Our Leadership
Kevin Boyer (he/him)
RAF Founding Director and Board Member
Kevin Boyer is the Founding Director of the Regenerative Agriculture Foundation. Before starting RAF, he spent 5 years managing the Regenerative Rangelands and Composting programs at The 11th Hour Project of The Schmidt Family Foundation. Kevin has worked for several food and farm-related nonprofits, and he grew up in Tulare County, California (one of the agriculture capitals of the world) surrounded by conventional agriculture. He maintains an active role in a California citrus farm that is transitioning to regenerative practices.
Ahna Kruzic (she/her)
Associate Director
Ahna Kruzic (she/her) joined Regenerative Agriculture Foundation as Associate Director in March 2020. Ahna has a tremendous diversity of experience in nonprofit management, regenerative agriculture, and supporting farm and racial justice. Originally from southern Iowa, Ahna currently lives in Oakland and most recently served as Pesticide Action Network’s Communications and Media Director. She holds a Master of Science in sustainable agriculture and sociology from Iowa State University, and has worked as community organizer, researcher, coalition-builder, publisher, and communicator. Prior to joining PAN, Ahna worked as Director of Publications and Communications at Food First / the Institute for Food and Development Policy. She has also served as the Interim Executive Director for the Women, Food and Agriculture Network in 2020.
Mark Muller (he/him)
RAF Executive Director
Mark Muller came to RAF in March 2020 after spending over 20 years working on related issues including agricultural conservation, Midwest water quality, racial equity in the food system, and effective federal food and agricultural policy. Most recently Mark served as director of the Mississippi River program at the McKnight Foundation, and prior to that he directed the Food & Community Fellows program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He also spent two years teaching high school in New York City and 18 months volunteering in Honduras and Guatemala. He and his spouse and three children live in south Minneapolis.
Alyssa Scharf (she/her)
Operations Manager
Alyssa Scharf officially joined the Regenerative Agriculture Foundation as Operations Manager in May 2024. Before coming on board full-time, Alyssa collaborated with RAF on a contract basis, supporting the Farm Bill Rapid Response funds with data and contract management. Prior to her work with RAF, Alyssa was active in the education sector, assisting school districts with the implementation of newly adopted curricula and serving as a public elementary school teacher in Marin County, California. Alyssa holds a Master of Arts in Education with a focus on Curriculum Development and Instruction and currently resides in the Bay Area, CA.
Brett Ramey (he/him)
RAF Consultant
Brett Ramey (Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska) is an educator and organizer working at the intersections of environmental, cultural, and community health. He has been serving as a consultant for RAF since January 2021 and leading RAF’s “Restorying Regenerative Agriculture” program. His work is grounded in reclaiming and upholding knowledge systems that honor relationships and responsibilities to lands and waters. He previously served as director of the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the University of Washington, a community of young people who aim to transform the face, practice, and future of conservation.
Maisah Khan (she/her)
SHOT Fund Partnerships Manager
Maisah Khan joined the Regenerative Agriculture Foundation as the SHOT Fund Partnerships Manager in December 2024. Maisah came to RAF with over a decade of experience in grassroots nonprofit work and federal policy advocacy. She was the Policy Director for the Mississippi River Network and before that the Water Policy Director for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. Prior to that, she served as an appointee in the Obama Administration for the U.S. Department of Energy, focusing on international climate change policy and clean energy deployment. Maisah holds a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Environment. Her family ties to Bangladesh keep her grounded in our shared movement for climate change solutions.
Sallie Calhoun
RAF Board Chair
Sallie owns and manages Paicines Ranch, a 7,600-acre ranch in central California. She is an impact investor, activist, and philanthropic funder in regenerative agriculture. Her work focuses on improving the health of agricultural soils and sequestering carbon in soil to mitigate climate change, while creating healthier people and planet. She is the founder of the No Regrets Initiative, which seeks to use all available forms of capital—human, natural, investment, and philanthropic—to affect change in the agricultural system.
Prior to becoming a rancher and farmer, Sallie spent almost 25 years as an engineer, COO, and high-tech entrepreneur; she was co-founder of Globetrotter Software, Inc. where she served as COO/CFO. She is now the managing member of Cienega Capital, an impact investing firm, and the president of the Globetrotter Foundation, a family foundation.
Sarah Bell
RAF Board Member
Sarah Bell is Program Director for Food and Agriculture at the 11th Hour Project, a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation. She joined the foundation in 2007 and launched the program in 2010. Her grantmaking focuses on the intersection of ecology, local economies, and equity in the U.S. She sits on the board of Pie Ranch in Pescadero, CA and is active in numerous funder affinity groups. She received her B.A. in English Literature and French from the University of Colorado and studied regenerative design in Northern California.
Wendy Johnson
RAF Board Member
Wendy Johnson is owner and operator of Jóia Food & Fiber Farm, a diverse perennial-based farm in northern Iowa growing perennial grains, grazing grassfed sheep and cows and humanely raising poultry and pigs. She started Counting Sheep Sleeping Company to add value to the fiber her 100 percent grass-fed sheep produce. Wendy also co-manages her family’s conventional corn and soybean farm. She often speaks and writes about the need for diverse enterprises and people on the land, the intersections of climate change and agriculture, food system inequality, ag policy, and the observations on the lands she cares for. Wendy is currently Climate Land Leaders co-policy lead and spokesperson and provides leadership on several boards and committees furthering the growth of a more diverse and resilient Iowa and Midwest.