Laurie Young: Executive Director & founder of legacy Blooms
As Legacy Farms' Executive Director, Laurie has formalized the organization, defined our unique model, and launched the mentor/apprentice program with a metrics-driven program refinement strategy. Laurie also founded Legacy Blooms, a floral business within the nonprofit staffed by a fully neurodiverse team to offer a progression of advancement opportunities along a continuum of apprenticeships. Prior to Legacy Farms, Laurie served in executive level positions in Silicon Valley launching new programming and product lines. She holds an Master’s degree from Virginia Tech.
Diane Geiser: Director of vocational & fArm Programming
Diane leads Legacy Farms’ vocational programming, focusing on the operational details required to provide excellent opportunities for apprentices within our garden and entrepreneurial program tracks. With over 20 years of experience working and serving in public, botanic, school and demonstration gardens, Diane is a trained Master Gardener and former Outdoor Learning Center program manager. Diane holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Notre Dame and is pursuing a Master of Arts in Writing from Johns Hopkins University. She is passionate about connecting people with nature and witnessing growth.
Nikki Daruwala: Development Strategist
Nikki works with Legacy Farms’ Executive Director and Donor Relations team, focusing on Development and advising on strategic growth.
Nikki is Founder and Owner of NDPoint Stategies, and has over 30 years of experience as a nonprofit strategist, specializing in mission advancement, fundraising, and corporate responsibility. A dynamic professional, Ms. Daruwala offers exceptional leadership and operational skills with a passion for social and economic justice.
SAPNA HENCINSKI: Donor Relations, Grants & sponsors
Sapna oversees grants and sponsorship outreach for Legacy, and is a nonprofit consultant for the Loudoun Human Services Network and the Community Foundation of Loudoun. She received her Masters in Public Health from George Washington University, and has worked with a variety of public health focused nonprofits, including the Washington AIDS Partnership, Maryland Assembly on School Based Health Care, and Action for Healthy Kids.
arianne BurtainE: Donor Relations, Community & Outreach
Arianne serves as the Donor Relations Coordinator, with a focus on Donors, Community, and Outreach.
Arianne earned her degree in Humanities and Marketing at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
In the past, Arianne has worked for nonprofits focused on arts, culture, and history. She is happy to be supporting a nonprofit with a mission to help others.
Dr. Charles Xavier: Educational Neuroscientist
Dr. Xavier serves as a Consultant to Legacy Farms, assessing program metrics and advising on the refinement of our mindfulness, self-regulation, and executive function programming.
He contributes research-backed strategies and insights, and ensures that our programs are not only grounded in empirical evidence from neuroscience and psychology, but also optimized by it. Dr. Xavier holds a doctorate in Educational Neuroscience.
Leah Foster: Floral Design Manager & mentor
Leah is a Registered Nurse at INOVA Loudoun and Founder of Fleur de Leah. Through Fleur de Leah, she grows boutique and seasonal specialty cut flowers using organic and sustainable practices. She brings her love of flowers, dynamic enthusiasm and expertise to Legacy Farms, assisting in the successful launch and roll-out of Legacy Blooms while mentoring apprentices in maintaining healthy flowers and creating bouquets for our community supported agriculture program and specialty markets.
Ethan Roe: assistant farm Manager & Mentor
Ethan Roe joined Legacy Farms in 2021, the same year that our trial flower beds and CSAs were launched. He worked steadily as an apprentice and peer mentor, and soon began contributing his skills to structural builds, irrigation, and other areas of critical importance. Ethan now serves in a full-time role as Assistant Farm Manager and Mentor. He was selected in 2022 for a competitive scholarship to the compehesive Floret online training, and serves as a role model for apprentices taking on leadership roles.
Amanda Barrett-Wilcox: farm & propagation Mgr & Mentor
Amanda is a certified Recreation Therapist with expertise using horticulture as a therapeutic tool. She works with sensory gardens as an expressive outlet and to improve physical coordination.
Amanda manages the health of all our farms, working alongside Ethan to ensure our our flowers, herbs and veggies thrive.
Amanda maintains a chemical-free garden for her business, Leaflove Farm, next to Legacy’s garden located at New Ag School.
Lisa Turpin: Floral Prodution manager & Mentor
Lisa joined Legacy Farms after many years of working with young neurodiverse students in Early Childhood Education.
After working for a full year cycle on our blooms team as a flower farmer and bouquet designer, she has stepped into the role of floral production management and mentoring.
Lisa loves how Legacy Farms is a space that brings together so many of her favorite things: a focus on mindful practices, the ability to collaborate with an incredible team, and (of course) flowers!!!
Ian Shanholtz: Neurodiversity Mentor & Board member
Ian’s leadership is focused on supporting our expanding neurodivergent staff, apprentices, mentors, and Board Members in developing neurodiversity advocacy messaging that is both empowering and authentic based on personal experience. He also brings entrepreneurial agriculture experience and unbridled enthusiasm to Legacy Farms. He proudly self-identifies as neurodivergent. In fact, he wears it as a badge of honor that his lifelong perceived learning disability makes him a man of strong character today.
Karen Elliott, Mentor
Karen has worked with Legacy Farms for five years, serving as a mentor in our Vocational Program and helping lead our Friday Farmers introductory program. She volunteers on Legacy Farms’ committees, and helps ensure our Temple Hall operations run smoothly.
Karen is an experienced special educator with a Master’s in Social Foundations of Education. She is also trained in mindfulness practices, and brings a wealth of knowledge about Legacy Farms that she shares with mentors, apprentices, committee members and other volunteers who support our programming.
Maurisa Shyne: Occupational Therapist & outplacement mentor
Maurisa has over 20 years of experience as a pediatric Occupational Therapist in public and private practice, as well as in-home based therapy. She has served as a mentor in our vocational program, and has taken on a leadership role in assisting with apprentice outplacement. As an Outplacement Mentor, Maurisa is the primary point of contact with local partner businesses that co-employ apprentices who are also working in our vocational, entrepreneurial, and flower-farmer-in-training staff roles.
Brittany Simco: occupational therapist & mentor
Brittay serves as a mentor in our Core Vocational program, where we focus on mastering work skills and increasing self-awareness in a relational model. She is also a talented flower farmer and designer!
Brittany is an experienced Occupational Therapy who works with children ranging from birth to adolescence. She received her master’s degree in occupational therapy from Ithaca College. She is trained in Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP) for autism and developmental disabilities.
“The apprentices at Legacy Farms have provided me with much joy and a renewed sense of purpose. The program provides opportunities for growth in many areas. Legacy Farms is a place that makes me smile! ”
Martha Schonberger: OUR Beloved Founder
Martha founded Legacy Farms in 2012 along with a committed group of public school teachers, parents, and community members. She was active in initiating Legacy Farms as a summer program, and began handing over the nonprofit to Laurie Young and Billie Jo Bevan in 2019, while remaining active on our Board until her passing in 2022.
Martha held a Masters in Environmental Law and Public Policy, and was a high school Special Education Teacher in Loudoun County. She worked with students with ASD from ages 5-22. Her autism program specialized in vocational training, providing work experience, and successfully integrating her students into the community.
Legacy Farms has established the Martha A Schonberger Fund in partnership with Martha’s family members who were involved in the intial founding and growing of the organization. At our Temple Hall garden, there is a special bench and trellis arch dedicated to March, located just behind where she is standing in this picture. Linger awhile…take a few deep breaths and a mindful moment allowing yourself to appreciate the beautiful space she helped cultivate.
Kevin: the Destroyer
Meet Kevin, one of the many beautiful residents of Temple Hall Farm! Kevin is no longer with us, but he used to visit the gardens regularly. He loved strawberries, tomatoes, and blueberries. His girlfriends loved taking dirt baths in our garden, sitting on their eggs in our raised beds and, once their young are hatched, showing them around our sunflowers and zinnia beds…sometimes even while we worked!
Kevin taught us a lot about sharing during the Summer of 2015. We’d come to the garden in the morning after a previous day’s hard work only to find our neat beds and small seedlings destroyed! It finally dawned on us that we’d planted our garden in his space, moving into the territory that he and his family used to spend most of their time.
So we learned ways to co-exist, to provide areas they liked in the garden or to work around their activities when needed. We realized that in order to have an amazing garden, we would need to work with nature. Our crops were eventually left unharmed, and we learned to enjoy the Temple Hall Farm together peacefully.
