Thea brings decades of experience growing food, building healthy soil, and helping others to tend land.

From California to the Midwest to Maine, Thea has successfully stewarded a diversity of farms and gardens, from urban raised beds on reclaimed parking lots to multi-acre rural fields of mixed vegetables.

Thea has been teaching farming and gardening throughout her agricultural career, and is a lifelong learner who continually develops new skills and areas of expertise to enrich her land stewardship and share with students and clients.

East Palo Alto Charter School (2002-2004)

While completing her degree in Earth Systems at Stanford University, Thea tended the school garden at a bilingual charter elementary school in East Palo Alto, California, teaching garden-based lessons to students in grades K-8, co-hosting an after-school garden club, leading volunteer workdays, and coordinating expansion of the garden to double the cultivated space and begin growing greens for the cafeteria's salad bar.

Mendocino Organics (2003)

Thea first encountered biodynamics at Mendocino Organics, spending a summer as an apprentice learning the principles and practices of biodynamic farming while growing and harvesting diversified vegetables, fruit, and medicinal herbs, and raising chickens, turkeys, sheep, and pigs in Redwood Valley, California.

Lots to Gardens (2005)

Thea coordinated a summer gardening and job training program for low-income and recent Somali immigrant youth in Lewiston, Maine, teaching core concepts and skills of agriculture and food systems while converting vacant city lots into vibrant food-producing gardens.

Project EAT: Educate, Act, Thrive (2005-2006)

Thea led the collaborative design and installation of the first educational garden and orchard at Harder Elementary, a bilingual public school in Hayward, California, while teaching garden-based nutrition to K-8 students.

Angelic Organics Learning Center (2008-2010)

Thea stewarded Angelic Organics Learning Center’s Chicago urban demonstration garden and apiary, taught skill-building workshops in urban composting, vegetable gardening, beekeeping, and season extension, while coalescing local food systems projects in Chicago neighborhoods by facilitating community meetings, coaching emerging leaders, and guiding groups through planning, building, and managing community gardens.

Blue House Farm (2010)

Thea worked as a full-season farm apprentice growing vegetables, fruit, and flowers for CSA, farmers markets, restaurants, and grocery stores on 12 certified organic acres at Blue House Farm in Pescadero, California, and helped initiate the Central Coast Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT).

Turtle Creek Gardens (2011-2012)

Thea was assistant farm manager for Turtle Creek Gardens, a newly-established 80-acre diversified biodynamic farm in Delevan, Wisconsin, where she grew vegetables, fruit, and flowers, performed tractor work, managed the greenhouse and crop succession planning, led field crews in planting, harvesting, washing, and packing, delivered produce to CSA members and grocery stores, stewarded a 4-hive apiary, and independently initiated and produced a mixed flower bouquet add-on subscription for CSA members.

Biodynamic Association (2011-2021)

Thea was Executive Director (2017-2021), Co-Director (2015-2017), Director of Programs (2013-2015), and Education Program Coordinator (2011-2013) of the United States’ national biodynamic agriculture and land stewardship nonprofit, where she educated thousands of farmers and gardeners and expanded the public presence of biodynamics, among many other achievements.

Monan's Rill (2015-present)

Thea is co-owner, resident, and land steward of 414 acres within the ancestral territory of the indigenous Wappo people in Sonoma County, California, where she co-manages a biodynamic garden and orchard, keeps bees, raises dairy goats and chickens, practices regenerative forestry, and brings good fire to the land.