Staff
Lindsay was appointed Executive Director by the ISA Board of Directors in early 2009 after serving as program coordinator at ISA for over two years. While working for ISA, Lindsay reached out to farmers, consumers, restaurants and retailers in central Illinois to promote locally produced foods and connect local growers and producers to new markets.
Prior to coming to Illinois Stewardship Alliance, Lindsay studied Policy Advocacy and Social Justice at the School for International Training and received a B.A. from Arizona State University with concentrations in Anthropology and Sociology. Throughout her studies, Lindsay kept her connection to the land by working on farms in Arizona, Illinois and New Hampshire. Lindsay is a Central Illinois Farm Beginnings graduate. Lindsay, her husband and son hope to help both of their family farms flourish in becoming diversified sustainable operations.
Devin represents downstate Illinois with a home base in Carbondale. Devin is conducting outreach for Farm Bill programs including the Conservation Stewardship Program and Value Added Producer Grants. Devin earned a degree in Environmental Policy from Virginia Tech and his background includes water policy, aquatic ecology, and environmental education.
Devin is a small-scale, organic vegetable farmer whose fresh produce can be found at the Neighborhood Coop in Carbondale. He is also participating in a Community Food Assessment (CFA) in Union and Jackson counties in Southern Illinois. The CFA is a research project with the purpose of identifying the assets and needs of the local food system, specifically as they relate to production, infrastructure, consumer access, and education. When he's not advocating conservation farming policy, farming, or working on local food issues, you can find him hiking with his family in the beautiful Shawnee hills.
As Policy Coordinator, Wes is monitoring sustainable agriculture and local food related legislation in Springfield at the State House and helping to coordinate the Springfield Local Food Task Force. In addition, Wes is working on organizing, coordinating, and building the capacity of sustainable agriculture and local food movement’s grassroots capacity to influence policy decision in Illinois.
Prior to joining ISA, Wes has been working as an organizer at the Illinois Environmental Council where he will continue to work part-time. Wes has a BA in Political Studies from the University of Illinois at Springfield and is currently finishing thesis work for an MA in Political Studies from UIS. While working on his MA, Wes interned at the Illinois EPA and studied the effects of globalization on agriculture in Latin America. Whether it was helping with his father’s organic garden as a child, his experience in the Boy Scouts, or his academic experiences with globalization and agriculture issues in the global south, Wes has always been interested and concerned with society’s metabolic relationship with nature. Following in his father’s footsteps Wes has become an avid organic gardener himself.
Erika Helmerichs joined ISA as an intern to assist with planning and execution of the Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign and to work with ISA staff members on general communication and marketing tasks and development. Erika is finishing her undergraduate education at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville this spring with an off-campus internship at the Illinois Stewardship Alliance in Springfield. In May, Erika will walk the stage for graduation, having earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mass communications, with a focus in corporate and institutional media markets, and a minor in philosophy.
Prior to beginning her internship at the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, Erika spent a year and a half working in the public relations department for SIUE’s College of Arts and Sciences, where she had a hand in writing, graphic design, outreach, photojournalism and organization of the newsletters and web pages for the school. She also spent a year as a general reporter for the university’s newspaper, the Alestle, where she was quickly promoted to managing Opinion Editor on the newspaper’s student-run board. As a side-project last summer, Erika created, compiled, wrote for, edited, published and distributed three issues of a local music magazine for the Central Illinois region, titled 3989.
Erika has always had a passion for finding ways to use her education and expertise to participate and contribute to local programs, businesses and youth-oriented movements. Erika views her new place at the ISA as an invaluable opportunity to practice her craft and complete her education through organization with values close to her heart. Later down the road, she hopes to find a public relations career in cause advocacy and community outreach.