TLC Staff & Board

Staff

Laura Sova-Executive Director

Laura graduated from the University of Illinois with an undergraduate degree in economics and a law degree. She joins The Land Connection after 15 years of non-profit management consulting and 10 years of practicing law. In between, she had the privilege of starting and managing her own certified organic vegetable farm in Newark, Illinois. Her family has a small grain farm and consequently she’s had the beautiful experience of having the work of farming, and of living in a farm community, be a central part of her life. She believes that it’s a historic time of transition for the food industry and that it’s an honor to work with farmers, landowners, and The Land Connection supporters, staff and board, to change the way food is grown in this country.

Kathy McGroarty-Torres-Director of Farmer Programs

Kathy McGroarty-Torres graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in History. Shortly after completing her formal education, she was also trained as a certified massage therapist.  As a therapist, she quickly became interested in local, organic foods and the beneficial effects they can have on health. Her interest in sustainable agriculture grew until, in 2002, she decided to get her hands dirty and commit to a season-long internship on Henry’s Farm, a sustainable farm in Congerville, Illinois.  It was during this internship that Kathy met the founder of The Land Connection, Terra Brockman.  Through conversations over harvest baskets, she was inspired by Terra’s vision for Illinois farmland, farmers, and food.  When TLC moved its office from Central Illinois to Evanston in 2006, Kathy was thrilled to have an opportunity to promote TLC’s mission as a staff member.   Kathy worked for three years as TLC’s Program Manager, during which time she became particularly active in planning and administering the organization’s Farmer Training programs.  She is happy to continue serving the needs of Illinois’s new farmers as TLC’s Director of Farmer Training and is grateful to the large community of local food supporters and local food providers who have made TLC’s work possible.

Angela Brown-Communications, Media and Events Manager

Angela has been managing non-profit communications and development in Chicago for 6 years. She developed an appreciation for preserving the environment as she relocated with her family and the U.S. Navy; growing up in Illinois, Japan, California, Hawaii, South Carolina, Michigan, and Maryland. She learned to appreciate a variety of foods, climates, and wildlife--molding her into a natural observer and conservationist. Before coming to Chicago she earned the Department of Transportation 9/11 ribbon from the National Response Center in Washington, D.C. where she tracked and reported environmental pollution incidents for the U.S. EPA and U.S. Coast Guard division of the Department of Homeland Security. She has a Bachelors degree from Roosevelt University, with a concentration in Social Science. Angela is committed to serving the local food and farm movement on behalf of The Land Connection, in an effort to help preserve and protect our local land and increase the accessibility of nutritious local foods to all Chicagoans.

Colleen Bohlin-Program Assistant

Colleen Bohlin grew up in the northern suburbs of Chicago and graduated from Knox College with a BA in Environmental Studies and American Studies.  During her time at Knox, she developed a curiosity regarding global food production and the effects conventional farming has on communities and the environment.  Subsequently, she dedicated her senior research to the subject, and spent a summer interviewing farmers from the Galesburg area regarding their personal experiences and feelings concerning the environmentalist message as it pertains to agriculture.  Colleen continues to be a passionate supporter of small, local, and sustainable agricultural endeavors, and attends the Logan Square farmers market whenever she can.  For the last 3 years, Colleen has worked within the environmental consulting industry, conducting assessments related to hazardous materials and petroleum products and their potential impacts to soil and groundwater.  During April 2009, a friend was in town for RampFest and indicated she had been taking classes through TLC and Colleen got in touch with the office regarding possible volunteer and employment opportunities.  Following a brief stint as a volunteer, the Program Assistant position became available, and she was thrilled to take on the position.

Cathe Capel - Farmer Training Facilitator

Cathe is a graduate of the 2007–2008 Central Illinois Farm Beginnings program. She lives and works on a historic farmstead in eastern Champaign County with 12 English Leicester sheep, 16 chickens, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and a very kind and generous jazz guitarist, Ken Smith.

Board of Directors

Terra Brockman-Founder

Terra Brockman was raised in central Illinois, and after spending time at the Universities of Oregon and California at Berkeley, she finished up an undergraduate and graduate degree in English Literature and Biology at Illinois State University.  She then worked as a teacher, writer, and editor in Japan for five years and then in publishing in New York City for eight years. During those years, she traveled extensively, from Nepal to Eritrea to Morocco to the Baltics.  During her travels, she found that much of the “third world” ate better than some in the first world because their foods were fresh, local, and unprocessed. As she made her way back to central Illinois, she realized that the best food in the world could be grown in the rich soils of Illinois. In 2001, she founded The Land Connection, and is working to ensure that more Illinois farmland will grow great local foods for our tables.

John Clark-President

John moved to Chicago from his native California in 1999 in a transfer with Deloitte & Touche, one of the largest accounting firms in the nation. Since his graduation from California State University at Fresno, John has worked with various food industry companies and developed a keen understanding of the financial, operational and distribution issues facing not only food suppliers, but grocery and restaurant companies as well. John’s years of growing up and working in California’s Salinas Valley sharpened his interest in the importance of food and the many complexities of delivering it to growing populations. John currently is a vice-president of KemperSports, a company whose primary business is to own and operate golf properties across the United States and Latin America. John and his wife Cindy reside on the North Shore where they enjoy the many local farmers markets to choose from each week.


Irvin Cernauskas-Vice President          
President, Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks

After many years working as an IT consultant, Irv and his wife Shelly decided to live their values by launching Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks, a company founded to create new market opportunities for local organic farms and to offer new ways for consumers to access these products.  Irv has an M.S. in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management, and an M.A. and B. A. in Economics from the University of Toronto. He also serves on the board of Oak Park-based Seven Generations Ahead.

Dr. Martha E. Cook
Associate Professor of Botany, Dept of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University

A founding board member of The Land Connection, Dr. Cook works tirelessly on food and land use issues. After studying at universities all over the country, Martha Cook settled in the state with the richest soil in the world. During her job interview, she was promised there would be local organic vegetables available if she came to Illinois State University, and now she enjoys food from a CSA farm and from the expanding Bloomington and Normal Farmer's Markets. She uses local organic flour to make her own bread.

Ann Coyle
Associate Regional Counsel, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5

Ann grew up in the Chicago area and has been interested in food and food issues since she was in college. First supporting local farmers by shopping at farmer's markets, she and her husband have belonged to CSAs since 2000 and now almost exclusively purchase meat, poultry and eggs directly from local, sustainable sources. Ann is an attorney at U.S. EPA in Chicago, primarily enforcing the nation's broad array of environmental laws. She also provides counseling in information and appropriations law. She earned her J.D. at the University of Virginia and has a B.A. in Women's Studies and Political Science from the University of Michigan. When not romping with her two small children, Ann enjoys bicycling, backpacking and cooking with friends and family.

Pam Horwitz

Pam Horwitz was born and raised as the oldest in a family of five children in rural Manlius, Bureau County, IL, population - 400. Today, seven generations of her family have called this community their home. Pam's maternal grandfather was appointed to his post by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), serving 37 years as postmaster and was also the town’s mayor. In addition, many of her extended family owned and operated farms and farm-related businesses, such as the town’s grain elevator, which still stands today.

A sense of belonging to a community and our expected participation was ingrained in her at an early age. Engaging in community-focused events and development projects was a way of life for her and her family. She eagerly began work with ag policy groups, led local economic and natural resource development initiatives as a community volunteer and family farm advocate. This work led to a better understanding of farming practices, conservation and government programs. In 2008, Pam became the Executive Director of the American Corn Growers Association (ACGA). She is a fellow at the University of Illinois, Chicago’s School of Public Health/Mid America Regional Public Health Leadership Institute (MARPHLI). Her full time work for rural economic and social revitalization now encompasses the expansion of education and outreach programs that puts policy into practice.

Sue Lannin 
Civic Volunteer

Sue grew up in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side and in a rural area later annexed into Northbrook.  Her family’s half-acre, filled with fruit trees and a vegetable garden, was adjacent to prairie remnant and across the street from a marsh and an abandoned farm. A portion of most family summer vacations when not camping were spent gathering eggs or exploring a creek that flowed through an uncle’s small dairy farm in north central Wisconsin.  Sue earned a BA in English and her Masters in Library & Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana. After teaching at Richmond-Burton H.S. in McHenry County, she became Reference Librarian for a decade at the Merriam Center for Public Administration on the campus of the University of Chicago.  Active in environmental issues on the state and local level, she chaired the board of the Illinois Environmental Council, was active with the Chicago Recycling Coalition, and, from 1997-2007 worked as office administrator for the Sierra Club Illinois Chapter. She received a Masters in Community Development in August 2008 from North Park University.  She is Campaign Chair and represents The Sierra Club Foundation on the board of Earth Share of Illinois.  Sue, her husband Albert Ettinger, and daughter Lenore live in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago where she volunteers with the Alderman Joe Moore’s 49th Ward Green Corps, organizing a workshop series on community sustainability and working to establish the Glenwood Sunday Market, hoping to combine access to fresh organic produce from a farmers market with community business and cultural endeavors. She is passionate about the need to save farmland and train new farmers in organic practices, as she sees these as essential to protect public health, rebuild the local food economy, restore soil fertility, revitalize and connect rural and urban communities, and respect waterways.

Dudley Bayne (bio coming soon)