Steve Crider

Principal & Consultant at Stone Soup Advisors LLC

Steve Crider has spent his professional working life in the organic food and agriculture movement. Steve is deeply committed to collaborating with others to create a more sustainable and just food system. For years, Steve was the Farm to School lead at Viva Farms. Prior to his time at Viva, his work includes time with Amy’s Kitchen, Cascadian Farm and CF Fresh (Viva Tierra). He served on the Board of Directors of Oregon Tilth for four years, stepping down in June 2018. Steve set off for Japan in 1983 to meet Masanobu Fukuoka, author of One Straw Revolution and eventually spent nine years there where he helped found the organic food import company, Taneyama ga Hara, Ltd. On the local front here in Skagit County, Steve has volunteered with the Burlington-Edison School system, and served on the Boards of Directors for Neighbors in Need Foodbank, META Performing Arts and Burlington Little School. Steve was the 2012 recipient of the annual “The Flash of Silver” Award for local food security endeavors.

Juan Farias Torres

Outreach Manager at Puget Sound Energy

Bio coming soon.  

Carolyn Kading

Executive Support and Program Management, WW Sustainability at Amazon

Raised in the Greater Seattle-area, Carolyn has lived in Washington most of her life. She earned her Bachelors of Arts in English from Gonzaga University and a Masters in Food Business from The Culinary Institute of America. For over 10 years, she’s held positions within program management, communications and executive support at local startups, Amazon and PCC Community Markets. In 2022, she completed Viva’s Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture, which ignited a lifelong mission to support small-scale agriculture. Since then, she’s volunteered at farms such as Oxbow Farms and Ecolibrium Farms and recently completed the Canopy Leadership Program through The Market Gardener Institute.

Noa Kay

Owner – Operator of Songbird Haven Farm

Noa moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2009 to pursue a Masters in Public Health. She has worked on a wide range of public health and public policy issues in her roles at nonprofits, local government, and state agencies. Eager to work more directly at the intersection of environmental and human health, Noa took the Viva Farms Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture and started Songbird Haven Farm in 2019. Since starting to farm, Noa has drawn on her background in education and public health to run her own business and advocate for policies that support sustainable farmers. She built partnerships throughout the state as the campaign manager for the Washington Sustainable Farms and Fields legislation which passed in 2020. 

Griffin Lehman

Co-owner & operator of Dear Table Farm

Griffin grew up in the country side of Connecticut. Some of his earliest memories are pulling fresh vegetables from the garden, and running them to the kitchen to be cooked up and enjoyed right then and there. After graduating college, Griffin spent years searching for a career. He tried working for large corporations, teaching English in Korea, and growing a tech start-up. Finally he followed his passions and found his way back to the garden. He joined the practicum at Viva Skagit in 2021 and started his own farm, Dear Table Farm, with his fiancé less than a year later. When not farming, he can be found cooking, playing music, or throwing the frisbee for his dog.

Jeff Levine

Project Manager at Dalberg

Jeff Levine is a strategy consultant focused on global development. He works on a range of issues including strategic planning, agriculture, and climate finance. Recent examples of his work include developing a climate adaptation and resilience strategy with the ClimateWorks Foundation and advising the Nature Conservancy on scaling financing for regenerative food systems. Prior to Dalberg, Jeff served as an investment officer at an impact investing fund in East Africa. He holds a BA In International Relations and Environmental Studies from the University of Southern California. Jeff grew up in Mount Vernon and is excited to return home to support Viva in its mission to scale sustainable, strong, and just food systems – in the valley and beyond. He currently lives in Seattle with his wife.

Kenny Lee

Co-Founder at Aigen

Kenny Lee is an alumni of the Viva Farms King County Practicum in Sustainable Agriculture where he fell in love with farming and the agriculture industry. Kenny is the co-founder and CEO of Aigen, an agtech startup with the mission to Regenerate Earth with robotics and AI by breaking chemical dependency in agriculture. He has a wonderful family with two kids and is married to his childhood sweetheart. With an MBA from MIT in sustainability and data analytics, he is pioneering AI-driven tools that empower farmers to enhance productivity and sustainability.

Andrew Miller

Attorney; Co-founder & CEO of Tulip Valley Farms

A Skagit Valley native and Mount Vernon High School grad, Andrew has a Juris Doctorate from the Seattle University School of Law, an MBA from Pacific Lutheran University, a Masters in Strategic Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School, a Masters in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University and is a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College and the National Defense University Joint Staff College.

After a career in the Air Force as an intelligence officer, followed by high-profile management stints at Expedia, Weyerhaeuser, and Amazon, Andrew knew it was time to return to his roots and get back to the Valley and raise his family. Andrew’s background and experience in law, business and strategy made him a natural fit for the reconfigured Economic Development Association of Skagit County as the Director of Business Retention and Expansion. There he championed the Economic Industry Cluster program in partnership with local chambers of commerce, governments, schools, businesses, and non-profits to shape strategies and spark synergies across 14 industry clusters.

Mauricio Soto

Arado Farm Owner – Operator

Mauricio has been farming his whole life, beginning in his home of Nayarit, Mexico. Since coming to the U.S., he has worked as a farm-worker, crew boss, and farm manager in California and in the Skagit Valley. He is considered a pruning expert around the valley. Mauricio was also Farm Manager at Viva Farms for several years before deciding to go full-time on his farm, Arado Farms with his wife, Senaida, which is located in the Viva Farms incubator. They specialize in raspberries and strawberries.