Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is comprised of nine co-op owners; three director seats are up for election every year. The co-op’s Board of Directors are empowered by the owners to, not just ensure the co-op’s current success, but to look forward strategically to make sure our business continues to thrive in an ever-changing and unpredictable future. They work to build alignment between where the co-op is heading both by soliciting owner involvement and feedback and by communicating information about recent events and trends to all co-op owners. If you are curious to see Board work in action, monthly board meetings are open to owners and happen on the fourth Wednesday of the month from 6:30 - 9pm on Zoom.
Our regular monthly River Valley Co-op Board of Directors meetings are open to River Valley Co-op Owners. Board Meetings are not open to the public. Non-River Valley Co-op Owners may attend Board of Directors meetings only by invitation of the Board of Directors.
We still welcome our co-op owners to join us via Zoom video conference for our monthly Board Meetings. In order to do so, you will need access to a smartphone or computer with sound and video capability.
Please click on the below link to complete a form requesting inclusion in the Board Meeting via video conference call. Upon completion of the form, you will receive an invitation to join the video conference with a Zoom video conference link.
Meeting Agenda for January 28, 2025
Meet our Board of Directors!
Emma Woebbe

Emma Hempstead Woebbe (President) found her vocation in sustainable food systems fifteen years ago as a Sociology student, when she realized how many of her questions about the world could be answered with sustainably produced food.
She studied agriculture and food systems at Vermont Law School while living on a vineyard, leading the Food & Agricultural Law Society, and serving as Director of Social Media at the school’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems. After her J.D., she went on to earn an LL.M. in Food & Agricultural Law at the University of Arkansas, writing a thesis on a holistic vision of food safety.
She has worked with various nonprofits in food systems sustainability endeavors, including the National Young Farmers’ Coalition, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Northeast Regional Food Team, Food and Water Watch, Building A Local Economy, the Rutland Area Food & Farm Link. She supported the Vermont Right to Know Coalition in the lead-up to Vermont’s passing a genetically engineered food labeling law. Throughout, she has worked on farms and in kitchens, notably as a biodynamic farming apprentice and a chocolatier. In 2022 she led The Carrot Project’s Agricultural Viability Alliance. She practiced law, focusing on environmental issues and small food and farm enterprises.
Emma relies on the wisdom of systems thinkers, including Donnella Meadows who wrote, “remember, always that everything you know, and everything everyone knows, is only a model. Get your model out there where it can be viewed. Invite others to challenge your assumptions and add their own.”
Abby Getman Skillicorn
Abby Getman Skillicorn (Vice President) is a five-year owner of River Valley Co-op and is proud to be a part of a body that so clearly and diligently seeks to fulfill its mission. She was inspired to apply to the Board of Directors because she wanted to give back to the co-op that feeds her family. Abby is thrilled for the Easthampton expansion, which will be closer to her house in Florence where she lives with her husband Michael and dog Lucy.
Her professional work over the past decade has revolved around social justice and food access in the Pioneer Valley and throughout the Commonwealth. As she continues to deepen her understanding of our food system from seed to table, she sees how we perpetuate systems of food apartheid, and strives to engage in work that creates more equity and access for everyone in our community.
Currently, Abby is a manager for the Springfield Public Schools Food Service program, where she works across the district of 26,000 students to ensure their menu and service decisions are made with a student-centered approach. Abby directs the District’s farm-to-school efforts, supervises FoodCorps members in a dozen elementary schools, sits on the Culinary and Nutrition Center’s Advisory Committee, and co-chairs the Outreach and Communications sub-committee. She has previously worked for the Department of Transitional Assistance on the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, CISA, PVGrows, and Red Fire Farm.
Email: Abby Getman Skillicorn
Steve Trombulak

Steve Trombulak (Treasurer) is a retired college professor who taught environmental studies and conservation biology at Middlebury College for 34 years before moving to the Pioneer Valley in 2020. Apart from his work at the college, over that time he served on numerous boards and committees at many different levels, from local to international. At the local level, he served terms on the boards for the Otter Creek Child Center and the Champlain Valley UU Society as well as on the Conservation Committee for the town’s Planning Commission.
Steve's professional work as an environmental scientist increasingly came to focus on regional sustainability and resiliency planning. Both systemic social inequality and the growing climate crisis are placing an increasing need for communities to focus on regional transformation of the interconnected human-natural systems associated with food, water, energy, and justice. In this context, he believes that local co-operatives, such as River Valley Co-op, are ideally positioned to be both incubators for and disseminators of strategies to manifest such transformations. Our future will depend on their vibrancy, and I would welcome the opportunity to help continue the co-op’s history of success.
Steve's direct engagement with both the social and ecological dimensions of food systems has primarily been in the context of his work as an environmental educator. He has directed numerous student projects, including the development of a regional food hub, flexible rainwater harvesting systems, biomethane production, enhanced opportunities for local food production, and an analysis of the environmental impacts of the college’s food purchasing policies. Steve's work has been characterized by collaboration and the use of planning strategies designed to allow all voices to be heard, and includes scenario planning, creative ideation, human-centered design, and systems thinking. These planning methodologies formed the core of the curriculum of the summer environmental program he developed and directed at his college, expressly for the purpose of giving students the skills needed to help them become agents of positive social change.
Elizabeth Appelquist

Elizabeth Appelquist (Clerk) is the owner of Cider House Media in Easthampton, created in 2013; a digital agency providing marketing for small and regional businesses in the Valley. As a River Valley Co-op owner, Elizabeth feels a sense of pride in being part of such a vibrant, growing business as part of its governance, continuing to move its success forward as a leader in the community. Having grown up in Easthampton before moving back to the area in 2013, Elizabeth has enjoyed getting involved in the community through endeavors such as serving on the Williston Library Board and on the Easthampton Cultural Arts District Subcommittee, as well as the Pioneer Valley Ballet Board for three years.
Elizabeth enjoys looking at things outside the box, especially considering the climate of our changing world (local, regionally and globally). She is also a big proponent of teamwork and how essential this concept is in any organization, especially when all are working towards a common goal. Whether in business or other group endeavors, Elizabeth has always relied on the strength of a team, believing it is something that needs to be nurtured to achieve great results. It’s important too to recognize within a group that there will be differing opinions, but Elizabeth brings forward an ability to see all sides of an issue—a quality that helps bring about fair and equitable solutions to any matter.
Barra Cohen

Barra Cohen has been a member-owner of River Valley Co-op ever since we opened the first store in Northampton. The idea of supporting local business and agriculture, as well as her local community, is why she jumped at the chance to join our brand new local food cooperative. Her professional work over the last two decades has included standing alongside and advocating for indigent and marginalized populations. She spent over eleven years as a public defender in Franklin, Hampshire, Berkshire and Hampden Counties. Now, she works at a drop-in center for self-represented litigants to get free assistance accessing legal information and the various departments of the trial courts. She brings her commitment to social justice law in the areas of food justice and ethical business practices, which is why she is proud to become a board director at our local food coop. Barra approaches problem-solving with curiosity and an openness to new ideas and different perspectives. She views stepping into her new role as a wonderful opportunity to become a beloved, innovative, and impactful part of our co-op community!
Gary L. Schaefer

Gary L. Schaefer For four decades Gary co-owned a local ice cream company two with retail shops. Gary and Barbara then grew the business to include a small ice cream manufacturing and a distributing company focused on food products produced in the Connecticut River Valley. As an entrepreneur, He learned a lot by trial and error. The most important lesson was learning to see the whole picture, including past successes and failures, the importance of monitoring day to day operations and spending significant time preparing for the future. He is strong believer in co-operatives as a sustainable alternative to the traditional business model. Gary was also part of a small group who founded, and for 2 years administered, the Our Family Farms Milk Co-op, now in its 20th year. Gary is deeply committed to seeing our Co-op, our staff, our vendors and our community thrive long into the future and to be an inspiration for other co-ops to start and expand.
Email: Gary L Schaefer
Wendy Messerli

Wendy Messerli is the current the Senior Bookkeeper on staff at River Valley Co-op. She came to the valley 16 years ago to attend Hampshire College and have called it home since. Wendy dropped out when she was unable to find the thread that would narrow her focus or career path; a community garden plot helped her realize that food was that thread. Over the past seven years, the co-op has given her the opportunity to use her detail and systems oriented skills to work directly with our local food system and Wendy finished her BA in Sustainability Studies through UWW at UMass Amherst.
Wendy oversees and supervises many day-to-day operations that involve the co-op’s financial well- being. She has a deep institutional knowledge of the business, and all of the stakeholders that the co-op touches– owners, vendors, farmers, and staff. You may also recognize Wendy from her role in our successful 2019 campaign to raise $5M in Co-op Owner Loans.
For six years Wendy volunteered with the Prison Birth Project designing print materials for this nonprofit that provided support, training, and advocacy at the intersection of reproductive justice and the criminal justice system. She took with her from this work the crucial goal to meet people where they are. Wendy is a creative problem solver and she believes that making space for listening and understanding all aspects of a reasoning can lead to deeper and more well-informed decisions and can bring about understanding and agreement in complex issues.
Email: Wendy Messerli
Angus Brewer

Angus Brewer has been helping effect positive change in the lives of others, especially children and students, for three decades. He has marched in solidarity with under-served people of all colors. He's taught pre-schoolers and college graduates in public, private, and charter schools throughout the Happy Valley and beyond--and policy development, planning, and organizational evaluation have always played a part. He's also been a state social worker, a counselor in group homes, hospitals and a prison, and a fiery, socially-conscious spoken-word artist. He also functioned as a trainer--one of his chief duties in his Reserves units. Angus now brings these skills to our Co-op, where he's been working for two years. He has many other talents and interests, including being a professional DJ and emcee for the past thirty-six years performing for crowds both small and large from Chicago to New York to Boston to Atlanta--and he even provided the musical backdrop for our 2018 Annual Board Meeting!
Jeanne Young

Jeanne Young's diverse 30+ year career experiences in both Fortune 100 corporations and government roles allow her to contribute to the overall mission of River Valley Co-op. She has taken on roles of increasing complexity and challenges that required leadership with vision and empathy in the areas of global travel management, procurement, HR Management, Finance, and Facilities. Most recently, Jeanne served as an executive at MassMutual in Springfield, MA, with responsibility for significant annual expenditures including the company’s Dining Services program, one of her many areas of responsibility. She implemented an innovative on-site farmers market, a subsidized healthy eating program and various employee engagement programs focused on nutrition, wellness, and outreach to increase local food supplier participation.
Jeanne was a founding member of several DE&I groups including the Young Professionals Network, the Administrative Support Network, the Advisory Council at Bay Path University and Customer Advisory Boards at both the Marriott and FCM Travel Corporations. She served on the Boards of Bay Path University, the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Western New England and Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureaus.
Jeanne has remained active in the community post-retirement, including serving on the Board of the Westfield Athenaeum, working with Suffield Community Services and the Healing Meals Project organization in Simsbury, CT.
A unified theme throughout Jeanne's career and in retirement has been a focus on providing services through the efforts of many, knowing that no single person is as powerful as the work of diverse groups who work together through adversity to achieve a greater vision. She felt privileged to serve as the leader of great teams achieving remarkable results.
Jeanne's goal as a Board member is to challenge our thinking, goals and expectations of ourselves to expand our reach to a more diverse demographic (geographic, generational, ethnicity, etc.). Our membership must grow organically and exponentially to ensure a relevant, sustainable, and financially viable business model long into the future.