre Dame de Namur University, and has experience working with organizations both large and small.

Justin Wiener is a Garden Educator and member of the Silicon Valley HealthCorps (an AmeriCorps program). He teaches garden workshops alongside our Garden and Nutrition Education Coordinator at the East Palo Alto Charter School and will soon be teaching gardening at the 49ers Academy. As a graduate of Garden For the Environment’s Gardening and Composting Educator Training Program in San Francisco, Justin contributes to many urban garden programs in horticulture and agro-ecological education. He is currently working to obtain his credential for teaching elementary education, with a focus on bringing gardening, ecology and food justice into his curriculum. Justin graduated with a BS in Psychology.

Nicole Wires is the Food System Change Coordinator for Collective Roots. A recent graduate of Stanford University, Nicole studied Earth Systems, an inter-disciplinary environmental science program, and created an emphasis on sustainable agriculture and food justice. Nicole previously worked on issues of international food security, spending time abroad in Ecuador, Tanzania, and Burkina Faso.  She has more recently transitioned to work developing ecologically and culturally appropriate regional food systems here in California. Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, she loves the west, the mountains, backpacking, climbing, biking, gardening and being outside.