Board Member

Missy Singer DuMars is a farmer, fiber grower, and business strategist based at Crown Hill Farm in Eden, New York. She raises sheep for wool, produces naturally dyed yarns, and cultivates heirloom vegetables and pasture-raised eggs. Her work brings people closer to the sources of their food and fiber through dinners, workshops, and collaborations across the local food community. With her background as a fourth-generation member of a family retail business and managing large-scale entertainment lighting system projects for new construction, along with over two decades supporting entrepreneurs, Missy brings a practical, systems-oriented perspective to her work. As a board member of the Good Farmer’s Guild of WNY, she is committed to building stronger mutual support, social connection and resource sharing between farmers across the region.

Board Member

Bari studied Philosophy and Environmental Studies with a focus on agricultural ethics at SUNY Geneseo. Learning from mentors, Bari developed a deep passion for and knowledge of ecological agriculture at Heartstone Organic Farm (Dansville, NY), A Way of Life Farm (Bostic, NC) and Frost Valley YMCA Farm (Claryville, NY). Bari has served as a member of National Young Farmers Coalition's Federal Policy Committee as the Women's Affinity Representative and on Northeast SARE's Administrative Council as a Farmer Representative. Bari is on the Board of Directors of Catskills Agrarian Alliance and formally served on the Board of Unadilla Community Farm and Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute. Locally, Bari is involved in co-organizing with Good Farmers Guild of Western New York. Currently, Bari works with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Erie County while her farm, Healing Poem Farm (Java, NY), grows.

Treasurer

Steph Beneng began working on farms in 2004 and finally came back to her home region in 2016. She now lives in Hinsdale, NY with her beloved and their three children, where she runs her family's small greenhouse operation, Light Work Farm, and works as the grower at Canticle Farm, a nonprofit vegetable CSA in Allegany, NY. Steph is especially interested in issues of farmland access and transition, agriculture-focused economic development, and new farmer training and support.

Board Member

Ethan Hansen is high school physics and agriculture teacher by day and a farmer by nights, weekends and summers. His transition from teacher to farmer and now farm-teacher began by watching too much farm YouTube from his couch. He was fascinated by watching farmers work with nature to improve the environment but soon tired of just watching. He started working at Erba Verde Farms in East Aurora where he continues to work in the dairy, pork and chicken business there and co-founded Legacy Pastured Beef where he manages a 60 head grass-fed beef herd based in Strykersville. Then, partly as a result of realizing that his physics students were more interested in hearing about farming than in learning physics, he founded and runs the East Aurora High School Sustainable Agriculture program which includes a school farm and class. The program's goal is to graduate students who appreciate the health, economic, social and environmental benefits of a sustainable local food system. He is passionate about advancing local agriculture and helping to make farming a viable career option for the next generation.