Our Staff and Board

Molly Notarianni
Executive Director, Farmers Market Fund

Molly joined Farmers Market Fund in 2018, bringing fifteen years of experience at the intersection of food, justice, and community. Her work is informed by her years as a farmer, an educator, a community organizer, a nonprofit consultant, and manager of farmers markets in both Michigan and Oregon. In 2019 Molly led a statewide coalition of organizations that successfully secured a $1.5 million appropriation from the State of Oregon to support the expansion of Double Up, laying the groundwork for a new era of the program. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Policy & Behavior from the University of Michigan, is a member of the Oregon Community Food Systems Network board of directors, and loves gardening, meeting her neighbors, going by bike, and waking up to see that it has snowed.

Joel Caris
Program Manager, Farmers Market Fund

Joel Caris comes to Farmers Market Fund with over twelve years experience in local food systems work. He first discovered his love of
local food and farming while apprenticing on an organic vegetable farm on Whidbey Island in 2009, then spent the next five years growing and raising food on farms and ranches in Washington and Oregon. He joined the Tillamook-based community food systems nonprofit Food Roots in 2015 as the Development Director and helped grow the organization significantly over the next seven years. Joel is a gardener, long-time Grange member, food preserver, walker, reader, writer, enjoys camping, loves working with numbers, and appreciates how good food can bring people together. He has lived nearly all his life in the Northwest.

Mallory Watson
Program Coordinator, Farmers Market Fund

Mallory Watson is a Northwest native, and she has been living in Oregon for the past 10 years. With a background in nutrition, administrative work, and improving food access though urban farming, coming to FMF just made sense for her! Since moving to Portland in 2012, she has volunteered with multiple garden and nutrition education organizations around town, and she loves teaching kids about growing nutritious food in the garden. Her passion for food, nutrition, and local agriculture led her to pursue a master’s degree in holistic nutrition at the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland in 2017. In her free time, she loves gardening, being outdoors, and learning new skills. She is currently learning how to make pottery!

The Board

Hannah Kullberg
Business Development Director, Community Co-Pack NW

Ian Paik
Attorney at Law

Hannah Ladwig
Gorge Grown Food Network

David Ray Salerno Owens
Vice President
Equity Consultant

Amy Scholze
Secretary
Columbia Gorge Health Council

Kelly Streit
OSU Extension Service, Clackamas County

Special Acknowledgement

Rosemarie Sweet
Co-founder & Former Board President

Rosemarie co-founded Farmers Market Fund and served as Board President through 2015. She was also on the Board of Portland Farmers Market from 2006 to 2011, serving as its president for two years.

Rosemarie organized and co-chaired the Portland/Multnomah Food Policy Council from August 2001 through Dec. 2004. This Council advised the City of Portland and Multnomah County on policies promoting a healthy and sustainable regional food system. She also worked with the Healthy Eating by Design program on food access and regional food planning. Other consulting work included facilitating the development of the Zenger Farm project and working with stakeholders in Lincoln City to improve their farmers market and to connect local growers with the area’s institutional purchasers.

Prior to working on sustainable food system issues, Rosemarie Sweet was the founder and executive director of Sustainable Communities Northwest (SCNW). This non-profit corporation provided affordable housing to people of low and moderate income in the Portland area, with an emphasis on ecologically sound building and promoting sustainable lifestyle choices. Prior to that, Ms. Sweet practiced law for 17 years.