• About ACGA

• What We Do
  • Mission
  • Programs
  • Financial
• Who We Are
  • History
  • Board of Directors
  • Staff
• Contact Us

Staff

Amy DeShon

Executive Director
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Amy started as ACGA’s Executive Director in April of 2007. Amy has over 20 years experience in non-profit management, fundraising, event planning, project management, and marketing/communications.

She has worked for an array of non-profits whose mission statements focused on such issues as women's equity, association management, neighborhood and community development, youth enrichment, health and wellness, the environment, and individuals with mental illness and disabilities. Amy's most successful campaign to date was to preserve 180-acres of open space on the Westside of Kalamazoo, MI as the President of the Asylum Lake Preservation Association.

Amy has her Master's of Public Administration from Western Michigan University, School of Public Affairs and Administration and her Bachelor's degree in Justice, Morality, and Constitutional Democracy from Michigan State University, James Madison College.

Sarah Alexander

Programs Manager
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Sarah started as ACGA’s program manager in January of 2007. She works with communities throughout the US and Canada, providing training and technical assistance, and conducting intensive Growing Communities Trainings. Before coming to ACGA she worked on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Northwest Minnesota rebuilding traditional local food systems, and has worked on environmental organizing campaigns in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Chicago. Sarah graduated with a Bachelors of Arts from Northwestern University in 2002.

Lexie Stoia

Operations Administrator
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Lexie began her work with ACGA in April 2006. She is an Ohio native, and attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland where she earned a B.A. in Music/Audio Recording Technology. Lexie learned about gardening from backyard experimenting, as well as her agricultural internship at Stratford Farm in Delaware, Ohio. She also works part-time in the Growing to Green program at Franklin Park Conservatory where she teaches children about the joys of gardening and writes for Touch the Soil magazine. Her favorite vegetable (or fruit for botanists) is the cucumber.