Virtual Conference Agenda
Embark on a journey through time at our virtual conference series “Growing Together: Past, Present, and Future,” taking place on Zoom over three days.
May 2, 2025 – The Past
Day one, “Growing Together: The Past,” is dedicated to honoring the foundations and legacies that have shaped our agricultural practices, connecting us to traditions and ancestries that continue to influence our work today. By examining the past of the seed community through both celebratory and critical lenses, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of our roots and their impact on contemporary practices.
Day 1 Schedule
9:00 – 10:15 AM CT – KEYNOTE – Matthew Raiford, chef, farmer, cookbook author
10:30 – 11:15 AM CT – The Heritage Seed Library: Grown in the Past, Sown for the Future
Presented by Catrina Fenton
Explore the background and work of Europe’s oldest seed “bank,” the Heritage Seed Library. This session will give insight into why it is a library and not a bank, sharing what goes on behind the scenes and the stories behind the collection. It will also examine how the Heritage Seed Library is expanding this important conservation activity, working with volunteer “seed guardians” to bring more open-pollinated varieties back from the brink for future resilience.
11:30 AM – 12:15 PM CT – The Hands That Hold Tomorrow: Women, Keepers of Seeds, Preservers of Culture
Presented by Lauren Beatty
Seeds are more than life; they are memory, resilience, and the future in waiting. Women have long been their keepers, nurturing culture and legacy through the smallest of vessels. This session weaves stories of seeds saved in freedom and confinement—from enslaved women braiding survival into their hair to incarcerated women planting hope in prison gardens. Together, we’ll explore the feminine art of preserving life and culture across generations. Attendees will leave inspired by these stories and rooted in the knowledge that every seed carries the power to transform.
1:30 – 2:15 PM CT – Seeds of Legacy: Honoring Ancestral Wisdom in Modern Seed Saving
Presented by LaNoana Odom
Explore how ancestral seed practices and agricultural traditions from Jamaica to the United States have shaped modern sustainability efforts. This session examines the intersection of culture, history, and agriculture, showcasing preserved and rediscovered seed stories from family lineage and beyond. Attendees will gain insights into the importance of honoring ancestral wisdom while adapting to modern environmental challenges.
2:30 – 3:15 PM CT – Dr. Albert Yeager and the Quest to Bring Tomato Plants to the Plains
Presented by Jeremy Gill
This presentation explores the career of horticulturist Dr. Albert Yeager, including his plant experiments at North Dakota State University that focused on breeding regionally adapted garden varieties for the Upper Great Plains region. Specifically, it highlights the impacts of his ‘Bison’ tomato on gardeners in this region. Additionally, this session highlights an online community that encourages people to research Yeager and experiment with his varieties in their own gardens.
3:30 – 4:15 PM CT – Getting to Know the Collection at Seed Savers Exchange
Presented by Sara Straate, SSE seed historian
After Kent Whealy and Diane Ott Whealy founded SSE, home gardeners began to send their own treasured seeds to entrust for future preservation. Learn how this collection of seeds, plants, and stories has grown over the past 50 years, how it continues to evolve, and how staff continue to research the genetic and cultural diversity held within.
Day 1 Speaker Bios
Our featured participants are finalized and submitting bios and headshots. This page will be updated as information is confirmed and turned in.
Matthew Raiford
Chef, Farmer, Cookbook Author
Matthew Raiford is the chef/owner and sixth-generation farmer at Gilliard Farms, a sibling-run sustainable farm in Brunswick, GA, which has been owned and operated by his family since 1874. Matthew is the author of Bress ‘n’ Nyam and is a descendant of the Freshwater Gullah Geechie, which is what his cookbook is based on. He has a culinary arts degree from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, and a certificate in ecological horticulture from the University of California Santa Cruz and The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.
Catrina Fenton
Head of Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library
Catrina Fenton is head of Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library, managing the United Kingdom's national, living collection of heritage vegetable varieties. She oversees the task of finding, conserving, and sharing seed at risk of disappearing, and is passionate about the importance of both preserving cultivated biodiversity and promoting seed-saving skills.
LaNoana Odom
Founder and Executive Director, Sowing Good Seeds
LaNoana Odom is the founder and executive director of Sowing Good Seeds, The Butterfly Effect Foundation, which works to change lives through good thoughts, good words, good deeds, and, of course, good seeds. She has 30-plus years of Fortune 100 business experience and serves as a multi-disciplinary community organizer, wellness advisor, life coach, social justice advocate, artist, farmer, and trainer. LaNoana’s overall mission is to increase access to “good” nutrition, be it food or information, and create momentum for the “healthy food movement.”
Lauren Beatty
Program Manager, Land Together
Lauren Beatty is the program manager for Land Together, where she oversees ecological education, cultural preservation, and leadership programs at the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), the largest women’s prison in the world. A certified herbalist, educator, and advocate for environmental and social justice, Lauren works at the intersection of storytelling, food justice, and ecological resilience. She spearheaded initiatives like the CCWF-Alcatraz seed-sharing project, which bridges landscapes of confinement and transformation. Through workshops, panels, and podcasts, Lauren amplifies the voices of incarcerated women, fostering empowerment through gardening, seed saving, and reclaiming cultural agency.
Jeremy Gill
Historian and Extension Master Gardener
Jeremy Gill is a historian and an Extension Master Gardener from Kansas who blends his passion for history and horticulture to uncover and share fascinating stories about gardening, especially on the Great Plains. He currently works as a library specialist and adjunct university history instructor.
Sara Straate
Seed Historian, Seed Savers Exchange
Since 2011, Sara Straate has served as the seed historian at Seed Savers Exchange, where she coordinates historical research for the seed bank collection. By gathering donor perspectives and histories of stewardship, foodways, and garden traditions, this research enhances SSE’s knowledge about our seed collection. These seed stories also help connect and engage SSE’s audience of home gardeners. Sara has an undergraduate degree in horticulture from Iowa State University.
June 6, 2025 – The Present
Day two, “Growing Together: The Present,” will be dedicated to exploring the current landscape of seed technology, breeding projects, and the challenges and successes faced by communities worldwide. This day offers a comprehensive snapshot of contemporary advancements and issues in the field, providing a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration.
Day 2 Schedule
9:00 – 10:15 AM CT – KEYNOTE – Desirae Abella, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
10:30 – 11:30 AM CT – Meetings with Remarkable Seeds—and the Amazing People Who Nurture Them
Presented by Adam Alexander
Across the world, chefs, farmers, plant scientists, and everyday growers are doing something extraordinary: creating new generations of fruit, vegetables, and cereals that will flourish locally, taste delicious, increase diversity, and contribute to a sustainable and robust food future.
In this illustrated talk, award-winning film and television producer Adam Alexander dons his seed-detective homburg hat to meet 21st-century seed heroes around the world who are both championing traditional varieties and breeding delicious, resilient new ones better equipped to deal with the shocks of a changing climate. Alexander will spotlight some of the most inspiring seed heroes around the world—from India to Wales, across Europe, to southern Albania, and into Ethiopia—to remind attendees that Indigenous cultures and rural communities have been expertly breeding seeds for millennia, celebrating locally and sustainably grown produce that is the foundation of all our food cultures.
11:45 – 12:30 PM CT – Growing Food, Growing Community
Presented by Sarah Salvatore
Urban farming isn’t just about growing food—it’s about reclaiming land, restoring health, and building stronger communities. This presentation uses Eartha’s Farm and Market in Jacksonville, Florida, as a case study to break down why urban farming matters, especially in underserved communities, and how it can be a powerful tool for healing both people and the environment. The farm sits on land that was once an incinerator ash dump site—causing serious environmental harm to a predominantly Black neighborhood and leading to long-term health issues and economic decline—but is today, after an extensive cleanup effort and FDA approval, producing fresh, nutrient-dense food and serving as a hub for community engagement and education.
Attendees will learn why urban farming is essential for food access and community resilience, what environmental and social harm has been done to underserved communities, how to heal the land and people by engaging in urban agriculture, and why how we farm in urban spaces matters.
1:30 – 2:30 PM CT – You Can Grow Seed on a Market Farm
Presented by Dan Brisebois
Growing seed on your farm is easier than you may think—and this session will show you exactly how to do it! It will start with seed biology basics, then dive deeper into a few crops to illustrate exactly how to integrate seed production into a vegetable or cut-flower farm. Finally, you’ll learn how to select your seed plants and how to adapt varieties to your farm and even create new varieties!
2:45 – 3:30 PM CT – Tending to Diversity: How Culture Shapes Garden Agroecosystems
Presented by Stephen Stresow-Cortez
Whether talking about people or plants, diversity is an asset that strengthens systems. In Central Michigan, the Greater Lansing Food Bank Garden Project supports a network of over 6,000 gardeners across 90 community gardens. Several of the gardens are tended primarily by immigrants and refugees, who use the spaces to create a sense of home, generate income, preserve food, save seeds, and create pollinator habitats. This session explores how these gardeners build resilience in the face of challenges by embracing plant biodiversity and international seed-saving and exchange networks.
3:45 – 4:30 PM CT – The Greenspace Revolution
Presented by Breanna Bertacch
Land developments can threaten historic gardens and parks in small towns and big cities alike. This workshop will encourage attendees to reflect on greenspaces in their communities that may be endangered and equip them with resources to navigate challenges or barriers to protecting those spaces. Specifically, it will provide communication strategies and skills to work within community-based organizations to critically assess greenspace protection and improvement.
Day 2 Speaker Bios
Our featured participants are finalized and submitting bios and headshots. This page will be updated as information is confirmed and turned in.
Desirae Abella
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Desirae Abella is an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and of Omaha descent. She is the founder of Hokte Land Relations Consulting LLC and has over eight years of experience in agricultural and natural resource conservation, with the past four years focused on Tribal communities. Her work includes roles with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Desirae lives in North Carolina on the ancestral homelands of the Cherokee and is deeply passionate about tribal sovereignty and empowering Indigenous communities through land-based relationships.
Adam Alexander
Author and Producer
Adam Alexander is a consummate storyteller, thanks to a 40-year career as an award-winning film and television producer. He lectures widely on his work discovering, conserving, and sharing rare and endangered garden crops. Adam grows seed of heritage Syrian and Ukrainian vegetables for displaced people in the United Kingdom and beyond and maintains a library of some 500 vegetables that he has collected over 35 years, growing out more than 40 varieties every year to refresh his collection and share with fellow gardeners. He is also a seed guardian for the Heritage Seed Library, part of Garden Organic in the United Kingdom, and director of the Our Food 1200 initiative. His latest book, THE ACCIDENTAL SEED HEROES, was published by Chelsea Green in 2023.
Sarah Salvatore
Director, Eartha's Farm and Market
Sarah Salvatore is the director of Eartha’s Farm and Market, a nonprofit in Jacksonville, Florida, that fosters urban communities where sustainable agriculture, local food systems, and community wellness intersect. Her passion for land, plants, and food was shaped by her rural Midwest upbringing in south-central Ohio, where Sarah’s weekends were spent snapping green beans, canning tomatoes, and processing deer meat. In 2008, Sarah left her small town to pursue a degree in sociology at Otterbein University. While there, she became actively involved in urban agriculture and food security, volunteering at the university’s garden and a local community garden nonprofit supporting refugees. Over the past six years, she has implemented grants to advance soil biological farming practices, expand food access, and engage underserved youth and adults in urban agriculture. Sarah believes all people deserve access to affordable, nutritiously dense foods and an environmentally safe place to eat, live, play, and grow.
Dan Brisbois
Author and Podcast Host
Dan Brisebois is the author of THE SEED FARMER, co-author of CROP PLANNING FOR ORGANIC VEGETABLE GROWERS, and hosts the SEED FARMER podcast. He also runs the Farmer Spreadsheet Academy and blogs about farming and seeds at www.DanBrisebois.com. Dan is a founding farmer at Tourne-Sol co-operative farm in Les Cèdres, Quebec, Canada. Tourne-Sol grows organic seeds for an online seed store and a wholesale rack program, as well as organic vegetables for 500 weekly veggie baskets.
Stephen Stresow-Cortez
Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Fellow
Stephen Stresow-Cortez began gardening as a middle schooler in El Paso, Texas, in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a master of professional studies degree in horticulture from Cornell University. He is currently a doctoral student and Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Fellow at Michigan State University. His dissertation, “Up High, Down Low, Too Slow: Agroecological Nutrient Management in Organic Vegetable Production,” takes a bird’s-eye view of how we grow food, how those growing practices affect soil health, and how we can speed up an agroecological transition.
Breanna Bertacchi
Greenspace Revolution
Originally from California but raised in the cornfields of Ohio, Breanna Bertacchi now resides on the South Side of Chicago. When they’re not gardening, they’re bike camping, volunteering with their neighborhood Chicago parks and environmental groups, reading, or (most likely) swimming. Currently, Breanna is focusing on incorporating greener living into their life, including hen-keeping, composting, foraging, and seed saving.
July 11, 2025 – The Future
On the final day of our virtual conference, “Growing Together: The Future,” we focus on the horizon, exploring how the seed community can adapt, innovate, and mentor future generations to cultivate a resilient and thriving agricultural landscape. This day is dedicated to fostering intergenerational collaboration, developing creative partnerships, and implementing sustainable practices that will carry us forward.
Day 3 Schedule
9:00 – 10:15 AM CT – KEYNOTE – Dr. Susan Pell, executive director, United States Botanic Garden (USBG)
10:30 – 11:30 AM CT – Addressing Climate Change Through Green Agricultural Solutions
Presented by Birndze Bete
This session will explore the intersection of climate change and agriculture, focusing on agritech and sustainable solutions that participants can implement within their communities. Participants will learn how initiatives have used this approach to train young people in Africa, helping them learn the origin of their food and engage them in practical, hands-on training in regenerative community gardening, organic urban gardening, and climate-smart agricultural technology solutions.
11:45 – 12:30 PM CT – Preserving Our History and Protecting Our Future, One Seed at a Time
Josie Walker and LaShauna Austria
The One Seed, One Community Project wants communities to grow and save the same seed. After relative success completing the project with adults, its leaders augmented its design with aspirations to ignite a desire in teenagers to preserve heirloom seeds as a way to both bridge the gap to our ancestors and secure our future. This session will explore experiences with both versions of the project, some strategies to improve and expand the augmented design, and ways others can develop derivative programs to cultivate future seed savers.
1:30 – 2:30 PM CT – Finding a Place to Plant a Seed
Mary Ann V. Smith
Many avid gardeners learned the hobby and skills from another person in their lives. However, many young people today think that growing their own food is beyond their reach. This session explores activities for students and community members that will remind them of the wonder that comes with growing plants at home. It will also examine ways large and small to engage students from kindergarten through college (as well as community members) in backyard gardening, including seed starting and collecting.
2:45 – 3:30 PM CT – Plant It Forward: Expanding Gardening Access One Seed at a Time
Presented by Barkha Bishnoi and Maddie Yang
Learn about Plant It Forward—an exciting new initiative that plans to promote food accessibility and sustainable practices by establishing seed libraries in public libraries. This program will provide free seeds for community members to grow their own food, resources to empower them with knowledge on gardening, nutrition, and sustainability, and opportunities for them to donate seeds to create a self-sustaining model. Its overarching goal? To get kids involved in gardening and teach them why biodiversity is important and how to become more self-sufficient in providing their own food.
3:45 – 4:30 PM CT – Heritage and Historic Apples at Seed Savers Exchange
Presented by Jamie Hanson, SSE orchard manager
Day 3 Speaker Bios
Our featured participants are finalized and submitting bios and headshots. This page will be updated as information is confirmed and turned in.
Dr. Susan Pell
Executive Director, USBG
Dr. Susan Pell is the executive director of the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) and an expert in the systematics of the cashew family (Anacardiaceae). She holds a B.S. in biology from St. Andrews University in North Carolina and a Ph.D. in plant biology from Louisiana State University. Susan has spent her career in public gardens as a botanist, educator, and leader, and she has traveled the world to collect plants for scientific study. She has held positions at The New York Botanical Garden and Brooklyn Botanic Garden and was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation. She is the author of an illustrated dictionary of plant structural terminology, A BOTANIST'S VOCABULARY, several book chapters, and dozens of peer-reviewed articles. At the USBG, she is committed to helping the Garden achieve its mission to inspire people to appreciate, study, and conserve plants to enrich society locally and globally. She is dedicated to diversifying the Garden’s collections and offerings and serving its diverse visitorship.
LaShauna Austria
Co-founder of Black Seed Saving Collective
LaShauna Austria is a co-founder of Black Seed Saving Collective. LaShauna, an ordained minister and community organizer, owns and operates Seeds of Change Consulting and Kindred Seedlings Farm. Her work cultivates land and community, specializing in anti-racism work in the food system.
Josie Walker
Co-founder of Black Seed Saving Collective
Josie Walker is the co-founder of Black Seed Saving Collective. Josie is a sustainable agriculture, food access, and food sovereignty advocate with a love for how seeds have kept and will continue to sustain her people.
Mary Ann V. Smith
Faculty Member, Penn State Schuylkill
Mary Ann V. Smith is a biology and chemistry faculty member at Penn State Schuylkill who specializes in sustainability education. She focuses her work on finding new ways to engage students in the environment and more sustainable living practices.
Barkha Bishnoi
Co-founder, Food to Flourish
Barkha Bishnoi is a junior at Richard Montgomery High School in Montgomery County, Maryland. Her passion lies in ensuring and expanding opportunities to achieve food and nutrition security. As co-founder of Food to Flourish, she is excited to work with other like-minded individuals to create innovative solutions that make nutritious and wholesome food readily available for all.
Maddie Yang
Co-founder, Food to Flourish
Maddie Yang is a sophomore at Moravian Academy in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and co-founder of the youth-led nonprofit, Food to Flourish, an organization dedicated to expanding nutrition access through a sustainable lens. She became interested in this field when the USDA deemed her town a food desert, and as an avid gardener and cook, she knew she had to take action.
Bonus Content
The Past Bonus Sessions
Tea: Teaching History Through Food
Presented by Gwen Kvavli Gulliksen
From Indigenous people to Asia, England, and the Americas, the history of tea is rich in beauty and brutality. This session examines a school tea garden bed that focuses on the aesthetic aspects of growing native green and herbal botanicals and helps teach the historic healing aspects of tea with its meditative, calming, and focused energy qualities and cross-cultural connections. Attendees will learn how to create a tea garden from start to finish, including selecting varieties; laying out the bed; planting, growing, harvesting, and drying tea; and making special tea blends. Leave with delicious tea recipes to make your own blends and fresh tea infusions at home to share with family and friends.
Interview with George McLaughlin
George and his wife, Jerreth, have listed on The Exchange, Seed Savers Exchange’s gardener-to-gardener seed swap, since 1985.
The Present Bonus Sessions
Common Seed: A Mobilization for Seed Sovereignty in Thailand
Presented by Jon Jandai
In response to the growing erasure of farmer-led seed systems and seed diversity in Thailand, a collective of young farmers came together to establish Common Seed and cultivate a new movement of seed keepers, seed breeders, and living seed libraries throughout the country. Common Seed supports farmer seed self-reliance and revitalizes seed diversity through an alternative, decentralized seed distribution and knowledge exchange network that empowers Thai farmers to keep seeds in their own hands. This session will explore how Common Seed came to be, its current work, and its vision for supporting Thai seed keepers.
The Garden Club at Belmont Village Senior Care: How Residents With Disabilities Garden Together
Presented by Carrol Smith
The Future Bonus Sessions
Bugs as Friends in the Garden: A Young Scientist’s Guide to Amazing Insects
Presented by Mimzy Kemp
Learn how bugs help gardens thrive from the perspective of the Vermont Entomological Society’s youngest member! This engaging presentation will focus on insects’ role in pollination, pest control, and soil health—key elements in preserving heirloom plants and biodiversity. Six-year-old Mimzy will introduce the audience to her favorite garden bugs, sharing fun facts and colorful drawings she created to explore how these insects contribute to the health of heirloom varieties. Through her unique perspective as a young scientist, Mimzy will connect the importance of insects to Seed Savers Exchange’s mission of protecting plant diversity and fostering sustainable gardening practices. Her enthusiasm and charming artwork will inspire others to appreciate the interconnectedness of garden ecosystems and the critical role bugs play in preserving our natural heritage.
Cultivating Relationships to Regrow the Past
Presented by Joel Barthel
Joel Barthel is a professional educator who has served in public and private schools for the past two decades. Although his educational background, experiences, and teaching loads center around chemistry, physics, and environmental sciences, he also has a passion for history and the outdoors. This passion inspired him to volunteer and take on part-time or seasonal work with historic parks. He built a historical impression of an 18th-century habitant in the “upper country” and had the opportunity to plan, experiment with, and execute a historical garden each year.
Bonus Content Speaker Bios
Our featured participants are finalized and submitting bios and headshots. This page will be updated as information is confirmed and turned in.
George McLaughlin
Exchange Lister
George and his wife, Jerreth, have listed on The Exchange, Seed Savers Exchange’s gardener-to-gardener seed swap, since 1985.
Gwen Kvavli Gulliksen
Chef, Farm Consultant, Professor
Gwen Kvavli Gulliksen has worked with small, sustainable family farmers for over 30 years as a fine dining chef, specialty foods executive, small farm consultant, college culinary arts professor, and high school culinary arts teacher. She has championed and/or grown heirloom foods and saved seeds in all her roles. Currently, Gwen works at an inner-city, all-girls leadership school, where she hosts four large garden beds funded by multiple grants and takes students on multiple field trips to small farms annually.
Joel Barthel
Educator
Joel Barthel is a professional educator who has served in public and private schools for the past two decades. Although his educational background, experiences, and teaching loads center around chemistry, physics, and environmental sciences, he has a passion for history and the outdoors as well. This passion inspired him to volunteer and take on part-time or seasonal work with historic parks. He built a historical impression of an 18th-century habitant in the “upper country” and had the opportunity to plan, experiment with, and execute a historical garden each year.
Mimzy Kemp
Six-Year-Old Scientist
Mimzy is a six-year-old scientist with a boundless passion for insects. As the youngest member of the Vermont Entomological Society, she has spent countless hours observing, learning about, and drawing bugs. Her love for insects has even inspired her mom, Mercedes, who initially disliked bugs, to see their beauty and importance. Mimzy’s mission is to share how bugs play a vital role in gardening and why we should celebrate them as our garden friends.
Still need to register?
There is still time to register for the virtual conference series and Seed Savers Exchange's in-person 50th-anniversary conference and celebration to be held at Heritage Farm in Decorah, Iowa August 8-9, 2025. Click the buttons to learn more. We'll see you there!