Jean Okuye, President Jean Okuye has been an almond farmer with 73-acres near Livingston in Merced County since 1980. She graduated from the University of San Francisco with a Bachelor's in Organizational Behavior. A community leader for many years, Okuye has sat on the boards of the Community Alliance for Family Farmers, the Merced County Academic Decathlon, and has been an officer of the Livingston Farmer's Association, a Farm Cooperative with 125 members. She currently sits on the Boards of the Stanislaus Memorial Society, the Livingston Medical Group, the Livingston Citizen Advisory Committee, the Merced County Farm and Open Space Trust, Yamato Enterprises Senior Services, and the Merced County Farm Bureau. She is a widow with two adult children and two grandchildren. She is the piano player at Livingston United Methodist Church.

Glenn Anderson, Vice PresidentGlenn Anderson grew up in Hilmar on his family's dairy and, following two years in the Army, assumed management of it. In 1967 he returned to school getting a BS in Tropical Agriculture from the University of Hawaii. After a stint as a development officer with the Department of Agriculture, he returned to Hilmar, where he has farmed organic almonds since 1980. He has been a Director of the East Merced Resource Conservation District, Board Member of California Certified Organic Farmers, Board member of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and a member of California State University Stanislaus Agriculture Studies advisory committee. He lives in Hilmar with his companion and wife of 36 years, and has three daughters, one son, and four grandchildren.

Charlie Magneson, Board MemberCharlie Magnuson has been a Dairy Farmer in Ballico/Cressey for 54 years. A graduate of UC-Davis and a World War II Veteran, he spent 10 years as an elected official on the Ballico Cressey School Board. He has been President of the Boards of Modesto Milling and Cal-Dari, and currently serves on the Board of the Merced Farmland Open Space Trust. In 2006 he established a Conservation Easement on his farm.

Robby Avilla, Board MemberRobby Avilla is a 20 year resident of Stevinson. Her children are the fourth generation of the Avilla family to have been raised in Stevinson. Her home sits on thirty acres of land which is currently farmed in crops that support a Stevinson dairy. She owns and operates an office supply and gift store in Turlock that her parents, Arnold Richard and Marion Chambers Richard, started in 1947. Her store, Richard and Chambers, is the only family owned retail office supply store still in operation in all of Stanislaus County. Robby attended Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and came back to Turlock in order to keep the family business in operation when her father became too ill to continue running the store. She serves as a Deacon at the First Presbyterian Church in Turlock and previously taught Sunday school for many years. Robby is a founding member of the Stevinson Citizen's Group and has worked towards saving farmland within Merced County for the last five years.

Therese Tuttle, AttorneyTherese Tuttle is a farmer advocate and a founding partner of the law firm of Tuttle & Van Konynenburg, LLP, together with Frank A. Van Konynenburg. The firm is based in Modesto, California with offices in Calistoga and San Francisco. She was a founding member and leader of the Great Valley Slow Food Convivium in 2000, and is a board advisor to the Tuolumne River Trust. She specializes in estate planning and agricultural cooperative law and is currently working to enforce the rights of former Diamond Walnut Cooperative members to a fair price for walnuts delivered to the former cooperative in 2005, 2006 and 2007. She met her husband, Iain A. Macdonald, while defending the members of Tri-Valley Growers cooperative in its bankruptcy in 2000, and has a two year old son, Edward Iain Macdonald.

Rudy Platzek, AdvisorRudy Platzek received a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in landscape architecture and a master's degree in regional planning from the University of Michigan. He practiced as an urban and environmental planner for 40 years until his retirement in 1995. Among his professional accomplishments are 11 general plans for cities and counties, more than 100 environmental impact reports and numerous other local planning projects. He has assisted in the preparation of proposed State of California legislation titled "The Central Valley Farmlands Secrurity Act of 2006" to establish mandated regional planning and regional growth management throughout the Central Valley. This proposed State legislation has been submitted to State legislative counsel and is currently under consideration for submission to State legislature.

Nicole Alvernaz, EditorNicole Alvernaz is the new editor of the VLA newsletter. She graduated from Cal Poly with a Bachelors of Science in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Agricultural Communications. She is the granddaughter of Sweet Potato Joe of Livingston.

Ross Avilla, Web MasterRoss Avilla is a fourth generation resident of Stevinson, CA, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Social Psychology at UC Davis. He is the son of Robby Avilla, a local business woman devoted to maintaining Central Valley farmland and leader of the Stevinson Citizen's Group.