Meet Our Team
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Kathy Wicks
Director of Sustainability Kathy oversees all sustainability initiatives for Auxiliary Enterprises. She focuses on including sustainability in everyday decision making for the division, aligning efforts with the campus wide sustainability priorities, and building diverse partnerships. Kathy has extensive experience in building multi-sector collaborations, leading community engagement strategies, and strategic planning for a variety of food systems initiatives. She has a Master of Public Health from UMass Amherst and a Bachelor Degree from Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar. Kathy enjoys gathering family and friends to cook together using local ingredients year round. She also enjoys practicing mindfulness meditation and supporting local music. kwicks@umass.edu |
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Daniel Bensonoff
Sustainability Coordinator of Campus Gardens As the coordinator of the UMass Permaculure Initiative, Dan works to ensure that the gardens provide an exemplary space for eco-conscious gardening and sustainable living. Aside from working in the gardens, Dan teaches a practicum on permaculture gardening, coordinates the UMass Student Farmers' Market, and provides learning experiences for various visiting groups. Before coming to UMass, Dan worked on several suburban and urban organic farms. He helped start a food forest initiative in Boston that served as a new model for creating common spaces. He's also taught various sustainability-related courses including mushroom cultivation, fermentation, and garden design. When not gardening, Dan can be found playing with his son or foraging the fields and forests of the valley. dbensonoff@umass.edu |
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Tyler Tedesco
Regional Food Systems Coordinator As the Regional Food Systems Coordinator, Tyler works with a variety of data points on food sourcing in order to help increase local/sustainable purchasing. He also communicates educational messaging about sustainability and helps develop new ways to improve our regional food system. Tyler also works with local farms and producers to establish new partnerships and strengthen existing ones. Tyler obtained his bachelor’s degree in biology from Bridgewater State University where he did community ecology research and mapped the research data trends with GIS. Tyler previously worked on invasive species projects partnering with the USDA and DCR, and did contract monitoring with MDAR. He formerly managed several dining rooms in an elder living facility and this combination of ecology training and food service experience led him to a career in food systems. You can find Tyler riding his bike around campus or out in the woods with his dog. ttedesco@umass.edu |
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Li Wang
Student Auxiliary Enterprises Sustainability Coordinator Li works to create a sustainable and engaged campus community through local food systems and operations. She supports projects that are currently in progress and works to promote new programs around purchasing local foods, reducing waste, engaging the campus community and so on. She works with the Director of Sustainability to showcase community partners, plan events, do student Engagement and Education, promote sustainability through campus-wide projects and events and support Auxiliary Sustainability tasks as needed. Li enjoys cooking with her family and friends. She loves reading and music. liw@umass.edu |
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Cameron Farwell
Student Garden Coordinator As the Student Garden Coordinator, Cam works to promote the UMass Permaculture Initiative as a sustainable model for food production, hands on education, and community building. He also assists in maintaining and developing the gardens on campus. Cam’s prior experiences includes working on an organic vegetable farm and landscape management. He enjoys learning about regenerative agriculture and community food systems. When he is not studying or gardening, Cam can be found outdoors playing frisbee or trail running. |
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Ellis Cordaro
Student Garden Coordinator Ellis has been interested in growing food for the past few years. Since diving into this work, Ellis has experience working in fruit and vegetable farming around the pioneer valley. Apart from production agriculture, Ellis has experience in designing and implementing food forests and home gardens. As one of the garden coordinators, Ellis hopes to involve the UMass community in local food production in UMass' permaculture gardens. |