LSP News LSP Staff Update

Shona Langseth has stepped off the Land Stewardship Project’s soil health team to join the Olmsted County, Minn., Soil and Water Conservation District as a soil conservation technician. Langseth joined LSP’s staff in 2016, and for the past eight years has helped build the organization’s Bridge to Soil Health initiative. During her tenure, among other things, Langseth helped create and grow the Soil Builders’ Network (see page 18), which now consists of hundreds of farmers and others in the region who regularly share information on profitable ways to support soil health practices. Most recently, she served as the overall director of LSP’s Soil Health Department and coordinated the Johnson-Su Bioreactor research project (landstewardshipproject.org/soil-health/microbiologysoil-health).

Barb SognFrank recently departed LSP’s staff after working the past two years in its Soil Health Department. Sogn-Frank had previously worked as an LSP policy organizer.

Through her position on the soil health team, she helped organize a successful series of field days and workshops focused on cover cropping, diverse rotations, small grains, and no-till. Sogn-Frank also helped coordinate a highly visible soil health billboard campaign in southern Minnesota and was part of the team that organized the Robin Wall Kimmerer 40th Anniversary Event in January (see page 34).

Haze Harrison has wrapped up work as the organizer of LSP’s 2023 Family Farm Breakfast, which was held in April (see page 10). Harrison moved to Minnesota in 2017 from her hometown of Missoula, Mont., to attend Macalester College, where she studied history and dance. During the past five years, Harrison has organized with several campaigns for social and climate justice, including the “Stop Line 3” campaign in northern Minnesota. Through that work, she served as one of the editors of Even the River Starts Small: A Collection of Stories from the Movement to Stop Line 3, which was published this spring.

Paula Williams recently wrapped up a stint organizing around LSP’s healthcare priorities during the 2023 session of the Minnesota Legislature.

Williams has been a volunteer on the LSP Healthcare Steering Committee since 2016 and an LSP board member since 2019. During the 2023 legislative session, she worked with members and allies to push through initiatives to make affordable, quality healthcare accessible to more people (see page 8).

Martin Moore has joined LSP’s staff as a policy organizer.

Moore grew up in Montevideo, Minn., and has a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Macalester College. He has worked as a high school teacher in Hawai’i, an instructor at the Montana Outdoor Science School, an education mentor at the Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center, and an outreach intern for the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters.

Moore is based out of LSP’s office in Lewiston, Minn. He can be reached at mmoore@landstewardshipproject.org or 612-767-9881.

Rin Kilde is serving a summer LSP internship, during which she’s helping put on the Twin Cities Cookout on July 27 (see page 36).

Kilde recently graduated from St. Catherine University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in public policy, with a communications studies minor. She has worked at the Minnesota Center for Diversity in Economics and was a member of St. Catherine’s Community Work and Learning Project staff. Kilde grew up in western Wisconsin and has experience working with both urban and rural agriculture and gardening. p

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