Advisory

Interlace Commons Advisory

Interlace Commons recognizes that our future success relies upon support from a group of individuals within and outside of our field who can thoughtfully support and help guide our mission.

Genevieve Agaba, MSc.

Programme Lead: Place-based Inquiries, Food, Farming & Countryside Commission

Genevieve is a researcher, development practitioner, and program manager. She currently leads a place-based work program across the four nations of the United Kingdom, which aims to understand local needs and priorities relating to food, farming, and the countryside and how national policies land in different settings. Genevieve has worked on multiple international research projects since 2008, mainly focusing on local agroecological knowledge and agroforestry’s role in delivering ecosystem services, while employed at Bangor University and the World Agroforestry Center. She taught agroforestry and tropical forestry courses and supervised dissertation projects for 10 years. Understanding local contexts before designing interventions has been, and continues to be, a central part of her work.

Dr. Ashley Conway, PhD., PAS.

Assistant Research Professor, Center for Agroforestry, University of Missouri

Ashley aims to provide research and outreach leadership to a silvopasture program focused on understanding forage-tree-livestock interactions in the temperate Midwest US. She has a Ph.D. in Animal Science ruminant nutrition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Before her doctorate, she obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Animal Science at Washington State University. After her undergrad degree, she worked as an agroforestry/agriculture extension volunteer in Zambia, Africa, for the U.S. Peace Corps.

Ashley grew up on a small family farm, Conway Family Farms, LLC, located in Camas, Washington. The farm is a family-managed herd of 25-40 dairy goats for raw and pasteurized milk and artisan creamery. They also maintain a small flock of wool sheep, chickens, and bees, cultivated commercial blueberries, cut flowers, and vegetables for income generation.

Katie Commender, M.S.

Agroforestry Program Director, Appalachian Sustainable Development 

Katie Commender started her agroforestry career in 2012 as an Agroforestry AmeriCorps VISTA at Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD). She trained hundreds of beginning forest farmers in just two short years as a VISTA volunteer. She developed a multifunctional riparian forest buffer program with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help dozens of farmers merge conservation and production goals across 25 acres in southwest Virginia. As the lead on a Virginia NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant project, Katie authored revisions for riparian forest buffer practice standards to include planting and harvesting useful fruit, nut, and flowering trees and shrubs. In 2016, Katie co-developed the NTFP Calculator with the National Agroforestry Center and co-edited the Temperate Agroforestry newsletter. She also received her Master’s in Forestry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She was the graduate teaching assistant for the agroforestry class and researched preferences and intentions for riparian buffer adoption and retention.

Maureen Kilgore, MSc.

Agroforestry Education and Promotion Officer, Irish Agroforestry Forum

Maureen is a sheep farmer and is an agroforestry education and promotion officer for the Irish Agroforestry Forum. She grew up on a farm on the South West coast of Ireland with an extensive low-input farming system producing grass-fed beef and mountain lamb for their family-owned butcher shop. She studied at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), graduating with a B.Agr and an MSc in Env Sci, worked as a researcher at QUB, and lectured at the College of Agriculture and Rural Enterprise, NI. In 2003 she joined a community development team at Sustainable Northern Ireland, working to help communities become more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. She has extensive experience in agricultural and environmental outreach, stakeholder engagement, and awareness campaigns. She is particularly interested in agroforestry education, sustainable farming, local food, short food supply chains, and farmer-led research.

Dr. Joe Orefice, PhD.

Director of Forest & Agricultural Operations, School of the Environment, Yale University

Joe serves as a Lecturer and Director of Forest & Agricultural Operations at the Yale School of the Environment. He teaches agroforestry and forest management courses, oversees forestry operations, and applies educational opportunities on the 10,880-acre Yale School Forests system. His research focuses on temperate agroforestry and applied forest management. Joe’s most recent work has been in maple syrup production systems and temperate silvopasture. His passion outside of academia is farming, where he integrates agroforestry research into Hidden Blossom Farm, which he owns and operates in Union, CT.

Dr. Tim Pagella, PhD.

Senior Lecturer, Bangor University and Staff, World Agroforestry Center 

Tim is a system scientist who specializes in agroforestry systems. Much of this research is in partnership with World Agroforestry Center, primarily in Africa and Southeast Asia. His research focuses on agroforestry's role in delivering ecosystem services, resilience, and sustainable intensification across scales. Tim has experience working with local knowledge systems for natural resource management and soft engineering approaches to flood risk management. In the United Kingdom, he has contributed to various science-into-policy documents, including developing an Agroforestry measure for the Welsh Government and presentations to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Biodiversity on Flood Risk Management and the Natural Environment.

Dr. Kate Werson, PhD.

Senior Director, Partnerships, Outreach & Education, Savanna Institute

Kate is the Savanna Institute's associate director, wearing many hats, including leading the Communications and Education team, spearheading fundraising efforts, and managing internal development. Kate loves opportunities to tell stories about agroforestry and agriculture in the Midwest, a skill she developed while completing a Ph.D. in environmental history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with William Cronon. Kate lives with her husband and daughter in Madison, Wisconsin, where she enjoys hiking the Ice Age Trail and planting overambitious gardens.

Dr. Kevin Wolz, PhD.

CEO, Canopy Farm Management

Kevin is the CEO of Canopy Farm Management, a business launched in 2022 by the Savanna Institute and Grantham Environmental Trust to expand agroforestry establishment and management services in the Midwest. He was the founding Chair of the Savanna Institute’s Board of Directors, led the Institute as a Co-Executive Director from 2017 to 2021, and continues contributing to its mission as Lead Scientist. Keven’s academic background has blended biology, agroecology, and engineering, with a focus spanning a wide range of methods and applications – from biogeochemical cycling and ecological monitoring to biophysical modeling and economic analyses. Kevin enjoys experimenting and learning on his own two agroforestry farms on long-term-leased land in Champaign County, IL