Experiment in Rural Cooperation (SE RSDP)
Board of Directors: Making Connections, Shaping Projects

Photo Page of Board Members and Executive Director

Deborah Allan, Vice Chair - UMN rep w/Goodhue farm: Deborah is a UMN faculty member from the Dept. of Soil, Water, and Climate. Her areas of research and teaching include effects of cropping systems and land management on soil quality and productivity, as well as plant nutrition. She also grows garlic and other garden produce and is reconstructing a prairie on her land in Zumbro Falls. 

Robert (Bob) Cline - Rochester, MN:  Bob has over 30 years experience in architecture and construction. He has been an active volunteer in the Rochester area and served on numerous boards in the fields of social service and community infrastructure. Currently Bob is President of the Board of Directors of Friends of Quarry Hill Nature Center.

Sheila Craig - Preston, MN: Sheila is a retired University of Minnesota Extension Educator and specialist in Leadership and Civic Engagement. She currently serves as a Community Sewage Treatment Facilitator for the SE MN Wastewater Initiative, a 319 Clean Water Project of the SE MN Water Resources Board. You can also find her working weekends as a hostess at the Branding Iron Supper Club in Preston and involved in many other volunteer projects.

Stacy Fritz -- Chatfield, MN: Stacy is the Agriscience Instructor/FFA Advisor at Chatfield High School where she has taught for 5 years. She teaches classes in Biotechnology, Horticulture, Food Science, and offers a CIS Intro to Animal Science course for college credit at the U of MN.  She enjoys gardening and fishing.

Jerry Hildebrandt - Stewartville, MN: Jerry has over three decades of experience as a Soil Conservationist with the Soil Conservation Service (NRCS), over a decade as a Pollution Control Specialist with the MN Pollution Control Agency, and over half a decade as a farmer. He has received awards for implementation and installation of conservation measures.

Wayne Martin - UMN rep: Wayne Martin is the Alternative Livestock Systems Specialist at University of  Minnesota Extension. He serves as a Campus Rep on the ERC Board. He grew up on a farm in SE Iowa,  and spent two years in the Peace Corps, serving as an Extension Educator in Ecuador. He has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Washington in Seattle, and a M.Ed. in Ag Education from the University of MN. 

Trish Olson UMN rep w/Winona farm: Trish has many roles within the University of Minnesota Extension Service: Interim Capacity Area Leader for Family Development, Area Program Leader for Resource Management and Director of the Center for Personal and Family Financial Education. She also has a personal connection to the SE through her family farm in Winona County.

Margo Stich, Secretary - Rochester, MN: Margo is a longtime resident of Rochester, Minnesota. She has served as the food and wine writer for Rochester Women Magazine since its beginnings in 2000. She is a strong advocate for "supporting local," volunteers for numerous nonprofit organizations and does classes for Rochester Community Education.

Tim Terrill - Rochester, MN: Tim is a consultant for Two Roads Global Energy. He has been involved in watershed management, where he garnered support from the community and from government agencies to help improve water quality. He helped his agency win a Governor's Environmental Excellence award for water quality, and a National award for policy and grassroots initiatives.

Marcia Ward, Treasurer - Dakota, MN: Marcia has been a resident of SE Minnesota for most of her life. She is married with four children and she and her family raise Suffolk Sheep in rural New Hartford Township, where she has lived for 28 years. Marcia is a business graduate of the U of MN and owned and operated a retail/wholesale business with her husband in La Crosse for 25 years. She was elected Winona County Commissioner in 2002.

Erin Meier, Executive Director - Kasson, MN: Kasson:  Erin lives south of Kasson on an acreage where she and her partner attempt to nurture their little patch of land with its gardens, kids and creatures.  Erin comes to Minnesota by way of IL, NY, NJ, IA & KY. She holds an MS in Sustainable Agriculture from Iowa State University and has research interests in local food systems, consumer behavior and the external costs of agriculture. She is a geographer (BS, U of Illinois) with past experience as a cartographer and geographic information systems analyst.

Photos of ERC Board Members & Director