Members and Committees
Current Board Members
President/Secretary- Gwyneth Bowman -End of Term: 2013
Gwyneth is passionate about our Co-op’s quality of service delivery and the availability of safe, healthy natural/organic food in our community. She joined the AFC Board of Directors in 2004. She also serves on the Board Outreach Committee and the Board Development Committee.
She is a creative visionary who views the “big picture” as an avenue to solve issues and concerns. She is an avid supporter of Public Health safety, fostering equity and providing innovative leadership. Advanced skills include Public Health Leadership and Organizational Development. Encompassed in these include a value based approach to prevention, open systems focus and change, strategic planning and mediation. She believes in the importance of collaboration with others and has conducted many workshops on team-building, problem-solving and decision-making, conflict resolution and communication skills.
Gwyneth is a Registered Professional Nurse and has served thirty-three years in leadership positions. Fifteen of those were as the Administrator of an organization that had seven diverse divisions, one of them a non-profit Food Share. She has three undergraduate degrees and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Washington, with a minor equivalency in Business Administrative Management. She obtained a post-graduate certificate of achievement from the Public Health Leadership Institute for Scholars, a one year program sponsored by the University of California and the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a native Oregonian and has had numerous professional affiliations. She served on two Governor Taskforces and was Chair of the Oregon State Conference of Local Health Officials for several years. She was a clinical instructor for Leadership and Management with the Oregon Health Sciences University. She is very enthusiastic about empowering and mentoring others. She is affiliated with the Oregon Public Health Nursing Leadership Institute and has worked with them since its formation during 1991.
Vice President - Peter Hoyt -End of Term: 2013
Peter has spent most of his adult life building and strengthening community. As part of the “back to the land” movement of the early seventies, he moved to Tennessee, to help found The Farm, a spiritual community that grew to over 1500 people. Twin careers in the community included designing and helping to construct energy efficient passive solar homes and public buildings, while also working as art director for the community based book publishing company. Titles include a series of vegetarian cookbooks featuring tofu, tempeh and other soy foods, which led directly to the creation of “Farm Foods”, marketing soy foods and other natural products. Other books published include titles on spiritual philosophy, and several “how to” books on community skills, including midwifery.
Since moving to the Rogue Valley in 1986, Peter has continued his work in energy efficient housing, sustainable energy and appropriate village technology. Working as a design consultant several years ago for a firm manufacturing radiation detection equipment led to an opportunity to design and build a hydrophone buoy to be placed in the waters west of Maui, Hawaii. This gives voice to the Humpback Whales which sing during their time spent in those waters (mid November till May), and can be accessed worldwide both live, and recorded, on the internet at whalesong.net
After two and a half years as a volunteer on the Co-op’s Outreach Committee, Peter was elected to serve on our board of directors. He feels that continuing to encourage production and consumption of locally grown organic food is one of the most important aspects of building a strong, sustainable community economy.
Treasure - Guy Nutter - End of Term: 2012
Guy Nutter was raised in a small town of Saranac Lake, the heart of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. He received his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Albany and later obtained graduate degrees from the University of Connecticut, and Georgetown University.
He has worked with the Federal Government in Washington DC, practiced law in Connecticut and was a founding partner of a small Santa Monica, California law firm.
Guy is an active hiker, cross country skier, local kayaker and camper, and an ardent advocate of organically produced, locally grown, healthy and delicious foods.
Now retired, Guy loves Southern Oregon and all it has to offer. Since his arrival, he has served on the City of Ashland’s Bike and Pedestrian Commission and the City’s Audit Committee. He also volunteers with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Ashland Chamber of Commerce Candle Light Tour, and the Ashland Gallery Association Taste of Ashland.
He now serves as Treasurer for the Board of Directors of the Ashland Food Cooperative.
Director -Sheila Carder- End of Term: 2014
Sheila Carder and her husband Ben are the owners of SunStone Artisan Bakery, a wholesale organic bakery built on their property in Ashland. Sheila and Ben started their bakery with the vision of creating a business that would nourish the body, mind and soul of the community.
Sheila comes to the Ashland Food Co-op Board of Directors with more than ten years experience as the development director for environmental and community non-profits. She holds a B.A. in Marine Biology and Environmental Education and a graduate degree in science journalism. She has worked as a journalist in the Australian Outback, designed exhibits for zoos and aquariums around the world, and has served as the media liaison for the Australian Institute of Marine Science and broadcast media coordinator for Stanford Medical Center News Bureau.
Her interest in farming and food evolved as she realized that all of our hard work to save endangered species is for naught unless we change the way we grow our food. She is a graduate of the UC Santa Cruz Agroecology program, holds a permaculture certificate from the Regenerative Design Institute and is trained as an organic inspector. For many years now, she has dedicated time and energy to awakening community awareness as to the economic, social and environmental importance of supporting local organic agriculture and food production.
The Ashland Food Co-op has served as a role model for communities throughout the United States. As a member of the board of directors, Sheila is committed to continuing to support the co-op’s role as a leader in sustainable business practices. As economic pressures increase nationally and worldwide, Sheila believes that the Ashland Food Co-op can play an important role in setting the standard for local and national business practices, and can help provide guidance and support to help revitalize local economies. Key to such success is providing a rewarding work environment for employees and nurturing a thriving local economy that cares for the environment and the well-being of future generations.
Staff Director -Phil Johnson - End of Term: 2014
Phil was born in the southern plains of Amarillo, TX. His family moved for much of his young life around different parts of Texas, the United States, and overseas to Germany. After High School, Phil attended the University of Texas at Austin where he studied towards a degree in Environmental Resource Management. It was during his time at the University that Phil was first exposed to the cooperative movement. Phil moved into a housing cooperative where he learned of the cooperative principals and the benefits of cooperatives in general. It was also during this time he began working at Wheatsville Food Co-op, Texas’s only food co-op. After graduating from the University of Texas, Phil accepted a full-time promotion to Floor Manager at Wheatsville. He served a one-year term as Staff Director and was eventually promoted to Grocery Stocking Supervisor.
While working at Wheatsville, Phil also met his future wife Andrea (of course she was a co-op shopper). Phil and Andrea got married and decided to explore life outside of Texas. After visiting Ashland, and the Food Co-op, they decided to give it a try. So, after 5 years of service at Wheatsville, they packed up a truck and were westward bound. After arriving in Ashland, Phil quickly became employed at the Ashland Food Co-op and was promoted to his familiar position at Floor Manager. He has now worked at the Co-op for 5 years and wears many different Co-op hats in addition to Floor Manager.
Phil and Andrea now have a 15-month old son named Austin and are very happy with life in Ashland. Phil is also a songwriter and bluegrass musician, currently playing mandolin in a group that is a local favorite, Eight Dollar Mountain. He looks forward to serving as Staff Director at the Ashland Food Co-op, one of the most successful food cooperatives in the nation. In addition to being an extremely successful business, AFC has become so much more, almost a way of life. AFC is such an important part of the community, helping to foster the local good food movement, many important personal relationships, and is increasingly a model of sustainable business for many to look up to. Phil looks forward to helping the Co-op grow, support its staff, and move in a positive direction into the future.
Director - Charles Douglass - End of Term: 2012
Charlie has spent the last 50 years building a successful career in the food industry. Starting in his family’s candy business at age 9 and apprenticing with a Swiss Candy maker to learn all aspects of the confectionary trade. Ever the restless type and looking for more adventure in his life, He moved to the Ashland area in 1975 to homestead 40 acres up in the Greensprings. During that time, he volunteered time at the Co-op once a week as the herb buyer and re-stocker. In that same time period he worked with a close friend to inform the Greensprings community about a proposed power line that threatened to bisect the community. Working with neighbors, state officials and legislators, Charlie helped to further understanding of the impact this project had on the area. The campaign was successful in moving the project to a less imposing location. This was a beginning of working with others for a common goal that has become an important direction in Charlie’s life. Working on the Co-op’s outreach committee for three years was such a fun and rewarding experience that being on the Co-op Board is a continuation of that service that Charlie enjoys most. Employed at Harry and David for the last 31 years, Charlie is a full time Chocolatier and R&D Manager. His passion for food, organic and local, as well as sustainable crops and energy are what feeds his commitment to community and our local economy.
Director - Joanie Kintscher- End of Term: 2012
Sustainable living has been the focus of my life for the last 40 years.
Raising a family on a small farm in Danville, CA, I headed up a county 4-H program where animal husbandry and horticulture were integrated into a program of environmental consciousness.
For the last 25 years my husband and I ran an organic fiber farm that was part of local college curriculum in the Napa Valley, helping adult students and their families to adapt the principles of organic living. During that time I also help to establish a Waldorf style Charter School in the Valley that emphasized the sustainable earth teachings of Rudolph Steiner.
I have been working with the Master Gardeners in California and Oregon since 2000, practicing and teaching the concepts of individual responsibility for sustainable gardening practices. I look forward to working with the Ashland Food Co-op Owners to continue on this path.