Our Staff

Meet the Rooted Staff

Administrative Staff

To reach these staff members, call 608-240-0409

Ginny Hughes, Deputy Director

Ginny Hughes

Interim Co-Executive Director

she/her/hers

Ginny Hughes serves as Rooted’s Deputy Director. Before joining the staff in 2012, Ginny earned a master’s degree in Environmental Leadership from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She has over a decade of experience sharing her love of growing vegetables with kids and adults in a variety of settings. When she’s not in the garden, she enjoys yoga and adventuring outdoors with her two sons and husband.

Hedi Rudd, Badger Rock Neighborhood Center Director

Hedi Rudd

Interim Co-Executive Director

she/her/hers

Hedi Rudd is a former Southdale neighborhood resident who has been an active community organizer since being appointed to Mayor Bauman’s Task Force on Race Relations in 1998. In 2001, she joined Bauman’s staff as the Study Circle on Race Relations Coordinator, a program recommended by the task force. Hedi served two terms on the City of Madison Equal Opportunities Commission and was a staff member of the City of Madison Affirmative Action Department, prior to the creation of the Office of Civil Rights. After living in Las Vegas for 6 years, where she worked at Nevada Cancer Institute in various Executive Administrative positions, she returned to Madison and community organizing. An avid photographer, Hedi is often seen at community events telling the story of communities of color through her lens. Hedi is the 2019 recipient of Forward Community Investments Nan Cheney March for Justice Award. Hedi serves on the Madison Food Policy Council.

Laura Whitt

Marketing and Communications Manager

she/her/hers

Laura grew up in Madison, and graduated from UW-Madison with a degree in Environmental Studies and History. She is interested in the intersection of people and the environment, and the systems that bind both ecological and human communities together. Laura got her start with the Aldo Leopold Nature Center’s Nature Net, and is now continuing her journey in local environmental education organizations as Rooted’s Marketing and Communications Manager.

Sebastian Hassell

Development Manager

he/they

Sebastian is from a small town in south Alabama where he learned and gained experience with growing, harvesting, and storing food from an early age. He attended Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University where he earned a B.A. in Political Science and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP). Over the years, he has been involved in community building and grassroots organizing work in a variety of ways. Outside of work, Sebastian is currently focused on building his business and using his skills to serve Black and Brown LGBTQ+ folks.

Badger Rock Neighborhood Center Staff

To reach these staff members, call 608-960-4615

Alex Booker

Badger Rock Neighborhood Center Manager

Alex Booker is a Madison native who has always had a passion for building community. He came to Rooted through his connection with urban agriculture and started as an assistant farm and education manager at our Badger Rock site. He enjoyed working with the youth and their families through food and growing. Alex is now returning to Badger Rock as the neighborhood center manager. He is excited to bring programming that the community is looking for to Badger Rock. In his spare time he enjoys working on his own farming projects and taking his dog Mowgli hiking across the state.

Forrest Smart

Assistant Farm & Education Manager

Originally from Wausau, WI, Forrest attended UW-Stevens Point where he received a Bachelor’s degree in Health Promotion and Wellness. Looking for his next opportunity, he moved to Madison WI to seek out more experience and got his start as a Garden Educator and volunteer worker at multiple sites within Rooted, and recently joined the team at Badger Rock. Working with Rooted, he has gained a new passion for educating and working with youth of all ages, especially around topics such as healthy habits, wellness, nutrition, and food sovereignty. Forrest is Native American belonging to the Bad River Band of Ojibwe, Ho-Chunk Nation, and Forest County Potawatomi tribes of Wisconsin. His culture and traditional ways are very important to him, along with this identity. He has many hobbies and loves the outdoors, but his biggest passion is snowboarding in the winter. When it’s not winter, you’ll find him hiking, traveling, going to traditional ceremonies, seeing live music, or visiting with friends and family all around WI.

Hedi Rudd, Badger Rock Neighborhood Center Director

Hedi Rudd

Badger Rock Neighborhood Center Director

she/her/hers

Hedi Rudd is a former Southdale neighborhood resident who has been an active community organizer since being appointed to Mayor Bauman’s Task Force on Relations in 1998. In 2001, she joined Bauman’s staff as the Study Circle on Race Relation’s Coordinator, a program recommended by the task force. Hedi served two terms on the City of Madison Equal Opportunities Commission and was a staff member of the City of Madison Affirmative Action Department, prior to the creation of the Office of Civil Rights. After living in Las Vegas for 6 years, where she worked at Nevada Cancer Institute in various Executive Administrative positions, she returned to Madison and community organizing. An avid photographer, Hedi is often seen at community events telling the story of communities of color through her lens. Hedi is the 2019 recipient of Forward Community Investments Nan Cheney March for Justice Award.

Rooted Staff Member Kipp Thomas

Kipp Thomas

Culinary Arts Manager

he/him/his

Kipp is the Culinary Arts Director and founder of Kipp’s Kitchen. Kipp has found his sweet spot working closely with the community and students in the Madison and Sun Prairie School Districts. His food can be found at community events such as the Badger Rock Community Market, Dane Dances, and the Urban League’s Unity Picnic. Kipp places a high value on helping others and being able to share his talent and resources with the community. His culinary talent is being used to feed families facing food insecurity. Kipp’s service to his community was recognized when he was honored as a 2019 Community Shares Backyard Hero.

MARI VERBETEN

Assistant Farm & Education Manager

she/her/hers

Since graduating from UW-Madison in 2018, Mari spent two growing seasons working on farms and a year abroad in Panama with the Peace Corps. She enjoys showing people love through food, learning about how to increase food autonomy, and speaking Spanish. She is excited to engage with Rooted and the Madison community through gardening, school programming, and collaborations with partners to increase resilience in the school food environment.

Rooted Staff Member Sarah Karlson

Sarah Karlson

Education Director and Farm & Education Manager

she/her/hers

Sarah comes to her work at Rooted from Oakland, CA where she began her work in food justice and urban agriculture in 2005. She continues this work at Badger Rock, managing the 2-acre Badger Rock Urban Farm and Badger Rock Community Garden and provides gardening and culinary-based education opportunities. Sarah is passionate about gardens as a tool for education, food access, joy, connection, and building community resilience at the intersection of food, racial, environmental, and educational justice.

Dane County Gardens Network Staff

To reach these staff members, call 608-240-0409

Chuekao Thao

Community Gardens Network Manager

My full name is Chuekao Thao but normally I go by KO. I have lived in Madison for almost my entire life, starting my elementary education at Lakeview Elementary and finishing up with a BA from UW-Madison. While young, I was very active in sports like soccer, volleyball, and weightlifting. I’ve been married for over 30 years and raised 4 children all enrolled in college. While attending UW-Madison in the early 90s, about eight or nine of us early Hmong students found our first mutual assistant student association at UW-Madison (HASA). Since I graduated, I’ve taken various job from working as Teaching Assistant for Madison Metro School District to starting various self-employed businesses. Southern Wisconsin Hmong Association (SWHA) was one major association I joined in the Hmong community during the late 90s. I served in various capacities from being a board member to being treasurer of the association. Currently I’m an avid gardener with the Troy Garden and enjoy taken hiking trips with family and fellow trackers.

Rooted Staff Member Nicholas Leete

Nicholas Leete

Community Gardens Network Director

he/him/his

Originally from Minnesota, Nicholas has spent time in Iowa studying soil, water, and sustainable agriculture, has worked in middle-income housing in New York, and has researched perennial crops at the University of Wisconsin. He spent several years working with community-focused food and gardening projects before joining Rooted as the Gardens Network Manager. Nicholas serves as Chair of the Madison Food Policy Council. When not working on his own community garden plot, Nicholas enjoys cooking, biking, and the Madison lakes.

Farm to School and Early Care Staff

To reach these staff members, call 608-240-0409

Rooted Staff Member Brian Emerson

Brian Emerson

Farm to School MANAGER

he/him/his

Brian, who is a native of Cedar Rapids, IA, is a Northside Madison resident. After graduating from the University of Iowa he worked with the USDA-NRCS on various mapping and watershed projects. Since 2004 he has been with the UW Madison trialing fruits, flowers, and veggies. Most recently, he served as Trial Manager for the Seed to Kitchen Collaborative in the Urban and Regional Food Systems program. In his free time, Brian works in his community coaching, teaching horticulture, and running a small urban farm.

Courtney Raatz

2023-24 AmeriCorps Farm to School Specialist

Courtney Raatz is excited to be a first-year Farm to School Specialist! She thought this experience would be a perfect continuation of the Garden Education work she started this season at Troy Kids Garden. Prior to her work with Rooted, Courtney worked in Education and Public Health: serving her first Americorps year as a communications specialist for an collective impact organization in Milwaukee 2020-21, and later coordinating operations at the University of Wisconsin Madison to help sustain the national Community Health Worker workforce. Her passion for promoting health equity, food justice, and community-based learning was sparked during her undergrad at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee where she received a bachelor degree in Social Work in 2020. Outside of work, Courtney can be found in the garden or at home enjoying her many hobbies including cooking, reading, sewing, painting, and making music.

Emily Scott

2023-24 AMERICORPS FARM TO SCHOOL SPECIALIST

she/her/hers

Emily is a returning, second-year Farm to School Specialist and is providing services to four different schools in Madison Metropolitan School District this year. She is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree from West Chester University, and comes to Madison after having lived in San Diego, Hawaii, and Denver. Emily has a background in Applied Behavior Analysis and is currently enrolled in school to become Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition. She is passionate about the outdoors, urban agriculture, cooking, nutrition, and the intersection of these modalities with human behavior and health.

Erica Krug

Farm to School Director

she/her/hers

Before joining the Rooted team in 2020, Erica worked as an elementary school teacher on Madison’s Northside where she helped to create a curriculum for the school’s outdoor classroom and garden. She holds a strong belief that children deserve the opportunity to spend lots of time learning–and playing–outside and is excited to share her love of doing research and creating curricula. Erica has also worked on farm crews, as a kayak guide in Yellowstone, and as a freelance writer. Erica enjoys hot yoga, cross-country skiing, gardening, and eating homemade pizza.

Hawthorn McCracken

Farm to ECE Manager

they/them

Hawthorn McCracken is the child of a former dairy farmer and a public school teacher. They grew up in East Tennessee and have made Wisconsin their home since 2008. With a background in arts, community education, and sustainable horticulture, they are passionate about building stronger food systems and helping everyone (re)connect to their cultural and personal relationship with the land. They are interested in perennial crops, foraging, herbalism, creating queer rural spaces, and integrating art and self-care into land-care practices. Hawthorn currently resides in the Driftless region, where they volunteer with local LGBTQ organizations and the Wisconsin Farmers Union.

Michelle Huber

2023-24 AmeriCorps Farm to School Specialist

Michelle serves as the Farm to School Specialist for Crestwood and Midvale. She grew up in British Columbia, Canada, but also lived several years in the Midwest and South Korea. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience & Behavior and Philosophy. In the past, she has served in an intentional community in Seattle called L’Arche for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities, implemented healthcare software at Epic Systems, and coached college students with learning disabilities at a residential program in Madison. She lives with her husband live on the West side and enjoys making music, writing, biking, dancing, and hosting community meals in her free time.

Special Project Staff

To reach this staff member, call 608-960-4615

Marcia Caton Campbell

Realizing the Promise of Urban Agriculture Project

she/her/hers

Marcia, Rooted’s retired Executive Director, is a city and regional planner who has worked on community and regional food systems planning, policy, and development for over twenty years. Marcia is co-author of Urban Agriculture: Growing Healthy, Sustainable Places (American Planning Association, 2011) with Kimberley Hodgson and Martin Bailkey. She was the 2020 recipient of the Community Shares of Wisconsin Sally Sunde Family Advocate Award. Marcia serves on the Dane County Food Council and the City of Madison Task Force on Farmland Preservation.

Troy Farm STAFF

To reach these staff members, call 608-240-0409

Federica Ranelli

Farm Manager

she/her/hers

Federica Ranelli is a curious farmer, educator, and environmental naturalist. She holds an undergraduate degree in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a master’s certificate in Environmental Education from Antioch University New England. Her life’s work is at the nexus of food production, education, and ecological stewardship, and she has practiced it in a variety of ways: environmental educator, interdisciplinary middle school science teacher, school farm coordinator, and production farmer. It’s an honor to steward the land at Tory alongside other curious farmers. When she isn’t growing vegetables at Troy, she enjoys fermenting and canning the harvest, playing outside, and exposing her cat, Parsnip, to the wide, wide world.

Rooted Staff Member Paul Huber

Paul Huber

Farm Director

he/him/his

Paul Huber is the Farm Director at Troy Farm. He is passionate about small-scale intensive agriculture and teaching others the craft. Since 2005, Paul has worked as a farm volunteer, laborer, manager and a farm owner. He and his wife Sara ran Shared Seasons LLC from 2013 to 2019.

Wisconsin School Garden Network Staff

To reach this staff member, call 608-240-0409

Erica Krug

Farm to School Director

she/her/hers

Before joining the Rooted team in 2020, Erica worked as an elementary school teacher on Madison’s Northside where she helped to create a curriculum for the school’s outdoor classroom and garden. She holds a strong belief that children deserve the opportunity to spend lots of time learning–and playing–outside and is excited to share her love of doing research and creating curricula. Erica has also worked on farm crews, as a kayak guide in Yellowstone, and as a freelance writer. Erica enjoys hot yoga, cross-country skiing, gardening, and eating homemade pizza.

Youth Programs Staff

To reach these staff members, call 608-240-0409

Rooted Staff Member Bronte Adamson

BRONTË ADAMSON​

Troy Kids' Garden Manager

she/her/hers

Brontë graduated from UW-Madison where she studied Environmental Science and Global Health. While in school, she found a passion for garden-based education and food justice work through her volunteer and work experiences in the Madison community. She believes food is a powerful tool for learning, connection and exploring the world around us. In her free time she enjoys experimenting with cooking, baking, and fermenting.

Rooted Staff Member Sarah Karlson

Sarah Karlson

EDUCATION Director

she/her/hers

Sarah comes to her work at Rooted from Oakland, CA, where she began her work in food justice and urban agriculture in 2005. She continues this work at Badger Rock, managing the 2-acre Badger Rock Urban Farm and Badger Rock Community Garden and provides gardening and culinary-based education opportunities. Sarah is passionate about gardens as a tool for education, food access, joy, connection, and building community resilience at the intersection of food, racial, environmental, and educational justice.

Skip to content