Our Board of Directors
Gareth Asten
Gareth is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Acre Venture Partners, a Santa Monica based venture fund focused on disruptive food companies creating better outcomes in both human and environmental health. Prior to founding Acre, Gareth was a key executive team member in multiple leveraged buyouts, including Bolthouse Farms. Early in his career Gareth worked in private equity and investment banking at Willis Stein & Partners and Lazard, respectively. Gareth holds a BS from DePaul University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Kara Brewer Boyd
President of the Association of American Indian Farmers which provides advocacy and technical assistance to American Indian farmers and ranchers. Kara is an Air Force Veteran who serves as an advisor for the Native Organizers Alliance and co-founder of Indigenous Cultural Ways. She was appointed to a Legislative Committee to address Indian Children Welfare laws and concerns of American Indian families. She also has served as Executive Director, Metrolina Native American Association, Member of the North Carolina Indian Child Welfare Standing Committee, and Board Member of the United Tribes of North Carolina. She is married to civil rights activist John Boyd, Jr., President of the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA). The Boyds have spent over 30 years advocating for civil rights and social justice while trying to retain and increase land ownership for minority farmers. Kara serves as the NBFA Event and Program Coordinator. The NBFA has been successful in entering into Memorandums of Understanding with the US Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency. While the Boyds were featured in the docuseries the American Farm on the History Channel, Kara was featured in a docuseries Women We Love: Unexpected Beauty by Paola Mendoza for Estee Lauder on her farm. In 2019, the Boyds purchased an additional 1,000 acre farm with 5 documented Indian Village sites on the Roanoke River in Virginia (ancestral homeland of the Saponi Tribe). Kara created Saponi Ventures, LLC and secured a VA Hemp Growers License. Her 1st hemp crop was grown using regenerative agriculture practices.
Omar Brownson
Omar is the co-founder and CEO of the gratitude app gthx. Previously, Omar was the founding executive director of RiverLA and has held leadership positions across finance, sustainability, and social impact. He serves on the board of InsightLA. Wherever he is, Omar makes sure to take a beat to notice good and share hope.
Pedro Diniz
Founder Fazenda Da Toca and Instituto Toca. An agroforester, businessman, and former Formula 1 racing driver. Transformed his family farm into Fazenda da Toca, a large-scale organic farm in Brazil’s São Paulo state, and one of the country’s leading producers of organic eggs, dairy, and fruit. Pedro established the Instituto Toca, a non-profit school and research initiative that aims to “educate to transform.” Pedro serves as a Board Member and Shareholder for Peninsula Participações and as a Board Member for Grupo Pão de Açúcar. He is the founder of PPD Holding, an investment company focused on conscious investments.
Mollie Engelhart
Executive chef and owner of Sage Plant Based Bistro, a growing group of plant-based organic comfort food restaurants in the greater Los Angeles area. She operates a 17-acre organic farm, Sow a Heart, focused on regenerative agriculture that doubles as an animal rescue including an aviary for rescued parrots. She is also Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary film, "May I Be Frank."
Ryland Engelhart
Ryland Engelhart is a Co-Founder, President of the Board and Executive Director of Kiss The Ground. Board Member/Co-Owner Cafe Gratitude and Gracias Madre. Also a co-creator of the award-winning, transformational documentary film, “May I Be Frank.” An entrepreneur and activist, using his restaurants as a platform to inspire more "gratitude" into our culture. He speaks on sacred commerce, tools for building community, and regeneration.
Michael Gargano
Managing Director, Argent Ventures LLC. Advisor to the NYS Empire State Development Corp. and the Shubert Organization. He is a member of the Board of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and Hollywood Property Owners Alliance. Mr. Gargano earned a J.D. from Boston University.
Jessica Handy
Jessica Handy is a registered dietitian and former Partnership Development Manager. For over ten years, Jessica worked for mission-driven organizations helping to develop and implement systems to support healthy food access for communities in need. She began her career working for Public Health Foundation Enterprises (PHFE), bringing nutrition education and fresh, nutritious foods to underserved communities around Los Angeles County. Jessica then moved on to work for the Institute for Local Government (ILG) to serve as a consultant for dozens of cities that received grant funding to increase youth access to nutrient-dense foods. Following her work with ILG she served as a Program lead with the City of Pasadena to champion procurement policies, grant-funded nutrition education, and farmers market initiatives.
Nathalie Kelley
Nathalie Kelley was born in Peru and raised in Australia by her Indigenous mother and grandmother. After working with street children in São Paulo, Brazil and Aboriginal inner-city youth in Redfern, Australia - she began her degree in Social Science and Policy at the University of UNSW. Not long after she started to work as an actress in film and television US, with notable roles in shows like Unreal, Dynasty and most recently as the star of ABC’s The Baker and the Beauty. Despite this change of course she remained inwardly mindful of her privilege and responsibility to her indigenous heritage and people. After the 2019 fires in the Amazon and Australia, Nathalie experienced a quickened shift in consciousness that led her to drastically change not just her lifestyle, but the way she engaged with social media. She has since become an advocate for Indigenous peoples, regenerative agriculture, the soil and the undervalued but invaluable role of fungi in our ecosystem. She is now committed to using her story telling skills to be a voice for the voiceless - creating narratives of hope around the power of nature to regenerate and heal and the integral part humans have to play in this process.
Christopher Lindstrom
An investor and a funder of systemic change, regenerative community, agriculture, and the evolution of consciousness. A strategist and funder in the new economy movement since 2003, when he was a volunteer for the E. F. Schumacher Society. Served on the boards of the David Rockefeller Fund and Slow Money, and currently on the board of Solar CITIES and the Foundation for Agricultural Integrity. Co-founder of CyclEffect Regenerative Ventures, a multi-stakeholder venture cooperative that invests in regenerative startups.
Tim Nett
Partner; Streamland Media. A serial entrepreneur who has spent the majority of his career in the areas of entertainment and advertising. Founder of Trailer Park Inc, which became the largest entertainment marketing company in the world. Board member of Absaroka Energy – a renewable energy company making wind and solar power more efficient and viable.
RJ Jain
RJ Jain is the Founder and CEO of Price.com. Prior to Price, RJ co-founded Appurify, which was acquired by Google in 2014 and now powers Google Test Lab’s technology. RJ previously served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Foundation Capital and as a technical advisor for Metamorphic Ventures, a New York City based venture capital firm. Additionally, he has held engineering leadership roles at the ride-sharing startup Sidecar, acquired by General Motors, and the gaming company Zynga (NAS: ZNGA). RJ is also an executive producer of Kiss the Ground, a documentary released on Netflix, and held cameo role on the Netflix released documentary series Chelsea Does.
Elizabeth "Mimi" Riley
Founder, Creative Director and CEO of Phills & Riley, a creative agency. Phills & Riley provides a broad range of creative services, including production, campaign development and execution, website, app, and online platform design and branding. Also Executive Producer, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, of www.wondersofthesea3d.com - a 3D underwater odyssey that features Jean-Michel Cousteau and his children as they embark on a voyage to discover the ocean and learn about the threats that put our oceans at risk.
Katy Saeger
CEO of Harmonica, an integrated agency where PR, social, influencers and media work together seamlessly. From Madison Avenue to Silicon Valley to Mt. Everest, Katy has followed her heart, building and scaling Fortune 10 companies and garage start-ups alike. From PepsiCo to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Wanderlust Festival to MakerFaire, Capitol Records to Caulipower, Jamba Juice to Liverpool Jeans -- Harmonica clients are icons of wellness, lifestyle, technology and culture.
Lauren Tucker
Director of Product Development at White Buffalo Land Trust. Co- Founder and Past E.D. of Kiss the Ground. An entrepreneur and community organizer with extensive experience in the nonprofit sector. Her lifelong pursuit is working with people to regenerate ecosystems, grow healthier food, and balance our carbon cycle. B.A. in international studies and psychology from American University and has extensively studied permaculture design and regenerative agriculture. Co-Founder of Orbit Homes.us.
Matthew Wiggins
Remedy Partners is the largest contractor for the federal government in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI)'s Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative - which is the most bipartisan initiative inside the Affordable Care Act.