Stewardship Team

  • Gavi is a land steward, dancer, and community organizer. They co-founded Zumwalt Acres in 2020 and are grateful to be living and working at Zumwalt Acres full-time since graduating last May with a degree in earth science and mechanical engineering from Yale University. Gavi is excited about ways that we can be in loving relationship with our bodies, the land and waterways, one another, and our ancestors. They are often found dancing in the fields, wandering the woods, baking bread, contemplating climate science, and striving to live into Jewish time.

Gavi Welbel

Program Steward

Eric Luu

Farm Steward

  • Eric (he/him) brings to Zumwalt Acres a passion for botany and education and is inspired to cultivate everyone's ecological responsibility. He combines experience growing edible and native plants for over 10 years in his home garden, interning with the urban agriculture program at Loyola University Chicago, and educating in schools and community spaces with The Organic Gardener. He apprenticed at Zumwalt Acres in the summer and fall of 2021 and returns as a farm manager, excited to continue co-creating perennial systems on the land.

Patricia Mathu

Organization Steward

  • Patricia is a graduate student interested in people, plants, and place. Growing up, her mom ran the local farmers market: teaching her an early love for local food systems. She is inspired by quiet mornings, beets, and Dorothy Day.

Remi Welbel

Community Steward

  • Remi is a co-creator of the Zumwalt Acres farming community and acts as the Community Steward. Currently, they are a medical student focusing on the intersections of climate change, food systems, and health.

    Remi is a radish enthusiast, loves to bake bread, and probably intersperses more Yiddish words into their everyday vernacular than your bubbie. She loves getting to collaborate with other folks who are excited about land-based reparative work, health equity work, and radical & expansive community building.

Sophie Lieberman

Resource Steward

  • Sophie is a farmer and researcher of the intersections of agriculture, plant biodiversity, and lifeways. She co-founded Zumwalt Acres and has been involved in stewarding this project from both near and far since. She was a 2022 Fulbright Scholar in Ecuador after studying environmental anthropology and Spanish at Yale University. Sophie enjoys meeting other farmers, turning compost, and exploring trails.

Marya Matlin-Wainer

Fellowship Steward

  • Marya Matlin-Wainer lives in Brooklyn, with fond memories of mushroom foraging and expansive sunsets from her seasons in Sheldon. She studies novel ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, such as enhanced weathering of basalt rock, as seen in field trials at ZA. She is passionate about curbing and redistributing food waste and urban biking.

Acacia Berg

Farm Steward

JR Zumwalt

Land Steward

Community Council

Stephanie Berger

  • Stephanie is an environmental educator and urban farmer currently working at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Brooklyn, NY. They spent two seasons at Zumwalt Acres, where they snuggled the farm cats, got excited about farm/food safety, and learned to enjoy radishes for the first time.

Nadav Kempinski

  • Nadav is from San Diego, California and is pursuing a Master's in Environmental Management (with specialty in pollution remediation) at UC Santa Barbara in pollution remediation. He hopes to use his mushroom knowledge from ZA to turn brownfields into communal farming projects!

Maia Welbel

  • Maia is a writer and movement artist from Chicago currently in residence at Urban Adamah in Berkeley, CA. She has a Master’s degree in climate journalism specializing in sustainable food systems, and her work has been featured in publications including Ambrook Research, i-D, In These Times, mindbodygreen, Cherry Bombe Magazine, Green Building & Design, Closed Loop Cooking, and more. Maia has performed and choreographed as a contemporary dancer throughout Chicago and in the Bay Area. She is thrilled to be exploring the intersections of dance and climate action as a co-director of UneARTh Arts Society and co-creator of Landing: A Movement Festival at Zumwalt Acres! In her spare time you can find her baking, reading, hiking in the Berkeley hills, and volunteering as an equine therapy assistant.

Ayden Holzkenner

Mushroom Manager

  • Coming all the way from Brooklyn, NY, Ayden is so excited to get back on the farm and down in the dirt! She’s been reveling in all things fungal, animal, and musical. She can’t wait to see more flowers bloom, eat more alliums, and make more memories with the amazing spring 2024 team.

Farm Fellows

Martina Silberman

Market Manager

  • Martina is from the Bay Area and studied Environmental Studies and International Affairs at Northeastern University in Boston. Since graduating, she volunteered at an Indigenous territory in BC, did a conservation/trail crew, worked as a barista, and moved to Zumwalt Acres in September. She has loved feeling connected to the land and seasons, learning about soil, plants, and ecology, and building a Jewish community. In her free time, she enjoys crafting, reading, hiking, playing hacky sack, and line dancing!

Margalit Lytton

Infrastructure Manager

  • ZA is Margalit's first farm experience. Since starting in Fall '23 she has enjoyed building relationships with the land, plants, and people at ZA. In her free time, Margalit enjoys letter writing, spoon carving, and preserving.