Our Team

Osiris Abrego Plata has been a part of the biodynamic community for many years in various forms, beginning in 2004 as a JPI apprentice and preparation maker. She has worked as a Demeter inspector since 2009 to 2017, and served on the BDA Board of Directors from 2017 through 2020. A deep curiosity about social responsibility in agricultural environments led her to work in certification systems as a Social Auditor, where she performed inspections and audits around the world, visiting 11 countries and 17 states in the U.S. on assignments. Originally from Panama, she currently lives at the edge of the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz, California.

Prior to finding her niche in communications and agriculture, Rebecca worked for four years as an attorney for a law firm in Washington, D.C. She joined the Biodynamic Association in the summer of 2007 as editor of the Biodynamics journal, soon expanding to focus on general communications and outreach. Rebecca received a B.A. in political science and religious studies from the University of Pittsburgh, a J.D. from Georgetown University, and an M.S. in environmental studies from the University of Oregon. She has been active in food and farming issues, including working at Ruby and Amber's in Dorena, a small horse-powered farm; editing and designing a local food and farm guide; and serving as a former board member of the School Garden Project of Lane County. Based in Eugene, Oregon, she enjoys working in her garden, exploring the local food scene, and soaking up the natural splendor of the Pacific Northwest. 

David Byrnes is founder and owner of Yellow Barn Biodynamic, a leading national brand of Demeter-certified products, and also the Yellow Barn Biodynamic Farm in the Finger Lakes of New York. David is passionate about sustainable agriculture, was voted Top 20 under 40 by Gourmet News and is a founding member of the New York State GE Labeling Coalition. David recently developed a Biodynamic activity book, a first-of-its-kind biodynamic learning tool about Steiner agriculture for kids and parents. He and his wife Victoria spend their free time messing around on the farm with their three kids, where work and play go hand in hand.

Georgie comes to the BDA after 20 years in academic libraries and higher education, most recently as associate dean at William & Mary Libraries in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her academic career focused on organizational development, budget and finance, EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) issues, and assessment: all interests she hopes to bring to her work at the BDA. This year, she moved to a small trailer on the organic Demeter certified Biodynamic farm, Against the Grain, in Zionville, North Carolina, where she and her husband, M Mueller, have become part of the farm family. Her dedication to biodynamic agriculture grew as a result of attempting to live in service to the honeybee. She and her husband have been working with bees for a decade, studying beekeeping under the teachers at Spikenard Honeybee Sanctuary and sharing the joy of swarms, wildflower cultivation, and observation. In fact, she might say that all of the wanderings she has had⁠ — whether in music and dance, travel, poetry, yoga, painting, herbal healing and ayurveda, cooking, love and family ⁠— all can be seen through the lens of learning the language of the bee.

Kaitlin is a food, gardening, and nature enthusiast. Having grown up around the food and hospitality industry, she has a deep passion for serving others, sharing delicious food, and for keeping things well-organized and operating efficiently. After receiving her bachelor's degree in International Politics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she went on to hold many food and farm related roles, ranging from time in the specialty coffee industry, garden education at the Cream City Gardens, food systems work at the University of Wisconsin- Extension, as well as volunteering with the Victory Garden Initiative and Kompost Kids. Kaitlin has also had the pleasure of serving on the board of Slow Food Southeast Wisconsin. Since 2015, Kaitlin has served a multitude of roles with the BDA and currently manages workshops and presenters at our national conference, coordinates our social media and regional group connections, and supports our relationships with our business and community partners. She looks forward to continuing to expand her own knowledge of biodynamics and help others to find their way into this important work. In her free time, Kaitlin enjoys long hikes with her dog, foraging, cooking, and swimming in the many lakes of Wisconsin.

Raphael brings to her roles a passion for biodynamics and community development. Growing up in California informed her diverse background in farming, the arts, Waldorf education, sociology, and anthroposophy. She views her work as stewardship and draws on her knowledge from a decade with Rudolf Steiner College. In addition, she lends her experience in developing initiatives in farming, CSAs, and co-operative ventures.  She believes in the power of farming to bring together the nourishment of body and land and to inspire social renewal. Raphael currently resides in Portland, Oregon, where she can be found supporting local acts of resilience, trail running, and knitting.

Zachary enjoys implementing creative technology solutions for growing sustainable organizations. His current interest is in making easy to use software that empowers users to maintain and grow their websites and CRM systems while contributing back to the wider free and open source software movement. Zachary loves drinking tea, practicing taijiquan, and spending time in the mountains foraging for chanterelles around Eugene, OR.

Anna has made a career of helping build organizational capacity in her various nonprofit roles over the past 11 years. She enjoys seeing the organization flourish in new ways once a more solid foundation has been set up with process, procedure, and efficiency of task management. In her roles with the BDA, she has additionally been able to experience the joy, freedom, and challenge of building People processes (human resources) that center on the humanity of the person, and of co-creating an organizational culture that best serves the individuals working here. She earned a B.S. in Nonprofit Management from Manchester College (now Manchester University) and lives in Holt, MI with her husband and child, on land formerly stewarded by Odawa, Peoria, Anishinabewaki peoples. In her spare time she enjoys vegetable gardening (especially employing the principles picked up through the biodynamic movement), reading, sewing, cooking and baking, and hosting/visiting friends and family.

Anthony Mecca has been farming for 15 years, being introduced to biodynamics early on and working with many experienced farmers and mentors. He has worked in market gardening, small grains, and perennial crops including berries and tree fruit. For 8 years, he managed his own diversified CSA farm. He has also cared for a variety of animals, including the use of draft horses as the main source of power, a 15 cow herd on his diversified CSA farm, and more recently working on a raw milk dairy. The farm and garden as a center of community life is pivotal in his work. Bringing people into relationship with the wonder, beauty, and nourishment a biodynamic farm can provide, and seeing them grow and develop through this relationship individually and in community over the years has inspired his work. Anthony has recently developed a year-long course on Biodynamic Agriculture and Nutrition available through EduCareDo and through the Biodynamic Association’s Development Year Farmer Training Program. In addition to this course and his farmer training work with the BDA, he offers workshops, mentorship, training, and consulting near his home in the Hudson Valley of NY and beyond, in person and remotely, and would love to support biodynamic agriculture and nutrition developing on your farm, garden, or community.

Kerri brings a deep appreciation for food, nature, people and spiritual growth to her work with the Biodynamic Association. She spent her formative years in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, amidst forests and farm land. Gardening, berry picking, maple syrup harvesting, and hayloft jumping are among some of the best memories of her childhood and she always wished she grew up on a farm. Kerri has a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Western Colorado University, and spent the past decade supporting equitable health and educational access through grant writing, program development, and administrative oversight. She is excited to bring her skillset to supporting the mission of the BDA as a steward of its financial health. Kerri recently relocated to Portland, Oregon to follow her dream of studying Liberation Acupuncture at POCA Technical Institute, and lives on land originally stewarded by the many tribes who lived and traveled near the Willamette and Columbia rivers; including the Clackamas Chinook, Multnomah, Willamette Tumwater, Wasco-Wishram, Tualatin Kalapuya, Cayuse, and others. After many years of living at 10,000 feet in the mountains of Colorado, she is really excited to have a low altitude garden.

Grace joins the BDA with a not-yet-fully-understood soul connection to biodynamics and anthroposophy. Her initial encounter with Steiner and his teachings comes out of an ever-unraveling desire to understand the mysteries of food, to the core. She has spent the last decade exploring the many facets of food, predominantly in the realms of agriculture and nutrition, with seemingly inconsequential, yet formative experiences in food law and policy sprinkled about. Her long-standing health complications have also served as a guiding force, assisting her towards further alignment with her desires to live in honor of and reciprocity with the Earth. She and her husband are intent on further developing an interest in traditional skills and ways of existing in harmony with the Earth. They hope to nurture a balance between a careful tending to and cultivation of the Earth, and a more ancestrally guided interaction and communication with Earth as wilderness. Outside of her involvement with the BDA, Grace is mother to a blossoming practice in functional nutrition and is stepping more firmly into a call to birth work, which in her eyes dances intimately with the core essence of food as life, both for humanity, as well as for the Earth. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of California, Davis.

Tonya owns and cares for the Pangean Wild Hive Sanctuary, a budding homestead and sanctuary for pollinators. Additionally, she is a North Carolina Cooperative Extension NC Farm School graduate, and a member of the North Carolina Agriculture Leadership Development Program. Ms. Taylor has experience with heirs’ property/land retention issues pertaining to historically underserved communities, conservation and stewardship, and community food systems.

Sarah first encountered biodynamics in 2000 and has continued learning about it ever since. Sarah is excited to play a role in supporting biodynamic research across the continent. Based in Squamish, Cascadia, Sarah conducted a biodynamic apprenticeship at C-Dar Lodge Farm, has taken part in biodynamic preparation making, organized biodynamic courses, and travelled to many farms and gatherings to see how biodynamics is practiced and understood as widely as possible. She is motivated to explore applications of biodynamics in forestry and land restoration. Sarah completed her M.Sc. Forestry and B.Sc. Natural Resources Conservation at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. She has walked many miles in the woods conducting fieldwork for wildlife research, forest ecology, silviculture, and as a backcountry park ranger. More recently she has worked as a social scientist and cultural researcher, carrying out traditional land use and related studies. She is inspired by gardening and adventuring in the outdoors with her husband, their black dog, and friends by foot, bike, boat, and skis.