ABOUT US
Meet the people behind Slow Food Lake Tahoe!
PATTI TAGGART
Board Member | President | Garden Co-Director
Board Member Since 2019. Volunteering since 2018.
Patti moved from Chicago to California in the early 80s. She is a life-long gardener, learning her love of the earth from her mother, who was a founding member of the Illinois Garden Club She is especially interested in promoting healthy eating habits among low income groups in order to affect social determinants of health. She spearheaded the creation of a raised bed garden on property owned by Children’s Hospital Oakland, where she worked for 25 years. Patti and her family became second home owners in Truckee in the early 90’s, and in 2018, after retiring from her full time career as a physical therapist and hospital administrator, became a full time resident of Truckee. She began volunteering in the garden in 2019 and felt an immediate kinship with the mission of Slow Food Lake Tahoe. Patti is the mom of two children and has three amazing grandkids. In addition to gardening, Patti is an avid skier and ski instructor for persons with disabilities. She enjoys sewing, reading, and creating wedding flowers for friends and family.
SAM ELLER
Board Member | Secretary | Events Coordinator | Salmon Buying Club
Board Member Since 2024
Sam is originally from Oklahoma and moved west to attend college in San Diego. His journey with urban agriculture, community gardens began in Oklahoma, running a composting initiative for the city with friends. He continued to grow this passion in college getting involved with the garden club and expanding its capacity. He swapped the ocean for the mountains and lived in Crested Butte, Colorado for several years. Sam is a Math Teacher at the Sugar Bowl Academy, and loves the mountains, snow science, and being involved with the Truckee community.
FRITZ BRUNNER
Board Member | Treasurer | IT Systems & Efficiencies Director
Board Member Since 2023
Fritz was raised in Ohio and found a home in California – first in Walnut Creek for over
40 years where he had a vibrant backyard garden, and now in Truckee for the past
several years. His work life has included a wildly varied set of adventures. Starting in Berea Ohio as a paperboy, moving into various office jobs (cost accounting, budgeting, project management), then psychology related work (program management and counseling of day treatment centers), followed by work doing assessments and coaching related work that allowed for overseas travel, and recently product and project management in the healthcare industry. Fritz likes to cook, eat what he cooks, along with collecting and drinking wine, and as he says, “live life as fully as I know how.” Of course, food along with wine and the way they are created and curated has been very important. This importance has only increased as his knowledge has grown.
CONNOR BENNETT
Board Member | Development & Grants Director
Board Member Since 2025
Connor grew up with a deep respect for land and community, building his career and life around values like environmental stewardship, sustainable agriculture, and community-based conservation. In his work with the California Land Stewardship Institute, Connor supports conservation planning, habitat restoration, and regenerative farming practices that promote healthy soils, watersheds, and resilient working landscapes.
Connor was drawn to Slow Food Lake Tahoe for its commitment to good, clean, and fair food and its ability to bring people together through shared values around food, culture, and place. As a new board member, he is excited to contribute his experience in land stewardship and sustainable food systems while supporting education, community engagement, and local food connections in the Tahoe region.
JOEY EBERHARDT aka "FARMER JOE"
Board Member & Gardens Manager | Volunteer Coordinator
Board Member since 2024. Garden Manager since 2022.
Born and raised In Truckee, CA, Joey grew up fascinated by the natural ecosystems of the world. This lead him to pursue a degree in Agricultural and Environmental Plant Sciences. After graduating he traveled to Maui and worked on an organic farm for 5 months during the winter. He then spent the next 8 years working at the local Truckee Villager Nursery in the summer and traveling and farming during the winters. He joined the SFLT team in 2022 as the Garden Manager and claims it was “One of my favorite summers ever. Being able to be a part of a team that produced 670 lbs of organic food for our local community garden was special. I can’t wait to get my fingers in the dirt each day!”
NICOLE SCHRAD
Board Member | Vice-Chair | IT Systems & Efficiencies Director
Volunteering Since 2022, Board Member Since 2024
Nicole grew up in Indiana in a very agriculture-centered community. She moved to Truckee in 2022 after getting her doctorate in microbiology and environmental toxicology at UC Santa Cruz. Volunteering at Slow Food Lake Tahoe was one of the first things she did after moving as a way to meet people who care about locally grown food and community. Nicole loves learning from Joey’s wisdom while volunteering in the garden. She especially loves SFLT’s compost program (one of the only high elevation programs in the country!) because it uses microbiology and waste products to create a nutrient-rich soil. By joining SFLT’s board, she hopes to help expand the reach of this program and get more community members excited about growing their own food!
SUNNY FLESNER
Board Member | Marketing & Communications | Events Coordinator
Board Member since 2024.
Born and raised in the evergreen Pacific Northwest, Sunny cultivated her love for the land while raising award-winning livestock with a local youth program. Her passion for sustainable agriculture moved her to California for college to pursue a degree in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis. After working for several high-end vineyards in the Willamette Valley and Sonoma Coast, Sunny followed her passion for the mountains on a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest, where she fell in love with Tahoe. She found a home at Slow Food, where she is able to merge her love for her mountain community with the desire to support sustainable agriculture and access to good, clean, fair food.
CATHERINE ROTH
Board Member | Marketing & Communications | Garden Co-Director
Volunteering Since 2023, Board Member Since 2025
Catherine grew up on the beautiful island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and then went on to live on the East Coast while she pursued her dream of dancing professionally. After living and performing in Philadelphia and New York City, she moved to Washington D.C. where she co-founded a non-profit dance company that was active from 2015-2020. In D.C. she also began to explore her interest in urban agriculture. Catherine was able to intern on several urban farms in Maryland and Illinois prior to moving to Truckee in 2023. Learning how to grow food and provide for communities was an amazing experience for her, and she was overjoyed to join the community garden upon moving to Truckee. She's currently returning to school to pursue a degree in Natural Resource Management. Catherine is excited to bring her experience with non-profit work and her passion for growing food to SFLT!
DEANNA HARRINGTON
Board Member
Board Member since 2024
DeAnna's love for gardening began in South Carolina at the age of 5 where she grew up working in her family garden. They always produced enough vegetables to share with family and friends, and she helped her mom with canning the goods to be enjoyed throughout the year. DeAnna moved every two to three years for 20 years as an Air Force spouse, and has lived in Texas, Kansas, Germany, Georgia and California twice. She first moved to California in 1998 and began visiting the Tahoe Basin, learned how to snowboard, and loved enjoying all that the area has to offer. In 2016 she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and hitchhiked to Truckee to resupply and enjoy a couple of hot meals. She moved to Truckee that same year. She has a degree in Health Care Management and a background in strategic planning, program/project management and human resources with major healthcare organizations. She began volunteering with Slow Food Lake Tahoe in 2020 and joined the Board in 2024. She truly enjoys learning about high-elevation gardening, being an instrumental member of a working board to advance community-focused programs for Slow Food by building synergistic partnerships, and securing funding opportunities to propel the nonprofits goals in the local community. She loves sharing herbs and edible flowers she grows in her garden with friends.
MICHAELA KOSKI
Executive Director
Team Member since 2024.
Michaela graduated from UC Davis in 2023 with degrees in Communication and Digital Media. Her involvement with the Slow Food community dates back to high school when she served as a youth ambassador for the nonprofit in 2018 and 2019. From attending the Leader's Conference in Denver to writing for the organization's national blog, Slow Food's message has always been close to Michaela's heart. After spending a summer working in our food bank garden, she fell in love with Slow Food Lake Tahoe's connection to the Truckee-Tahoe region. Her passion for cooking fuels her belief that food has the power to strengthen communities and bring people together. She looks forward to continuing Slow Food Lake Tahoe's mission of growing good, clean, and fair food for all!
