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Farming The Future Leadership – Emily Gaines

Emily Gaines spent a number of years teaching in the California public school system before leaving to pursue farming.

As a credentialed teacher working in Title one schools she had become increasingly disillusioned with the traditional public school systems. And their bility to reach the students who need the most help. Emily is Raising a son with severe learning disabilities. She is personally aware of how significantly the school system can fail students who are not traditionally successful.

Emily earned her bachelor’s degree at California State University, Sacramento.

As a farmer Emily has continued to find joy in teaching. Working on the board of her local beekeepers association to encourage volunteers in the classroom, mentoring new growers as they embark on their own farming journey. Plus writing guides and articles to help others grow. She is deeply committed to helping the next generation of agricultural enthusiasts. And helping them to find their calling and their confidence.

Emily loves gardening and runs her own farm. Her specialty is microgreens and edible flowers.

She has a young son who has demonstrated to Emily first hand the impact that gardening has on a young mind. Emily is a great lover of all sciences. She frequently tries out new and fun experiements while working her farm to share with students across the world.

Emily loves all living things and you will frequently hear poultry of all different variety on her end of the phone. Herself and her son like to raise them and consider them members of the family. Plus, its great exercise for the little one when the turkeys wake up feeling like they want race!

Being an excuisite leader, she is the main lead on many of our growing techniques and guides!

Emilys favorite program is our 3-5th grade 5×5 raised garden enrichment program. If you want to find out more, click HERE! Check out Emilys farm HERE!

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Farming The Future Leadership – Tara Laidlaw

Tara Laidlaw has worked at the intersection of formal and informal education for nearly 15 years, serving as a program manager, instructional designer, and teacher trainer in a wide range of settings. After seven years as the director of an educational farm in Massachusetts, she returned home to the west coast, where she now specializes in helping place-based, project-based, and informal education programs support the Next Generation Science Standards.

Tara holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropological Sciences from Stanford University and a master’s degree in Natural Science and Environmental Education from Hamline University. In addition to her work in Oregon, she facilitates NGSS-focused workshops at regional and national conferences, and she writes articles about farm-and garden-based learning for national publications.

Tara is a kind hearted, outstanding educator. She is quoted “While my specialization is farm- and garden-based education, I’m equally at home working in other contexts such as wilderness preserves, summer camps, historic estates, and hybrid online/in-person settings. I love to help programs find creative solutions to drive student and teacher performance in out-of-the-box, outstanding ways. I am out to learn, and I hope you are too!”

Farming The Future is proud to have Tara on our leadership team and look forward to continuing development of creative solutions together. Ms. Laidlaw especially loves working with upper elementary and middle school students. That being so, check out her favorite garden enrichment program for middle school here! You can also access her website here!

Check out  some of her work!

Selected Conference Presentations:

Publications: