The Board
Karie Trujillo, President
Karie Trujillo has been in professional services marketing for eighteen years. She has been a legal marketer for the past nine years and prior to that worked for accounting firms Arthur Andersen and KPMG. As Marketing and Client Relations Director at Markowitz Herbold PC, Karie manages the firm’s public relations, advertising, website, social media and business development functions. Before joining MHGM, Karie was a business development manager at Davis Wright Tremaine, a national full-service law firm. Karie received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oregon.
Her current professional activities include:
- Board member, Portland Farmers Market
- Chair, President’s Council, Portland Business Alliance
- Member, A Place With No Ceiling Committee, Portland Business Alliance
- Member, Public Outreach Committee, Multnomah Bar Foundation
- Member, Rainmaking Dinner Committee, Oregon Women Lawyers
- Former membership chair, Legal Marketing Association, Northwest Chapter
Lainie Smith, Vice President
Lainie has had a thirty-five year career in the development and management of public policy. She worked at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) from since 2004-2016, serving as the planning manager and senior policy advisor for the Portland Metro region. From 1990 to 2004, she served in several positions with the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), taking the lead in a number of resource management, grant, intergovernmental relations, and performance management programs. Her tenure at DLCD also included a two-year assignment as a loaned executive to the Governor’s Office working on making agency policy and operational changes to foster integration of state agency policies and programs. Lainie also served in the Governor’s Office in 1989, providing fiscal and policy analysis of proposed legislation to legislative committees and the Governor. Prior to 1989, she held a variety of positions focused on public policy and environmental planning with ODOT and local governments in Oregon.
Annie Mengis, Treasurer
Annie Mengis is currently a CPA at Peters & Company P.C., a local accounting firm specializing in Individual & Business tax services, Accounting & Auditing services, and Management Consulting Services in Portland. After graduating from the University of Oregon with two BS’s in Accounting and Political Science, Annie took a position with a local CPA firm in Sausalito, California. After four years and the birth of her niece, she chose to return home to Portland where she has worked at in Public Accounting, at Human Solutions-a local non-profit that housed over 700 low-income families, and Sagacity Media – the owner of Portland Monthly.
As a Portland native, she he enjoys devoting her time to volunteering, gardening, crafts, and the various festivals and outdoor events available in Portland. Current and recent volunteer activities include time at the Portland Farmers Market, the Winter Warming Center, SOLVE cleanups, and financial education classes and coaching for low income individuals and families at Innovative changes. Annie also holds membership on the Finance Committees for the Portland Farmers Market and Rose Community Development Corporation.
David Ray Salerno Owens, Secretary
David was born and raised in San Diego, California. He began his undergraduate studies at UCLA. It was here where David first gained his passion for helping children while volunteering for UCLA Unicamp for nearly 10 years, a camp that focused on helping intercity children who were at or below the poverty level gain exposure to the great outdoors outside of their city lives.
His many years of service in the food industry included management for ASUCLA Catering in California, and locally supervising the restaurants for Russellville Park retirement community and managing the restaurants for Mirabella, an exclusive independent living retirement community.
David returned to school to complete his undergraduate studies at Portland State University, where he graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. David graduated from Lewis & Clark College graduate school with regards to their Education & Counseling program in 2016. Under this graduate program, David is certified with a Master’s of Education & Counseling and has been working as a Response to Intervention Coordinator at Lakeridge High School since 2015 where he’s helping to bridge the graduation gap as well as working with any high risk students. He has been a part of Gaining Early Awareness & Readiness in Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) for Portland Public Schools at Harrison Park and Madison High School, SMART Reading and Big Brothers, Big Sisters; all important in the community involvement of our children.
Mike Elliott
Drawing on three decades of varied business experience with national employee benefits consulting firms (including 27 years with Portland-based M Benefit Solutions), Mike brings a wide array of skills and experiences to helps support Board operations and financial management. A third generation Oregonian, Mike traveled extensively as a ‘military brat.’ He graduated with a BA from Northwestern University, with majors in Economics and Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences. After returning to Oregon and joining M Benefit Solutions, Mike earned his MBA from Portland State University. Mike retired as a Senior Vice President from M Benefit Solutions in October 2016 and is excited about giving back to the community in ways that align with his interests in the outdoors and access to food.
Andy Fisher
Andrew Fisher is a leading national expert on community food security. In 1994, he co-founded and led the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC), a national alliance of groups working on food access and local food, until 2011. During this time, he created and publicized the concept of community food security, and played a key role in building the food movement. He has played a lead role in gaining passage of numerous pieces of federal legislation, including the Community Food Projects and the Farm to School grant program. He has worked on a wide variety of food system topics, including food policy councils, community food assessments, healthy corner stores, coalition building, and farm to cafeteria. He has taught at various universities in Oregon, and is currently an adjunct instructor in the public health department at Portland State University. He served as an interim executive director at Portland Fruit Tree Project from 2015-2017. His book on the anti-hunger movement, “Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups” will be released by MIT Press in April, 2017.
Sarah Suby
Sarah’s interest in food and children’s equity issues brought her to the Farmers Market Fund board in 2014, serving as Treasurer before taking on her current position of President. As her first project, Sarah assisted staff in writing the federal grant proposal for the $500,000 Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) Program grant, which was awarded to Farmers Market Fund in 2015 to fund Double Up Food Bucks.
Most recently, her work has focused on local education issues and she is currently president of her children’s PTA. Sarah’s work experience includes strategic planning and business development for large and small companies, as well as fundraising and event planning for education non-profits. Sarah received a BA from Smith College, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Washington.
Staff
Trudy Toliver
Executive Director, Portland Farmers Market & Farmers Market Fund
Trudy Toliver is a life-long Oregonian, environmentalist and leader. She believes that eating healthy food changes people lives. Her professional career has been all about sustainability. She built her management skills in public transit and with environmental groups. At TriMet, Portland, Oregon’s transit district, she held several positions over 16 years in areas such as transit planning, community relations, and marketing. Her favorite “claim to fame” is having been TriMet’s liaison with the community to assure that bikes were welcome on buses and trains. Her final years there were spent on the leadership team as Executive Director of Human Resources.
In 1999 Trudy shifted her career to environmental non-profits starting as Development Director at Friends of Virgin Islands National Park on St. John in the US Virgin Islands. After returning to Portland in 2002, she joined EarthShare Oregon as Executive Director. At EarthShare she led a federation of 70 conservation groups for the purpose of fundraising in the workplaces of 100 Oregon public agencies and businesses.
Her Bachelor’s degree is in Geography from Portland State University. She got her Master’s in Business with focus on organization development from Marylhurst University. Trudy teaches yoga and is pursuing certification as a nutrition therapist.
Molly Notarianni
Program Director, Double Up Food Bucks
Molly manages Oregon Double Up Food Bucks, Farmers Market Fund’s statewide SNAP matching program. She has been working to support sustainable community food systems across the country for more than ten years. Prior to joining FMF, Molly spent time as a farmer, an educator, and a manager of farmers markets in Michigan and Oregon. In her free time, she serves as Vice President of the Oregon Farmers Markets Association’s Board, and loves gardening, meeting her neighbors, going by bike, and exploring beautiful Oregon.
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.