Rockland Farm Alliance
Officers and Board of Directors
John McDowell
President, Chairman of the Board
John McDowell is an award-winning musician, composer, farmer, and president of Rockland Farm Alliance. He grew up in Champaign, Illinois and worked long summer days in the corn and soybean fields on farms as a teenager in the summer months. Throughout his career as a professional musician he continued his connection with agriculture by visiting and helping out on farms. After moving to Rockland County, he and his wife revived Camp Hill Farm in Pomona and started the first CSA in the county. This process led him to exploring how farming could be rejuvenated and transformed within Rockland County. In 2007, John formed Rockland Farm Alliance, which has received strong support from the Rockland community and governmental officials to facilitate local sustainable agriculture in Rockland County, and has remained as president for 2 years.
Heshi Gorewitz
Vice President
Heshi Gorewitz grew up in Rockland County and holds an MBA in Organizational and Environmental Sustainability. He farmed 1,000 acres as a member of Kibbutz Gezer, in Israel. During his 15 years in Israel, he was drafted into the Israeli Air Force, and after combat experience, reached the rank of Sergeant. Upon returning to the US, he was the founder and owner of an accounting and bookkeeping business that grew to employ three full-time CPAs, as well as support staff. Heshi’s involvement in non-profits grew as his company began to perform certified audits on organizations such as The Omega Institute and the Film Anthologies Archive. RFA provides him with an opportunity to engage in Conscious Change as part of a community movement towards sustainable food production. Heshi is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Business Department of Westchester Community College.
Naomi Camilleri
Executive Director
Naomi Camilleri is a Rockland County native, though she spent many of her formative years in rural Massachusetts where she worked on farms and developed a deep love for gardening and farming. After gaining her BA in Comparative Literature from Brown University and a stint studying and working in Europe, Naomi returned to Rockland and pursued a career in film and online media. A growing dedication to and extensive study of diet, nutrition and local food issues led Naomi to join Rockland Farm Alliance in an effort to work toward a sustainable local food economy. Since then Naomi has devoted herself entirely to furthering the work of Rockland Farm Alliance, including the launch of Cropsey Community Farm, and brings her background and experience in writing, photography, film, online media and project management to bear in her role as Executive Director.
Catherine Kopf
Treasurer
Catherine Bennett Kopf is the most recent addition to the Rockland Farm Alliance Board, joining the team this summer as Treasurer. For the past ten years, Catherine's served as Treasurer for the Village of West Haverstraw, a Rockland County municipality with over 10,000 residents and a $5.5 million budget. Her professional experience was instrumental in the computerization of RFA's bookkeeping functions and assisting to establish policies and procedures for the day-to-day operations of the farm that don't involve dirt, plants, water and sun. Catherine is a graduate of Colgate University and a 43-year resident of Rockland who is very excited about RFA's mission to sustain the County's rich farming legacy.
Jessica Kesselman
Secretary
Jessica Kesselman is a former teacher, Americorps Project Director and Education Consultant. For the past several years, she has applied her work experience to businesses and organizations that focus on local food systems, farm-to-table networks and the artisanal and farmstead food production in several capacities including retail sales, merchandising, marketing and market management. Before joining Rockland Farm Alliance, Jessica was the events and education program coordinator for Lucy's Whey American Artisanal Cheese in Manhattan, and a tri-state area representative for Cellars of Jasper Hill of Vermont.
Joan Dye Gussow
Joan Dye Gussow is Mary Swartz Rose Professor emerita and former chair of the Nutrition Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she has been a long-time analyst and critic of the US food system. In her classic 1978 book, The Feeding Web: Issues in Nutritional Ecology, which tracked the environmental hazards of an increasingly globalized food system, she foreshadowed by several decades the current interest in re-localizing the food supply. A coveted speaker on local food issues, she is also well known for her more recent books, including This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader (2001), and Growing, Older (2010), both of which relate her experiences growing her own food in suburban New York.
Chuck Stead
Chuck Stead is the Environmental Educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland County and teaches Sustainable Studies at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. He is currently working on his PhD with the Antioch School of Environmental Studies with emphasis on remediation and recovery of industrial impact sites. With Cornell, Chuck supervises the State Department of Health Hudson River Fish Advisory in Rockland County.
Greg Askildsen
Greg Askildsen grew up working on his family’s vegetable farm in New Jersey’s Northern Valley, and owned and operated a ten-acre organic vegetable farm in Orange County before moving to Rockland in 2010. Since that time, Greg has continued to pursue his passion for farming and increase his knowledge by studying Biodynamics at the Pfeiffer Center in Chestnut Ridge. In addition to helping steer Cropsey Community Farm on its path to sustainability, Greg’s deep experience with operating a small-acreage farm as well as with farmers' markets continues to help guide RFA in its goals to revitalize a local foodshed in Rockland County.
Cheryl Baun
As the Director of Institutional Advancement of the National Hemophilia Foundation, Cheryl manages all activities related to cultivating and maintaining partnerships with foundation and corporate supporters. Cheryl started her career with market research firm Find/SVP before making the switch to the non-profit sector. Prior to joining NHF in 2003, Cheryl held fund raising positions with the Asian American Federation, Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA), Center for Gender Equality, and was a Development Fellow at Community Resource Exchange. Cheryl graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in Sociology and holds a Masters degree in Urban Planning from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, New York University.
Lisa Caccamise
Whole Food Chef and owner of Simple Earth Cuisine, Personal Chef Service, LLC., Lisa Caccamise has been an active member within Rockland Farm Alliance for 6 years. Lisa headed the local foods committee whose efforts focused on bringing local food to schools and seeking out commercial kitchen spaces for farms and chefs to utilize for value added product making. She has also played a critical role in seeking out locally sourced products to offer members of Cropsey Community Farm CSA.
Advisory Board
Alexandra Spadea
RFA Co-Founder
Angela Lindvall
Founder of Collage Foundation
Ellen Peck
What do we say about ellen?
John Wickes
Owner, Wickes Arborists
Charlie Paolino
Owner, Hook Mountain Growers
Deverell Pedersen
Grant writer
To contact the RFA Board of Directors, please email info@rocklandfarm.org.