Our Team

Meet the Climate Farm School Team

Dr. Laney Siegner

Executive Director, Climate Farm School

Laney completed her Ph.D. at the U.C. Berkeley Energy and Resources Group in 2020. She researched sustainable, agroecological food systems and climate change education, and spent several summers working on regenerative farms while researching for her dissertation.

She has published book chapters on teaching climate change in U.S. K-12 classrooms and on conducting participatory agroecology research. Prior to attending graduate school, she worked as a middle school teaching fellow for 2 years in Boston, MA as part of an AmeriCorps National Teaching Fellowship.

When she’s not teaching or learning, she enjoys being outside for a variety of physical activities – farming, worm composting, trail running, bird watching, or swimming in the ocean. Originally from the East Coast, she now lives on a farm in Sonoma County, California.

Ryan Peterson

Director of Programs, Climate Farm School

Ryan is deeply interested in the relationship between healing ecosystems and ourselves. After beginning his career in finance, he changed course to study sustainability at UC Berkeley where he was captivated by the potential of food systems transformation. His master’s research focused on how policy can be used to promote agroecology in California.

He went on to train as a cook at Chez Panisse before helping to launch the Culinary and Food Systems Program at The Ecology Center, a regenerative farm and ecological education center in San Juan Capistrano, California. He has worked on farms in Maine, Northern and Southern California, and Hawaii.

In recent years, Ryan has been exploring the world of somatic based healing, believing that the suppression of our own emotions and instincts is intimately connected to our costly attempts to control landscapes.

Originally from Massachusetts, Ryan now lives in California.

Megan Wang

Regional Lead, Hudson Valley

Megan Wang is the Founder of Graindead Bread, a Brooklyn-based bread project focused on baking with and sourcing only organic, locally grown grains from the Hudson Valley & upstate New York. After a few years of working in professional kitchens, she felt like the connection to land & farmers was missing. In 2023, she was accepted as an Anne Saxelby Apprentice and was matched with Gentle Time Farm in Old Chatham, NY. After years of cooking with Climate Farm School, and after more hands-on experience at a regenerative grain farm, she was inspired to start Graindead. As part of the project, she is working to better understand the local grain economy and the challenges to shifting consumer mindsets around the aesthetics and flavor of whole grain bread.

Prior to becoming a professional baker, Megan was the CEO of a mission-driven organization called theBoardlist, which focused on diversifying boardrooms and led the operations for 3 years. In 2023, she helped facilitate a merger with BoardProspects, an organization focused on improving corporate governance and oversight, where she advised the CEO & Board while she pursued her interest in baking.

Gary Podesto

Resident Chef & Culinary Projects Advisor

Gary is committed to educating and inspiring change-makers through the lenses of cooking and experiential learning to revolutionize the global food system.

Studying the literary traditions of the western cannon left him full of theory and starved for the real life experience that is so often missing in academia. The need to learn a practical trade led him to his first kitchen job in his small college town of Chico, Ca. His formative years cooking in Northern California restaurants laid the ground work for an interest in local food systems which ultimately lead to a five year deep dive into farming and direct marketing by working for the Certified Farmers' Markets of Sacramento. There he became intimately connected to the web of producers and consumers the are the lifeblood of California's "farm-to-fork capital".

In 2016 Alice Waters asked him to join the team of cooks working in the celebrated kitchen of the downstairs restaurant at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He's been happily manning the stoves and tending the hearth there ever since.

His goal as a chef is to revitalize the values of slow food by gathering around the table, promoting the values of edible education, regenerative agriculture, and climate-conscious ingredients.

Jess Tavares Reis

Marketing

Jess’s educational background is in Traditional Chinese Medicine, herbalism, and holistic nutrition. After graduating she ran her own clinical practice. Through working closely with people’s health she began to see a deeper gap—there was only so much healing possible when the food itself was lacking vitality. That realization led her to ask: where does true nourishment begin?

That question led her into farming. For 18 years, she has worked in agriculture, food systems, and land-based education, focused on reconnecting people to the source of their nourishment—not just through what they eat, but through their relationship to soil, land, and the systems that sustain life.

Her work has included regenerative farming, school garden leadership, and building community-based programs rooted in food, culture, and place.

Jess lives in Boise, Idaho, where she is the Production Manager for Global Gardens, working alongside refugee and immigrant farmers as they build their farm businesses and steward land in the Treasure Valley.

Her husband and children are Brazilian and lived for several years in Brasil before moving to Idaho. Brazilian culture is a living part of her everyday life—shaping how she cooks, gathers, and moves through the world. Outside of work, she spends her time gardening, cooking, fermenting, creating art with plants, playing music, and being outdoors (preferably in the water) with her family whenever possible.

Advisory Board

Dr. Kris Madsen, MD, MPH

PROFESSOR, UC BERKELEY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH & FORMER FACULTY DIRECTOR AT BERKELEY FOOD INSTITUTE
Ed Colloton

PARTNER EMERITUS, BESSEMER VENTURE PARTNERS
Meghann Flynn Beer

NONPROFIT CONSULTANT
Kelly Mulville

VINEYARD DIRECTOR, PAICINES RANCH
Elaine Patarini

DIRECTOR, PAICINES RANCH LEARNING CENTER
Adrian James

CO-FOUNDER, OMADA HEALTH & EX-IDEO