Team

Kristi Kaye, nicknamed Kaat, is a Beekeeper at Stone Barns Center. Kaat was born and raised in the Hudson Valley. Her love for bees began when she managed to convince her parents to get her a colony of bees for her thirteenth birthday.

With a backpack as her home, Kaat spent five years traveling and working with various beekeepers and small farms all over the country. While working with migratory beekeepers in the almond orchards of California, she witnessed the true costs of conventional agriculture. This deepened her passion for supporting local regenerative food systems.

On the side: Kaat enjoys tending her own apiaries, hiking with her dogs, and learning how to preserve and ferment her garden’s bounty.

Sachi is a livestock farmer at Stone Barns Center. She grew up between Japan and California, spending summers near Tokyo participating in her family’s welding business and her time in the states working around animals when she wasn’t in school.

Livestock care and farm work solidified as a lifelong pursuit when she spent much of the Covid pandemic working on a diversified ranch in rural Tennessee. To strengthen her foundation in livestock, Sachi then worked on a raw milk dairy in the Hudson Valley before coming to Stone Barns.

Having a mother who is a professional baker and growing up around rich cultural traditions in cooking have fueled Sachi’s interests in food systems. She is invested in collaboration, respect, and understanding between all of the groups that partake in the complex cycle of growing, preparing, and eating. She is excited that Stone Barns is a place where she can continue to follow up on these curiosities.

On the side: Sachi writes, cooks, does printmaking, and hunts obsessively for new swimming holes. She will play any sport, although she is unskilled in all of them.

John J. McCormick III is the Senior Director of Operations at Stone Barns. Prior to Stone Barns, he served as a Board Member and the Director of Finance, Human Resources, and Operations at Whitby School in Greenwich, CT. Prior to his role at the Whitby School, Mr. McCormick built a distinguished career in investment banking and corporate finance at Telos Asset Management, Tricadia Holdings, GE Capital, the Merchant Banking Group of Compagnie Financiere De Paribas, and J.P. Morgan & Co.

Mr. McCormick received a B.S. from St. John’s University and an M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He has substantial experience on for profit and nonprofit boards and has served on governance, finance, and executive committees. Mr. McCormick has also executed operating roles at organizations from his positions on the board of directors.

Mr. McCormick is a former member of the United States Marine Corps, having graduated as the honor man of Platoon 1077, MCRD Parris Island and served in Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division.

Mr. McCormick and his wife Julie reside in Greenwich and have two daughters, Isabella and Quynh Anh.

Roy Juarez is the Senior Land Care Coordinator at Stone Barns Center. Roy is a lifetime local resident of White Plains, NY. Roy has worked in natural landscape design since the age of seventeen and is passionate about creating beautiful outdoor spaces. Roy’s favorite part about his day-to-day workload is operating machinery.

On the side: Roy enjoys spending quality time with his family and two children, working as an arborist at his independent company, JV Building & Grounds.

Laura Perkins is horticulturalist at Stone Barns Center. She spent much of her childhood on a family homestead in the Catskills, where she grew to love farm work and life. Early in her career she moved to a farm-focused community in California, working on farms, at the local farmers’ market, and at the North Coast Cooperative, a store that serves as a primary outlet for the area’s farmers. Upon returning to the Hudson Valley, she served on the board of Common Ground Farm and worked as a gardener and landscaper on various estates, including a 250-acre native plant garden.

At Stone Barns Center, Laura tends the formal gardens and develops and maintains the surrounding landscape while supplying Blue Hill with foraged edible foods, giving visitors opportunities for sensory immersion in the landscape, and enhancing wildlife habitat and the ecological resilience of the land.

On the side: Laura lives in Peekskill, where she volunteers on her town’s parks board and in the school gardens.

Photo by Ben Hider

Shannon Algiere, one of the first employees on the farm at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, brings over 25 years of experience in holistic farm design, crops production, garden and greenhouse management, and farm-based education.

She was introduced to an agrarian lifestyle as a young girl, frolicking in strawberry fields and peach orchards and showing goats and rabbits at local fairs. While studying at the University of Rhode Island, Shannon worked at a natural food cooperative, where she was inspired to think about food sourcing and holistic nutrition.

She has worked to promote sustainable models in the floral industry by celebrating the elegance and ecology of connecting regional grower economies with designers, and she has led training and workshops on growing and marketing cut flowers at NOFA, Stone Barns Center’s Young Farmer’s and Oregon State University Small Farms conferences.

She has also written articles and been interviewed for her work at the intersection of farming and health & wellness.

On the side: Along with her husband and mentor Jack, Shannon sustains a passion for natural systems and is raising two teens in Westchester County.

Fernando Olivas joins Stone Barns Center as the Senior HR Manager. Fernando brings a diverse professional and personal background to this role. Before returning to an HR career spanning over thirteen years in for-profit and non-profit spaces, he took a detour to pursue his culinary passion, spending eight rewarding years in NYC kitchens working his way up from prep cook to chef. 

Fernando is eager to bear his personal experiences – the formative childhood summers he spent on his father’s pecan ranch in northern Mexico – to positively impact Stone Barns’ human capital initiatives.

On the side, Fernando is a cookbook collector and avid football fan, supporting, through thick and thin, Juventus and Tottenham. He lives in Long Island City with his wife, Jennifer, and daughter, Inés, and does most of the cooking – spicy for him, less so for his wife; Inés doesn’t have a say. Yet.

Rebeca is a facilities custodian at Stone Barns Center. She is from Peru originally. She loves working on a farm and her wonderful colleagues.

On the side: Rebeca enjoys taking walks with her family.

Lindsey Jerome is the Senior Ecological Monitoring Coordinator at Stone Barns Center. Originally from Ossining, she received her B.S. in Environmental Biology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science in Forestry in 2017. Following the receipt of her M.S. in Environmental Systems in 2019, she worked in various mycology and microbiology laboratories. In 2023, she pursued her first applied mycological endeavor, working to remediate industrial waste using saprobic fungi at a start-up in Illinois. Her eagerness to return home and pursue a career in environmental systems monitoring is what brought Lindsey to Stone Barns in May of 2024. Here, Lindsey helps facilitate ecological monitoring, including soil and water quality, and insect, plant and bird diversity.

On the side: Lindsey can typically be found hiking, kayaking or camping, but is more often crouched on the forest floor looking for mushrooms.

Phoebe Rogue is a Senior Livestock Farmer at Stone Barns, where she uses her experience with diversified livestock, education, and crop work to support the management and care of all animal groups and pastures.

On the side: Phoebe loves eating meals other people have cooked, keeping rabbits, and working on many arts and crafts projects.

Samuel Cuma is a Heavy Machinery Mechanic at Stone Barns Center. Born in Los Angeles, California, his family moved to Hawthorne, NY, in 2000. He previously worked as a mechanic at Audi Hawthorne and completed the Audi Academy Technician Training Program.

At Stone Barns, Samuel maintains the farming equipment, ensuring it operates smoothly to support the center’s agricultural activities.

On the side: Samuel enjoys walking nature trails, taking weekend getaways to nearby states, and savoring delicious Mexican food.

Maryn is a Senior Livestock Coordinator at Stone Barns Center, but she did not grow up in farming. It wasn’t until she went to the University of Delaware and worked on the university’s Webb Farm that she developed a love of agriculture and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Agriculture and Natural Resources.

After college Maryn moved away from agriculture, working as an Animal Control Officer and then transitioning to a general shelter position. Eventually she sought to return to farming, leading her to the Accokeek Foundation in Maryland.

At the Accokeek Foundation, Maryn served as Livestock Manager and managed its Heritage Breed Conservation Program. In this role she learned about the intersection of historical and cultural identity, as well as the importance of land stewardship and regenerative agriculture practices. Maryn is passionate about listening to and learning from the land.

On the side: Maryn enjoys sewing costumes, crafting, playing board games, and cuddling with her very vocal cat.

Cait Burns is a Crops Farmer at Stone Barns Center. Her enthusiasm for environmental stewardship has deep roots in her childhood. She grew up in the Finger Lakes, where she spent her time swimming, hanging out in trees, helping in her mother’s garden, and going on neighborhood walks to clean up litter. Doing everything she can to care for the living world is second nature to her.

Cait was introduced to organic farming in 2020 at a small farm-to-table operation in western New York. There, she found her true passion for environmental justice, regenerative agriculture, and farming practices that are sustainable for people and the planet alike. She believes that a transparent relationship between farmers, chefs, and the public is crucial for thriving food systems. She looks forward to learning all she can at Stone Barns and building a sense of community that is vital in farming.

On the side: Cait loves horror movies, video games, camping, cooking, reading, paddle boarding, trying all sorts of arts and crafts, and is a devoted advocate of the shower beer.

William McKee is a Crops Farmer at Stone Barns Center. Until joining the team in 2023, William had been working actively in organic agriculture for over 2 years, with much of his experience in organic, high-intensity market gardening. William’s journey in agriculture began when he started his first home garden in middle school, and his passion has deepened ever since.

William graduated from William Paterson University in Honors College with a degree in Jazz Performance, Concentration in Music Management. He believes that through creative expression and diligent work, each of us has the ability to make a major impact. He hopes to continue building a career that underscores this fundamental belief.

In his free time William plays the saxophone, hikes, and is not funny.

Elijah Goodwin is the Ecological Monitoring Director at Stone Barns Center. He first joined the organization in 2019, monitoring bird populations on the pastured grasslands managed through the Conservation Action Plan with Rockefeller State Park Preserve, after conducting a 4-year study on the wood thrush populations within the Park Preserve. Since starting an expanded role with the organization in 2020, he has been working to build out the ecological monitoring program and create and implement an ArcGIS-based database system to collect, manage, synthesize, and present the vast array of monitoring and management data being collected across the farm and the Center.

Elijah has been working as a research scientist and/or science educator for over twenty-five years. While his primary training is as an ornithologist, he has experience working with soil, plant communities, and DNA technology as well. His scientific experience ranges from banding hawks and owls during migration in New Jersey, to surveying beaver activity and bird populations in the Adirondacks, to studying bird song learning all over the Eastern Seaboard and Mexico. He holds a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, an M.S.T in Biology Education from Boston College, and a Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, also from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

On the side: Elijah enjoys time spent in the outdoors with his wife, Katherine, and child, Spirit. He is an award-winning nature and night/light painting photographer and owns a small photography, education, and ecological consulting business, Whimbrel Nature. He has served as president and a board member for the Color Camera Club of Westchester and is a science advisor for ⅔ For The Birds.

Carolina Saavedra is the Community Education Manager at Stone Barns Center. She once considered a career in medicine, but left her pre-med studies to pursue a passion for healing and feeding people via ancestral food traditions. She moved to San Miguel Ahuehuetitlan, a municipality of Oaxaca, Mexico, to immerse herself in her indigenous roots and learn her ancestors’ recipes and traditions. Upon returning to the United States, Carolina continued to build her culinary career, competing on Food Network’s Chopped, graduating from the International Culinary Center with honors, and securing a competitive culinary internship at Martha and Marley Spoon. Chef Carolina has represented the U.S. at multiple gastronomy events in Mexico, and she is a sought-after chef who has taught at leading cultural institutions including the New York Botanical Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYU, and City University of New York Graduate Center. In 2021 Carolina was named one of Time Out’s NYC Women of the Year.

On the side: Carolina is the sous chef at La Morada restaurant, where the Saavedra family fights to ensure equality and social justice and to preserve their indigenous roots within the South Bronx community.

Chantel Phillips is the I.T. Support Analyst at Stone Barns Center. She started out building gaming PCs 10 years ago before moving into software, networking, and commercial A/V. She previously worked as a Technical Group Manager who nurtured several rounds of new employees and internships. Chantel recently furthered her education and completed a program for Full-Stack Web/Mobile Development. Her first project was a website called The Sugar Spell to display her baking adventures.

One of Chantel’s ambitions at Stone Barns Center is to inspire diversity and inclusiveness in the tech community. So, she’s glad to bring her technology superpowers to make triaging issues and delivering solutions a more personable experience for the entire team.

On the side: She enjoys spending time with her adopted senior dog, Peppy. Service is fundamental, and she volunteers with Filling In The Blanks to provide children with meals who depend on school lunches. Chantel runs a small batch baking business that has grown over 8+ years. She’s also an identical twin and they are both huge Harry Potter nerds!

Corissa Damato is an accountant at Stone Barns Center. Her passion for the environment sprouted at a young age through volunteer experiences with the Teatown Lake Reservation, Global Works, and Hilltop Hanover Farm. Previously, Corissa worked for Nodeweave Technologies, where she supported the development of data analysis software by researching new markets. Her interest in the growth and development of an environmentally sustainable food future led her to change course and join the team at Stone Barns Center. Corissa holds a B.S. in accounting from Arcadia University and an M.S. in corporate social responsibility with environmental management from the University of York.

At Stone Barns Center, Corissa helps ensure that all visitors have an enjoyable and carefree time on the farm.

On the side: Corissa can be found playing tennis, hiking the Hudson Valley, attending local food festivals, and spending time with her guinea pig, Scruffles.

Born and raised in Sleepy Hollow, Mikey is excited to join the Stone Barns team as a facilities custodian. Before the pandemic he was a bartender at “The Huddle” in Sleepy Hollow, where he loved interacting with all different types people from all over the world. He fell in love with traveling and nature while backpacking in South America. On one of those trips he volunteered on different coffee farms in the Peruvian Amazonia through WWOOF, solidifying his appreciation for farming and natural landscapes.  

On the side: Mikey likes to BBQ with friends and family and going on long motorcycle rides with his brother.

Daniel Bartush is Greenhouse and Crops Distribution Manager at Stone Barns Center. Prior to this position, he worked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns for almost five years as a line cook, sous chef, and most recently as market forager. Growing up in a small town in Texas, Daniel spent almost all of his time outdoors on his family’s ranch. After high school, he moved to New Orleans to attend college but was ultimately called to the city’s kitchens. He was eventually drawn to Stone Barns because of his interest in understanding the relationship between the consumer and farmer.

At Stone Barns Center, Daniel works with the farm team in the greenhouse and is focused on plant propagation.

On the side: Daniel likes to cook, throw pottery, travel, watch thunderstorms, and flip through seed catalogs.

Photo by Ben Hider

Tess is Senior Crops Coordinator at Stone Barns Center and has had her hands in the dirt since she was a child. She grew up in northern New Jersey near an arboretum, which cultivated her love of being outdoors and caring for the environment.

After graduating from Loyola University Maryland with degrees in English and Writing, Tess managed the garden at a food pantry and grew an abundance of fresh produce for those in the community. Always eager to learn and grow her farming knowledge, Tess took a leap and moved to the Champlain Valley of Vermont to work on a rice farm, where she learned the traditional Japanese method of Aigamo farming. While in Vermont, Tess also worked at an organic vegetable farm, where she managed greenhouse propagation and spent her winter trekking through the woods tapping maple trees.

Tess is passionate about bees, fermentation, and multispecies farming systems. She is always looking for ways to connect farmers and consumers and is excited to foster a resilient food culture at Stone Barns.

On the side: Tess can be found reading, exploring new breweries, and looking for the best ice cream around.

Luis joined Stone Barns Center in its early days and is the Senior Groundskeeper. He assists in maintaining the perennial crops, forests and landscaping. Previously, he worked at the Rockefeller estate for eighteen years as groundskeeper and livestock attendant. Luis was instrumental in keeping all the trees and shrubs on the estate beautifully manicured.

On the side: Luis is a spiritual instructor and avid reader of Bible teachings. He has a passion for cooking as a way to show his appreciation and love for others. He also has the best dance moves of Stone Barns’ staff.

Jeff Hunt is a Senior Livestock Farmer at Stone Barns Center. He grew up in north Jersey and is glad to return to the east coast to further his connection with the land. His involvement in agriculture stems from his desire to be involved with the entire experience of creating nourishing food. Jeff finds joy working with the animals he raises, as they learn from each other.

Since graduating from St. Joseph’s University, Jeff pursued farm work because it is a balanced work of the heart and mind. Before coming to Stone Barns, Jeff lived on a family farm in Junction City, Oregon, where he first developed a love for spending time with animals, crafts, and cob. Jeff is thrilled to continue building a community within a resilient food system and exploring how we can best use our hands for good.

On the side: Jeff likes playing disc golf, cooking with fire, running, reading, and listening to live music.

Dario is a livestock farmer at Stone Barns Center. Dario grew up on his family’s farm outside Rome in a small countryside town. There, he developed a passion for agriculture and caring for livestock. He has a love for Italian cuisine and has worked in the hospitality industry in restaurants and catering.

On the side: Dario enjoys the outdoors, hiking, traveling, and spending time with his beautiful wife, Katie, and their new son Matteo.

Michael Cusumano brings eight years of experience in the HVAC industry as Stone Barns’ HVAC and Mechanical Technician. Michael enjoys working in complex systems and joined Stone Barns in May, 2024, where he specializes in maintaining the farm’s heating systems, cooling towers, chillers, and more.

On the side: He collects medieval armor and weaponry.

Carly Rahn is Senior Greenhouse Coordinator at Stone Barns Center. She attended Parsons School of Design and graduated with a BFA in Communication Design. Carly later worked as art director at Victoria’s Secret, in both their print and digital divisions.

In 2017, Carly earned a certificate in whole foods and plant-based nutrition. At this time, she began examining what she was feeding her body and where it was coming from, leading to the discovery of her true passion – sustainable agriculture. After this pivot, Carly is so grateful to be part of the Stone Barns team and on this exciting new journey.

On the side: Carly can be found tending to her windowsill garden, cooking, knitting, or meditating with her cat Roo curled up in her lap.

Ryan Martens is the Livestock Director at Stone Barns Center. He was born and raised near the Hudson Valley, where he owned and operated a regenerative grazing operation prior to arriving at Stone Barns Center. Employing methods of holistic management on the farm, he believes that livestock and grasslands are intrinsically linked and hold the key to restoring ecological balance and healing our local food systems.

Prior to raising livestock, Ryan worked extensively in northern New Jersey on various farms and ecological restoration projects. His passion for soil, flora, and fauna have kept him anchored to the greater Hudson Valley region, where he believes environmental stewardship plays a vital role in an increasingly urban landscape.

On the side, Ryan is a husband and Christian. He enjoys climbing, hiking, and studying classical philosophy and theology.

Grace is the Senior Field Manager at Stone Barns Center. She joined the staff full time after an apprenticeship in 2020. Grace grew up surrounded by the beautiful woods in Redding, Connecticut. Her parents always stressed the importance of growing your own food and supporting local farms, which is where her interest with the environment and food started. At Salve Regina University, she studied Biology and Chemistry and completed her thesis in hydroponic farming. After graduating she worked at a farm in Ossining, NY, that focused on microgreen and egg production.

On the side: Grace enjoys hiking with her dog, exploring upstate, or making her own organic skincare products.

Logan Yarbrough is the Butchery Plant Manager at Stone Barns Center. He has always had a powerful attraction to the food system. When Logan was younger, his goal was to be a chef. However, he was a bit high-strung with no discipline, so he joined the military. After serving eight years and multiple combat tours in the Middle East, Logan retired and rediscovered his culinary passion. While attending school for agriculture, he took a job at a local butcher shop in his hometown of Ithaca, New York. There he enjoyed working as a butcher, finding pleasure in both the craft and the ability to provide sustainably raised meat for his community.

Since beginning his butchery journey, Logan has held multiple positions in the meat industry, including owning his own goat farm. While that experience was short-lived, it was the driving force behind his decision to remain in the meat processing industry. Logan noticed many inadequacies and problems in meat processing that affect local farmers and the food system, and he is excited to join the Meat Processing Center and help build the meat counter of the future.

Jason Grauer is the Senior Director of Farm & Innovation at Stone Barns Center. With a degree in economics from Tufts University, Jason spent the early part of his career in the financial industry. A year spent volunteering at Stone Barns confirmed his desire to farm full time, and he spent two seasons as one of our apprentices. Jason then developed a rooftop greenhouse for Eli Zabar’s Vinegar Factory, worked at Four Season Farm in Maine, and assisted with organic seed research in Cornell University’s Plant Breeding and Genetics lab, where he gained a deeper understanding of plant breeding and the seed industry. Jason also co-developed the lab’s first soil-based greenhouse for four-season food production, research, and education.

Today at Stone Barns Center, Jason manages the daily responsibilities and organization of field crop production, sales of vegetables from the greenhouse, and field and vegetable experimentation and research.