About

Farm Discovery

Who we are

Farm Discovery at Live Earth is a nonprofit organization working in the Pajaro Valley community to empower youth and families to build and sustain healthy food, farming, social and natural systems.

Our home, Live Earth Farm, is a 150 acre patchwork of working organic farm, riparian corridor, oak and redwood forest in the Pajaro Valley of Santa Cruz County, California.

What we care about
We believe that we can transform personal and community health and improve our impact on earth by building and sustaining collaborative agricultural, ecological and social systems. We believe that communities equipped with knowledge and the skills of inquiry can transform food, farming and natural systems for the better.
What we do
* Farm Discovery offers educational programs that inspire youth and families to transform their relationship to food, farming and nature.
* We steward our working farm and its wild spaces as an environmentally and economically viable piece of the food system and a learning space.
* We grow and deliver nutritious, organic food with students for community members most in need – seniors, veterans, foster youth, farmworkers and more
* We collaborate with community partners to learn from each other and extend our collective impact in the community.

Staff

Emily Hackett
Emily HackettAmericorps Service Member
Emily’s interest in sustainable food systems began when she started her first garden at age nine with her grandmother, quickly learning the value of food independence. She grew up in Santa Cruz County in the San Lorenzo Valley and is excited to serve the youth of the community she grew up in.
Ulises Castillo
Ulises CastilloFarm Manager
Growing up as a Watsonville native, Ulises spent most of his young age learning about agriculture. Growing up, his family would take him to work with them in the raspberry fields. Bringing empty containers and taking full ones in order for his aunts to continue harvesting, making it his first job at age 5! He was part of the first two classes to inaugurate the Pajaro Valley High School campus. His agriculture career continues as a student at Cabillor College working for Farm Discovery.
Itzel Hernandez
Itzel HernandezAdministrative Assistant
Growing up in California’s Central Valley, Itzel has understood the importance of healthy connections between communities and food systems. She is a member from the pilot cohort of a bioengineering camp called BioJam. Itzel recently graduated from UCLA with a degree in Linguistics and Anthropology. She is excited to be part of the programming and events this year. Read more about Itzel in our latest blog post.
Jessica Ridgeway
Jessica RidgewayExecutive Director
In 2007 Jessica earned her M.S. in Environment and Natural Resources from the Rubenstein School at the University of Vermont. Her Master’s Thesis consisted of Participatory Action Research in an agricultural community in Northern Vermont. She developed, implemented and evaluated a Sustainability Curriculum and School Garden with the 6th graders of Jeffersonville Elementary School. Jessica helped Thomas and Constance Broz to found the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program in 2008.
Stephanie Spross
Stephanie SprossAssistant Education Director
Stephanie brings a decade of experience working in public schools and nonprofits as an educator and leader. She is excited to continue the work of inspiring the next generation to know their food. Stephanie believes that knowledge and access to fresh food can change the lives of students and their families. When not working Stephanie can be found gardening, propagating plants, reading cookbooks, and making jam.
Breigha Sawyer
Breigha SawyerDevelopment Officer
Breigha is an experienced fundraiser in the nonprofit sector with an emphasis on securing funding for complex humanitarian projects, both domestically and internationally. With a degree in Intercultural Studies from Biola University, she’s passionate about environmental advocacy, community development, and storytelling for social change. Her enthusiasm for the outdoors ranges from growing vegetables in her backyard to foraging for mushrooms, weekend rock climbing trips and backpacking adventures in the mountains.

Board of Directors

Terry Sebastian
Terry SebastianPresident
Lisa CarasSecretary
Steve Van ZandtTreasurer
Thomas Broz
Thomas BrozBoard Member
Luz Falcon-Toledo
Luz Falcon-ToledoBoard Member
Luz was born and raised in Watsonville. As the daughter of Immigrants, the Pajaro Valley is very special to Luz because her parents both worked in agriculture. Her father migrated to California as part of the Bracero Program in the 60’s to work in Watsonville’s apple orchards and in later years, her mother joined him and worked in Watsonville’s growing strawberry industry.

Luz joined Farm Discovery as a board member after years of volunteer work with Live Earth Farm.

Luz works at a local non-profit focused on transforming people’s lives through entrepreneurship by promoting equal access to economic opportunity. Luz has always been passionate about helping and giving back to her community.

Matt Kramer
Matt KramerBoard Member
As a silicon valley product leader for 30 years and now certified plant based personal chef Matt appreciates the challenges we all face balancing busy lives and consistently providing nourishing meals for our families. Matt was inspired to join the Discovery Farm board and its mission believing that early education is a key ingredient to building lifelong sustainable healthy eating habits.
Natasha Perry
Natasha PerryBoard Member
Natasha was born and raised in Wyoming where she spent many summers working on her father’s ranch. This instilled in her a love for the outdoors, and also gave her a profound appreciation of the effort and skill needed to cultivate farmland. Being a LEF CSA member for years, Natasha was inspired to join the Farm Discovery Board to help members in her local community have the opportunity to be hands-on in a farm environment. Her professional career has been focused on technical program management.
Joshua Rodriguez, MBA, RDN, CDCES, CHWC
Joshua Rodriguez, MBA, RDN, CDCES, CHWCBoard Member
Joshua Rodriguez is a registered dietitian and diabetes educator. He currently works as a clinician for Community Hospital of Monterey (CHOMP). He received his MBA from Dominican University (Chicago, IL) and his B.S. in nutritional science from San Jose State University (San Jose, CA). Joshua was raised in Watsonville, CA and has a strong passion for community nutrition and education.