CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS:
Letters to any board member should be addressed to: [Name], Board of Directors Harvest Co-op Market 580 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139; for email, please click the names below.
Stephanie Golas – President 2013
Term: through 2014Wayne Clark - Vice President 2013
Term: through 2015Matthew Auerbach— Secretary 2013
Term: through 2014Arash Kani – Treasurer 2013
Term: through 2015Eva Amanda Agudelo
Term: through 2013Leah Madsen
Term: through 2013Stephanee Souza
Term: through 2013
Meet the BoD:
Eva is the National Technical Assistance Coordinator at the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (New Entry), a beginning farmer training program in Lowell, MA. Eva works with well-established farm incubator projects and startup incubator projects across the country to provide practical information on how to support new farmer entrepreneurs through the land-based incubation model via webinars, field schools, and one-on-one technical assistance.
Eva Amanda Agudelo
She has supported new farmers and developed "Buy Local" marketing campaigns for small businesses through her work coordinating the Food to Bank on Program and the "Eat Local Every Week" event series in northwest Washington State. Eva also spent two years at New Entry as the farm intern, co-teacher of the farm business planning class, and project support for the Beginning Farmer Network of Massachusetts (BFNMass).
In her earlier life, Eva worked at various natural food stores and co-ops in New York and Vermont for over five years as a cashier, in the produce department, and as a department manager for bulk and frozen foods. Because of these experiences, she believes in the importance of developing resilient and sustainable local and regional food systems that work for people and the environment and that food coops are an excellent way to bring about a better world. When Eva moved to Jamaica Plain to attend graduate school in 2010, she immediately joined the Harvest Coop and was thrilled to benefit from such a vibrant neighborhood food store right around the corner.
Eva graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a B.A. in Critical Social Thought and has an M.S. in Agriculture, Food and the Environment from Tufts University with a concentration in agricultural enterprise development. She loves reading science fiction, riding her bike, cooking, and traveling around rural New England.
Dave Madigan
Dave is a lifelong Massachusetts resident and grew up in Ayer until eight years ago when he moved in with his partner in Roslindale. His father owns his own home building business and several residential rental investment properties in Ayer. He has been involved in his business in one capacity or another an uncountable number of times throughout his life. While serving in various capacities with him he learned skills in construction, property management, customer service and real estate marketing and sales.
He has worked as a newspaper reporter for the Ayer Public Spirit and The Fitchburg Sentinel, interviewing Archbishop Cardinal Law and Senator Ted Kennedy. While at NEBS he worked with their public relations department writing articles for their newspaper and press releases for general release.
He has traveled the country with the music group Phish, working in and promoting their recycling project, the green crew, seeing close to 200 shows.
Dave currently works as a produce department employee at the Arboretum store. He has worked in the store since its opening in December 2012.
Stephanie Golas
Stephanie Golas is currently an Elementary Instructional Technology Specialist for the Winchester Public Schools.
In this constantly evolving field, she instructs students in weekly technology literacy classes as well as works hand-in-hand with teachers to help integrate technology into their classrooms. The best part of this job is the opportunity to work with teachers, students and community members in the district to help move technology initiatives forward and advance the concept of "21st Century Learning".
Stephanie received her Degree in Educational Media and Technology from Boston University in 2009. She also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management Information Systems from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY.
Prior to coming to Boston, Stephanie worked for a local credit union in Albany, NY as an Assistant Manager of Member Services and a Customer Service Representative.Stephanie moved to Jamaica Plain in 2008 and has been a member of Harvest Coop ever since. She was excited to find a coop in her neighborhood after leaving Albany, NY where she had been an active member of her local coop since 2004.
In her spare time, Stephanie enjoys gardening, vegan cooking and baking, soap making and learning to sew. She is a frequent volunteer for Stillman’s Farm at the JP Farmer’s Market and with Birthday Wishes, an organization that throws birthday parties for children in homeless shelters in the Boston area.
Matthew Auerbach
Matthew has been a Co-op member since first moving to Jamaica Plain in December 2010.
A biologist and avid linguist proficient in English, Russian, French, and Spanish, Matthew is currently studying marketing and business management at the Hult International Business School in Cambridge, MA. He hopes to become a spokesperson in the organic foods industry and believes that the growing sustainable food economy will become an essential element of our culture.Previously, Matthew worked as assistant to the marketing director at California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), one of the primary organic certification agencies in the USA. As a CCOF representative, he spoke at public events on such topics as organic agriculture and nutritional comparisons of organic and conventional produce. In addition, he served two years on the UC Santa Cruz Campus Sustainability Council, a grant-giving entity that funds student-led projects that measurably increase the sustainability of the UCSC campus community.
Besides taking great interest in the sustainable food movement, Matthew also has a profound love for music. He has played piano and harpsichord for nearly twenty years, most recently opening the 2010 New York Piano Society Gala Recital at Carnegie Hall.
Matthew graduated cum laude from UC Santa Cruz with a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (Plant Sciences) with Honors in the Major and membership in the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Academic Society.
Stephanee Souza
Stephanee graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in Environmental Studies emphasizing in sustainable agriculture and social justice. There, she did a senior thesis in Organic Agriculture through a field study working on a local organic farm. Worked with the Community Agricultural Network - a Fair Trade coffee importer - on food justice education with students. Moved to Boston a year and a half ago when she started at Equal Exchange. Her role in Natural Foods sales is primarily based around work with food co-ops on the east coast. She considers herself a foodie on some level. Cooking is a primary activity in her life and she actually enjoys grocery shopping (amazing considering she spends so much time in stores for work). She looks forward to meeting you all and working on the Board together.
Leah Madsen has lived in the Boston area for 11 years and is an avid gardener, cook, and explorer of things interesting and delicious. She spent four invigorating years as a community organizer for The Boston Workmen's Circle where she worked to build progressive, secular Jewish community. Leah started work as a sales rep. for Equal Exchange in January 2013 and is excited to dive into the co-op movement while enjoying an excellent cup of coffee. She loves her Jamaica Plain neighborhood and is thrilled to now have TWO Harvest stores within walking distance from her house.
Leah Madsen
Arash Kani
Arash Kani is a Persian-American student at MIT in Cambridge. He is a student, an engineer, a craftsman, and a cook. A north-easterner at heart, he grew up in Connecticut and moved to Boston in 2010 to pursue an education in Electrical Engineering. He has found in this community liveliness about food that has encouraged the passion for cooking he inherited from home where Iranian cuisine was family tradition. Arash volunteered to cook for his fraternity at MIT and, for two semesters, coordinated weekly family meals for a house of 40 brothers. Since then, he has applied his passion in a professional environment, stageing at Ken Oringer’s Clio and climbing in the fraternity to Commissar, or Head of Kitchen. In one summer he applied initiative to retrofit this kitchen to meet professional standards.
Arash realized his passions for education and food at a young age, and began building computer cooling systems in middle school while learning traditional Iranian cuisine from his family. A combination of curiosity and determination pushed him to seek these passions in the most challenging environments; ultimately, studying at MIT, and staging at Ken Oringer’s Clio. Recently, he was elected by the brothers of his fraternity as Commissar, being given all of the responsibilities of overseeing the kitchen and the food going through it. Over the course of a summer, he completed his dream for this kitchen; organizing the complete retrofitting of the equipment, and more importantly, switching the single commercial food source to several local, independent businesses and farms, simultaneously improving the quality of meals in the fraternity and supporting the community that houses it.
Since 2011, Arash has been working for Teradyne, an electronic hardware manufacturer. At Teradyne, Arash developed strong ties to the company and his coworkers, and hopes to pursue a master’s degree granted by MIT for work done in a professional environment. Aside from his career as an electrical engineer, Arash hopes for continued involvement in the Boston food scene with the possibility of owning a restaurant in the future.
Wayne Clark
Wayne graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975 with a B.A. Degree with Honors in Economics and Computer Science. Later on he was a Ph.D. Candidate in Economics from 1979 to 1982 at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics in the University of New Hampshire at Durham.
Wayne has been active in co-ops since 1970. He started one of the first Auto Co-ops in the country; was a founding member of two small food buying clubs; was on the board of the University Co-operative Society (a bookstore); he was finance coordinator of Austin Community Project; he was a founder and fundraiser of Avenue's Food Co-op and Wheatsville Food Co-op; he was on the board of Woody Hills Food Co-op; he was a resident and treasurer of Oakland House; he was a member of the Gung Ho Collective, a Study Group on Co-ops & Social Change; he was on the institute organizing committee of the Consumer Co-op Alliance; and he was a founder and board member of the Texas Federation of Co-operating Communities. He was also a participant in many other co ops (housing, credit unions, worker, farm, etc.)
In 1979 he moved to Durham, NH where he was a graduate student in economics from '79-'82. He also worked at Great Bay Food Co-operative (a pre order/retail hybrid) as Equipment Manager, General Coordinator, Finance Coordinator, and Council Facilitator. He was also involved in the New England Co-op Network; the New England Co-op Conference; and the New England Co-op Congress. From '82-'98 he was involved in N. H. Co-op Development Committee; a Boston Co-op Study Group; and Northeast Co-ops. He was Acting Administrator of the Co-op Internet School and a member of N.H. WaterWatch (a citizens environmental group).
In 2005 he moved to the Boston area and became involved in Honest Weight Food Co-op; Mission Hill Food Co-op; Open Media Co-op; Mass Bay Co-op Faire; Boston-Area Solidarity Economy Network (BASEN); and Study Groups on Capitalism and the Co-operative Movement.
He is also active with various national co op organizations such as the Consumer Co-op Alliance; N.A.S.C.O.; Communities Magazine; the Co-op Education Guild; National Co-op Bank; Consumer Co-op Managers Association; Co-ops & Social Change Network; Vision Builders Network; Co-op America; Co-op News Network; and REI.
