Nando was born in Born in Cali, Colombia in 1964. After many moves and a 15-year film career, Nando uprooted his life to travel the United States in a veggie oil-converted school bus with his family, growing knowledge of regenerative agriculture, sustainability and food history.

It was during these years that Nando began a life dedicated to what he views as the most important issue humanity is facing: our food and agriculture systems. It impacts all aspects of our lives including, our health, social justice, food sovereignty and our environment.

In 2016, Nando Vermont for the first time and saw Vermont as the model of a sustainable food system that would align with all these ideas. He is now seeking to turn Moon and Stars into much more.

He believes that the for-profit owner model is obsolete, and we should be moving towards a regenerative economy model focused on transparency and quality of life.

Nando is dedicated to bringing better food and education about it to his community.

Karen Ganey is the founder of Permaculture Solutions, LLC a small permaculture design and education business where she co-creates ecologically diverse and nutrient dense landscapes for humans and habitat.

Living on unceded Abenaki territory in the Upper Valley of Vermont, she has designed and installed garden ecosystems for families, schools, hospitals and communities alike. Karen is also a Co-founder, Educator and the Community Director for the Regeneration Corps, an initiative that works to support youth with the knowledge and skills to mitigate and respond to climate change and its constituent impacts, while building community resilience and strengthening local food systems. She has been working with communities and schools to develop holistic systems change, bringing a diverse skill set grounded in a Just Transition, for the past 15 years.

She co-founded Transition Town Upper Valley, the Upper Valley Apple Corps that plants fruit and nut trees for free and public picking, The Vermont Agroecology School and sits on a number of Boards of organizations all focused on creating a future where all life can thrive.

Francey Slater is the Co-Founder of Mill City Grows, and urban agriculture and food justice organization in Lowell, MA. After almost 10 years of growing gardens, farms and food access programs at Mill City Grows, Francey passed the leadership torch in 2020, and in 2021 moved to South Royalton, VT to homestead and raise her family in the foothills of the Green Mountains.

Prior to founding Mill City Grows, Francey built and taught in public school gardens in MA; taught in classrooms in MA and VT; developed and led food & nutrition curriculum and programs in PA; and studied agriculture and developed sustainable programming in rural Mexico and India.

Currently, Francey is a nonprofit and community development consultant, as well as the White River Valley School Farm to School Coordinator. Francey serves on the board of the Merrimack Valley Housing Partnership, Herban Fresh Foundation, and Moon & Stars, and on the Royalton Planning Commission.

Hunter Wilson’s upbringing on a diversified elk farm in the Midwest instilled a deep respect for the land and its delicate balance. Her academic background reflects this dedication, as she is a soon-to-be graduate of Vermont Law and Graduate School, where she will earn a Master of Food and Agriculture Law and Policy.

Professionally, Hunter has served as an outdoor educator, environmental consultant, GM of events, and project lead for a Civilian Climate Corps.

More recently, she has engaged in regenerative farming and delved into Vermont’s natural wine scene. Her global explorations, from studying Asian elephants in Thailand to exploring high elevation fruit cultivation in Chile have driven her mission to celebrate and reinforce the reciprocity of humans and the land through thoughtful agricultural policy.

Hunter is dedicated to improving the health and nutrition of the global community and to the soil that nurtures us.

Alexis Yamashita is a community organizer who has been working with seed-based cooperatives and initiatives since 2017. Her recent experiences include being a founding member and co-director of Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA). UCFA is a BIPOC-led (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) seed farming collective working to increase access to culturally meaningful seed varieties and sustainable seed saving practices. Prior to her work with UCFA, she was a seed racks division co-manager of the organic, heirloom, worker cooperative seed company Southern Exposure Seed Exchange based in Mineral, VA. Her work with collectives was solidified during her time living at the oldest, egalitarian intentional community, Twin Oaks Community in Louisa, VA. During her time at Twin Oaks, she operated in several leadership capacities including being a community planner, member of the economic advisory council and equity council.

For the past three years, Alexis has been a UCFA research lead on a Northeast SARE funded project looking at the opportunities and barriers for integrating culturally meaningful, regionally adapted seeds in Northeast seed systems. As an expression of her work with policy and community-based spaces, Alexis has also been working with an emergent, multi-regional community plant breeding project. Alexis has an MBA and BA in Music Performance from Virginia Commonwealth University and has also studied herbalism foundations with the Richmond Herbalism Guild. As of fall 2024, she will be continuing her seed system-based research as a Food Systems PhD candidate at the University of Vermont.

Tess is many things: Creative Director. Visual Director. Content Specialist. Integrated Producer. Community Builder.

Over the last 15 years, Tess has dedicated her creative talents to the food and beverage space, focusing on brand development and identity. Tess founded the premiere content studio for the spirit and hospitality sector before becoming the Creative Director of Food and Beverage at The Daily Beast. From there, Tess moved on to assist and develop the DTC online platform Flaviar wieh consumer and trade engagement, Recently, Tess has focused on her local community, assisting companies, non-profits and brands connect with target audiences and expand their outreach.

Ultimately, she loves what she does: to ideate and create concepts and stories that speak to people. She goes beyond conventional wisdom and beyond my existing relationships to spur intellectual and social innovation to shift the conversation. Most importantly, she believes her work should drive change and, if we are lucky, in a direction that is positive for the world we live in.