2024 TOFGA Board of Directors
If you would like to be a part of our board, let's move forward by messaging us at admin@tofga.org. To learn board member roles and responsibilities click here.
Carolina Mueller, President
Carolina is a tenacious cook, gardener, weekend rancher, and food systems practitioner. From working in food service, to nonprofits and farms for over a decade, she is passionate about bridging big-picture policy and people’s lived experiences. Caro recently earned her Master’s of Public Affairs with a focus in agriculture and food systems with an eye towards program evaluation. Over the past decade, Carolina has worked in a number of positions all along the food chain. Her work in food spans from the big-picture national policies down to the personal experiences of individuals and communities. Carolina is excited to serve on the board of TOFGA to support producers all over Texas.
Robert Maggiani, Vice President
Robert Maggiani used to be an organic vegetable grower in Texas and Mexico.He currently works in San Antonio as a sustainable agricultural specialist with National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). 
He has given presentations at hundreds of workshops and conferences about production and marketing of agricultural products in Texas, other states and Mexico. He is a member of Texas International Produce Association (TIPA), and is also a board member for the Common Market Texas food hub.
Leslie Provence, Secretary
Leslie, a retired data analyst, is VP/Treasurer of the Food Policy Council of San Antonio, and was a founding member of that organization in 2010. She has been a TOFGA member since 2008. In San Antonio, she led zoning code changes in 2015 and 2020 for FPCSA, to allow urban farms
and the home sales of cottage foods and produce from residential market gardens, and to streamline the process for starting an urban farm. She also led changes to the local livestock code to increase the number of chickens allowed from three to eight, and she has organized coop tours as an educational and community-building event. Leslie earned the Master of Public Administration degree from UTSA in 2007, with a thesis titled “Community Gardening on Public Housing Properties: Where, Who, How, Why and Why Not?” She remains active in community food policy work at the local, state, and national levels. As a gardener, she has the most luck with herbs, greens, and native pollinator plants, including propagation of native milkweed.
Greg Mast, Treasurer
Greg Mast is a farmer, educator, and non-profit manager with 15+ years of experience working at the intersection of local environment, food production and community based organizations. Greg is an ISA Certified Arborist, and has a MS in Geography from Texas State University with a focus on urban community gardening. Currently he is the Director of Agriculture at Hope Farms in Houston, a part of Recipe For Success Foundation. He is also the former operator of Mast Family Farms, a diversified small scale vegetable farm in Elgin, that focused on specialty wholesale and institutional customers.
Aime Sommerfeld Lillard, Region 1 Director
Aime Sommerfeld Lillard grew up surrounded by small scale family farming and pursued degrees in agriculture from Texas A&M University. She has had a variety of experiences working with Heart of Texas Urban Gardening Coalition, World Hunger Relief, Grow North Texas, and multiple school gardens. Although she lives in College Station, her current work is with Waco Family Medicine in Waco, Tx creating and sustaining a Community Gathering Space that focuses on community growth through gardening, health and education. As a long time TOFGA member, home gardener, and advocate of sustainable farming Aime loves connecting the dots and increasing her knowledge base to help others whenever possible.
Susie Marshall, Region 4 Director
Susie Marshall is founder and Executive Director of GROW North Texas, a Dallas-based nonprofit that cultivates healthy food communities by strengthening local food production and improving access to fresh, nutritious food. She has 17 years of experience working with food systems, food producers, and food assistance programs distributing surplus fruits and vegetables. Susie is a past president of Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and has been involved since 2010. Susie has degrees from Texas Wesleyan University, Texas A&M – Commerce, and Perkins School of Theology at SMU.
Darron Gaus, Board Member
Darron was born in a small agriculture town named Yoakum, TX. After 8 years in architecture, kitchen design & project management, Darron went back to agriculture. He got his degree in agriculture from Texas State University in 2016. Darron has been involved in agriculture his whole life, but professionally has been in the ag world for over 10 years. He has been a ranch hand for a large cattle operation and a vegetable farmer on the San Antonio Food Bank's 105 acres. Currently Darron is an ag specialist for the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). His passions are educating and spreading the word of sustainable, regenerative agriculture. Darron is a professional learner, always craving more innovation and new ways of thinking. In his free time he enjoys gardening, camping, wildlife conservation, and being a practitioner and advocate for sustainable stewardship of life and land.
Stephanie Kasper, Board Member
Stephanie Kasper is a research farmer at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg, Texas. She manages UTRGV's research and education farm, the Hub of Prosperity, and has been involved in efforts to make Edinburg's city ordinances more friendly to urban food production. Before moving to the Rio Grande Valley in 2017, Stephanie farmed mixed fruits and vegetables for 2 years in Edna, TX and 1 year in Shiner, TX. At home, she's also a devoted front-yard veggie gardener, rain harvester, and urban chicken keeper.
Amy Gallo, Board Member
Amy has spent the last decade as an avowed advocate for local agriculture. She braids together her love of local produce with her belief that food has the power to heal individuals, communities, and the environment. She grew up in a small town in central New York, and studied Behavioral Neuroscience at Northeastern University. She has worked on farms in Central Texas for ten years, in every role from field hand to manager and has a deep reverence for the work of farmers and farm laborers. Currently she serves as the Farm Viability Director for Sustainable Food Center, working on tailoring solutions to common problems faced by Central Texas farmers, strengthening the local food system, and overseeing the two SFC Farmers’ Markets.
Keisha Johnson, Board Member
Keisha is from a town where small scale farming represents a true lifestyle. She enjoys cultivating Mother Earth with sustainable & regenerative methods. In late 2019, she abandoned a 25-year Administrative career, to return to her childhood home as a caregiver. For her, returning home meant dirt roads and cattle guards; and of course, growing/farming my own food. So she started a farm and is currently farming (veggies & poultry) full-time on her family's homestead. Grow It 4 Dinner, is a small organic farm committed to providing fresh food to their rural, food insecure, underserved neighbors in the piney woods of east Texas. They believe in local farms servicing local residents and strengthening the local food supply; while promoting sustainable agriculture. Producing an organic supply of nutritional foods is a personal passion worthy of exploring. She enjoys the rural life!
Laurie Dixon, Board Member
Laurie Dixon is at heart a gardener who loves to engage with others. She believes EVERYONE benefits from growing plants. Organically, of course! Born in Fort Worth, raised in the rolling hills and grasslands of North Texas, a grad of UT Austin, her love for Texas runs deep. As a landscape designer and consultant, Texas native plants are her favorites. In the past, she has worked in the Nursery and Greenhouse Industry propagating, merchandising, managing, and learning! Currently, she is in the consultant training program of the Soil Food Web school and is intent on moving her work in the direction of a more regenerative business practice. She is also a Williamson County certified master gardener since 2015.
Former TOFGA Board Members
(If you know of others, please send us an email and we'll update the list! Thanks!)
Isabella Chamberlain
Glen Miracle
Theron Beadreau
Sue Beckwith
Steve Bridges
Patience Blythe
Jennifer Buratti
Jimma Byrd
Mark Chapin
Skip Connett
Sabino Cortez
Rigo Delgado
Mike Dobrinski
Bruce Duley
Justin Duncan
Emily Erickson
James Fairchild
Leah Gibson
Hans Hansen
Thomas Harr
Steven Hebbard
Pamela Hornby
Cindy Hoyt
Susan Jennings
Jackie King
Leslie Marchand
Rene McCracken
Bill McCranie
Leslie McKinnon
Jay Mertz
Colin Mitchell
Cameron Molberg
Diana Padilla
Trish Percy
Lacey Proffitt
Andrew Smiley
Benjamin Strube
Brad Stufflebeam
Katie Taylor
Marie Tedei
Amanda Vanhoozier
Becca Verm
Dan Wickware
Ty Wolosin
Cara Young
