OUR TEAM
Anna Slage
Executive Director, Board Vice President & Co-FounderWith a background in conservation and a passion for tackling human-and-wildlife conflicts, Anna is excited to use her experience to empower others to solve environmental challenges in a way that benefits communities, agriculture, and biodiversity. After earning her BSc in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology from Colorado State University, Anna went on to pursue a career focused on community-led conservation. Her experience includes starting an environmental youth group in Mexico with Peace Corps, helping to solve accessibility challenges on small Tribal farms, monitoring Northern Goshawks in the Black Hills with the US Forest Service, and restoring degraded riparian areas on working ranches with the Nature Conservancy.
In her spare time, Anna loves exploring the Black Hills with her husband and their son, Jack, and her favorite hobbies include creative writing and working with horses.
Jason Schoch
For the last twenty years, Jason has been working on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He’s an experienced executive leader, nonprofit founder, and program developer. His work has been at the intersection of conservation, community food systems, and building social equity. Experienced in trauma-informed community development, and inclusive programming for people living with disabilities in marginalized communities, he is passionate about community-centered conservation and regenerative farming, because it breaks down the ivory walls of fortress conservation, academia, and conventional agriculture. He believes that conservation and food production are for everyone, that the application of the theory of the economy of scale to agriculture has led to environmental degradation and health and wellness disparities that disproportionately affect BIPOC communities. With a proven track record securing over $3.6 million dollars in funding, he believes in building bridges between common ground. His approach to conservation comes from his decades of working with Indigenous Peoples, Dr. Jane Goodall and her Roots & Shoots and Tacare programs and his own family’s connection to their farm in south-western North Dakota. His other interests are: photography, folklore, writing, horticultural farming, travel and reading.
President, Chairperson of the Board and Co-Founder
Ted Pourier
Board Member, Oglala Lakota Cultural Liaison & Advisor, Farm & Ranch Team LeadBorn and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation near Porcupine, SD, Ted has done it all. From farm and ranch hand, cowboying, construction supervisor, nonprofit board member, gardening, heavy equipment operator, and horseman and trainer, Ted brings a lifetime of Tribal and Reservation experience to the team. As a valued member of South Dakota State University Extension’s Tribal Local Foods team, Ted has built high-tunnels, greenhouses, handicap accessible gardens, and fabricated low-cost assistive-technology. With Rebel West, he’s helped install beaver dam analogs, post-assisted log structures, and install American Kestrel Nesting Boxes.
Ted’s other interests are: spending time with his many grandchildren, raising horses, teaching the next generation of Lakota youth the life skills they need, gardening, and the Denver Broncos.
PHOTO COMING SOON
Aimee Ladonski
Board member, Secretary, Partnership Development
Bio coming soon!
Kathy Slage
Board Member, Treasurer, Arts and Education AdvisorA lifelong musician and music teacher, Kathy has extensive experience working with diverse communities, from teaching early childhood music to piano instruction for children, adults and seniors. For the past 40 years she has been a professional collaborative pianist, vocal coach and music director for theater productions, and is skilled at working with students of all ages and ability levels. She has worked in many settings, including schools, churches, synagogues, and community theaters. She is currently semi-retired and is leaning into her new passion: native plants and regenerative gardening. Her goals include incorporating native plants into her yard, and advocating for more native plants in public spaces. She is looking for ways to fuse the arts with learning about the natural world, bringing as many people as possible to the goal of restoring local habitats. Her inspiration is informed by the contrasting ecosystems of the places she's lived: her early childhood in Illinois, watching her grandparents produce flowers and vegetables in the rich Mississippi River-adjacent soils; her later childhood in the Rockies of Colorado, hiking and observing local wildlife; and her adult years in Central Florida.
She is working at learning about native plants in Florida and the Black Hills, where she and her husband “snowbird” and spend time with their grandson. In her spare time she enjoys sewing, cooking, and reading.
PHOTO COMING SOON
Dan Miller
Board member, Partnership Development, Fundraising AdvisorBio coming soon!