The vision of our farm is held across many hands and hearts, and we are continuing to experiment with structures that allow us to dream, plan, and manage our farms with collaborative and evolving leadership. Meet the people who show up regularly to contribute to our farm family in many different ways–and often several ways at once!
Core Team
Amy Scanes-Wolfe
Founder. Executive Director & 2025 Fellow
Amy has a colorful decade-long background in market farming, ecological landscaping, horticulture, historical interpretation, running educational programming, writing, and farm research. Amy is deeply passionate about creating pathways to reconnect people to their ecosystems and food systems. She is also the Agroecology Incubator Program Manager with Drylands Agroecology Research and a teacher with Boulder Permaculture.
Albert Wavering
Treasurer, Founding Volunteer & Propagation Lead
Albert moved to Colorado in 2015 from Washington, DC for work. He’s since discovered the joys and challenges of growing plants in Colorado’s arid atmosphere and clay-heavy soils. Peppers are probably his favorite, followed closely by the huge variety of beautiful native plants that call the foothills home. When he’s not getting his hands dirty in the garden, Albert helps companies measure and improve their marketing as an analytics consultant.
Kiersten Clingersmith
Secretary & Founding Volunteer
Kiersten has a professional background in graphic design and product development, and is currently shifting her life direction towards marine conservation, a lifelong passion. Kiersten anchors the homestead community with her deep care for the animals and people in the ecosystem, her love of the detail-oriented tasks that make our programs run, and her artistic talent.
Rod Pullman & Barb Greweling
Owners of the Niwot Homestead
In 2020, Rod and Barb (and Mojo) opened up their property for this project to evolve. They have served as the much beloved hosts of Sunday supper almost every week for 2 years, feeding us, maintaining and building the community spaces on the property, and dealing with many pig escapes over the years.
Gavin Goodsell
2025 Fellow & Herd Collaborator
Gavin is a former software engineer who has shifted careers to become a farmer. He is particularly excited to experiment with the non-profit on models for practicing regenerative agriculture in the modern era and in this bioregion. Always eager to learn and grow, he has taken several classes on sustainable farming practices. He is looking forward to the opportunity to continue working with the non-profit to keep building his knowledge base and skills and to help the organization itself grow!
Maggie Sawyers
2025 Fellow & Documentation Lead
Maggie moved to CO in 2017 to enjoy the great outdoors. She completed the Boulder PDC in 2023 where she was introduced to the Niwot Homestead. Seeing a suburban plot transformed into a regenerative biodiverse thriving community space was a magical experience. Volunteering at the homestead through the seasons has been truly rewarding. She is excited to support High Plains Permaculture!
Kanella Barnes
2025 Fellow & Livestock Specialist
Kanella Barnes, from Albuquerque, New Mexico – loves to cook, be with friends, family, animals, and to be outside.
Sage Polak
2025 Fellow & Storytelling Specialist
Sage is a 3rd year student at CU Boulder studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. After discovering the warm and welcoming community of volunteers in August 2024, she looks forward to sharing the joys the homestead has brought her with others. She hopes to apply her knowledge of ecology and love for insects to her work on the farm.
Alexa Hapgood
2025 Fellow & Medicinal Herb Specialist
Alexa loves discovering and experimenting with creative, artistic, and culinary uses for all the plants she finds. Professionally she runs a small Native Garden Design company in Boulder, which is really just an excuse to keep her outside, hunting for snakes and snails. 😉 She enjoys social dancing, making art, experimenting with sourdough, learning Ukulele, and hiking in the foothills with her rescue pup, Olive.
Kaila Avent
2025 Fellow & Cooking/Food Preservation Specialist
Kaila grew up in Hastings, Nebraska and has always loved making art and being outdoors. While studying anthropology in university, she became connected with a local Seed Farm through a series of fortunate events. Here, she witnessed how humans, animals, crops, and ecosystems can coexist mutualistically in a manner far different from the commercial monocultures she had grown up around. This experience opened her eyes to the world of sustainable agriculture, the importance of preserving the stories tied to cultivating and preparing crops, and the amazing community that forms alongside these practices. She is excited to now be a part of this community, record stories through recipes, and learn as much as she can along the way!
Regenerating Members (Aka “Steak-Holders)
These community members make our work possible through a $2000 annual contribution to our vision. If you are also interested in becoming a stakeholder to help manifest the vision we are creating, please see our Membership Page.
Deborah Read Fowler
Maggie Sawyers
Rio Nolund
Sarah Jolly
Tommi Wolfe
Julie Naster
Claudia Hartke
Gwen & Jim Lazzeri
And a big thank you to Tigger & Nick Park for their financial contributions as well as their generous sharing of time and culinary resources!
Board Members
Nick DiDomenico
Co-Founder & Director of Regenerative Design Drylands Agroecology Research
Hailing from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Nick is a regenerative designer, farmer, and builder. Inspired by Indigenous culture and ancient farming practices, he works passionately to design the future of living systems. In 2015, Nick began farming on a barren and desertified 14 acre parcel of land in rural north Boulder County, now called Elk Run Farm, and the pilot research project for Drylands Agroecology Research (DAR). Today, Nick is working to develop climate change solutions through regenerative farming, working with private and public landowners across Boulder County.
Tommi Wolfe – Board Chair
Director of Strategic Initiatives at Wildlife Protection Solutions
Award winning leader, strategist and serial entrepreneur Tommi Wolfe combines a lifelong passion for African conservation with decades of leadership strategy, organizational development and startup expertise. Guided by a WIN-WIN philosophy, Tommi loves using her scaling and fundraising expertise to serve the natural world.
Keats Dormont
Regenerative Community Builder & Teacher at Tara Arts Performing High School
Keats first connected with the Niwot Homestead community early in its life, after taking the 2021 Boulder Permaculture Design Course. Keats splits his time between teaching science at Tara Arts Performing High School and building a community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan dedicated to community-scale food self sufficiency and resilience, while enjoying an ongoing passion for theater and the performing arts.
and our Vibrant team of 2025 volunteers who make it possible to run our farms.
- Jasmin Barco
- Kiersten Clingersmith
- Quinn Farrell
- Maria Fernanda Gomez
- Anna Flick
- Jackson Hall
- Trevor Haynes
- Claudia Hartke
- Karall Heiman
- Cole Iafolla
- Sarah Jolly
- Karen Kliethermes
- Shannon Koleen Blauer
- Mira Leibovich
- Carlee Marincic
- Kiah McCarville
- Julie Naster
- Rio Nolund
- Laura O’Connor
- Rachel Posner
- Paula Preda
- John Reed
- Serafina Scalo
- Nikki Shedga
- Adam Szabunio
- Albert Wavering
- Carol Wiley
- Evan Zbokien
In partnership and collaboration with Drylands Agroecology Research
Thank you to the following organizations for supporting our livestock compost program:
