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Rose Nelson, Board President and Ownership & Growth Chair, rose@wildrootmarket.com
Rose is a former corporate professional with expertise in operations and administration. Before joining the Board in 2013, she volunteered for Wild Root Market in a variety of capacities and developed several programs designed to increase awareness and membership. Now Board President and former Vice President, Rose continues to serve as chair of the Ownership & Growth Committee. During her tenure on the Board, Rose has attended many food co-op development programs to enhance her knowledge and leadership capacity, including the Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference and CCMA. She is also the former manager at Seebecks, a gallery and gift store on Main Street in Racine. Rose and her husband, John, have lived in the Racine area since 1994. She studied Communications at Kent State University.
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Gloria Randall-Hewitt, Vice President and Finance Chair, gloria@wildrootmarket.com
Serving on the Finance Committee for Wild Root Market allows Gloria to use her professional skills and financial expertise for a cause that is very important to her. She is presently employed as the Vice President of Finance/CFO at Active USA and Active Canada, transportation companies headquartered in Pleasant Prairie, WI. Gloria is looking forward to Wild Root Market’s partnerships within our community to empower people to live healthier lives. She and her husband, also an active volunteer with the co-op, have been residents of Racine for nearly twenty years and are excited at the prospect of having a food co-op in Racine providing healthy and local foods, while supporting the community with good jobs. Gloria has a BA in Business and an MBA from Loyola University of Chicago.
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Doug Stansil, Treasurer, doug@wildrootmarket.com
Until his retirement in 2012, Doug was Finance Director for Racine County for 30 years and he brings his connections to local, county and state governments to the project. Prior to that, he worked in Public Accounting in Madison, Wisconsin where he specialized in governmental audits. Since 1995, Doug has served on the SE WI Professional Baseball Park District Board, during which time he has chaired the Finance Committee. He received a BS in Accountancy at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in 1974 and CPA licenses for Wisconsin and Illinois in 1977. Doug and his wife Becky of 39 years have two daughters and five grandchildren, all of who are passionate about local food and building community.
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Margie Michicich, Secretary and GM Search Committee Chair, margie@wildrootmarket.com
Margie is a Founding Owner of Wild Root Market and has been an active volunteer for the co-op for many years, serving as Volunteer Coordinator, Vice President, President, and now Secretary. She brings experience from a career in sensory evaluation and consumer research, along with freelance work as recipe developer for corporate clients. Margie has an MS in Food Science & Nutrition from the University of Minnesota and professional certification as a Registered Dietitian. Margie moved to Racine in 1995 along with her husband Mark. She is inspired by the idea that co-ops bring people together in a common pursuit of good food and healthy community.
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Lois Braun, Director and Marketing & Communications Chair, lois@wildrootmarket.com
Lois is a Racine native, born and raised. After spending time in Kenosha for college and an internship, Lois was eager to reinvest time in Racine. To that end, Lois is currently working as Marketing Director for the Downtown Racine Corporation. Lois was motivated to join the Wild Root Market Board because she feels strongly that Racine needs a resource to provide food that is responsibly grown and education on healthy eating. With a B.S. in Marketing and an Associates in Graphic Design, Lois is excited to get the word out about Wild Root Market and help it grow.
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Mark Gesner, Director and Board Succession & Development Chair, mark@wildrootmarket.com
Mark is excited to use his professional experience in education, hospitality management, and nonprofit leadership to help bring the co-op dream to life in Racine. He currently serves as Cardinal Stritch University's Executive Director of The Stritch Hub for Innovation and Community Engaged Learning. Mark is also a faculty member at Stritch, and previously was the Director of Community Development at UW-Parkside. Before his career in higher education, Mark oversaw programs and operations on the local, regional, and national level for Hostelling International -- USA, a nonprofit organization supporting cross-cultural understanding and educational travel. Mark, who moved to Racine in 2004 with his wife and daughter, claims to have the co-op spirit in his genes with a co-op lineage going back generations, including a great uncle who was a food co-op manager in New York City over 50 years ago.
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Anita Cruise, Director, Registered Agent anita@wildrootmarket.com
Having lived in the Racine area for 25 years, Anita has grown to love the community and believe in the benefit of having a cooperative market that offers healthy, locally-sourced food to friends and neighbors. An estate planning attorney and financial advisor, Anita has served on several nonprofit boards in the past and is currently on the board of the Gateway Technical College Foundation and Professional Women’s Network for Service. She is a volunteer tutor for the United Way of Racine County Schools of Hope and a volunteer tax preparer with the VITA program. She has served as a staff attorney for Legal Action of Wisconsin, Inc., Kids Matter, Inc. and Women’s Resource Center. Anita has been married for 32 years and has three children. Both Anita and her husband Keith are active in their church where they work to strengthen couples and young families.
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Betsy Falk, Director, betsy@wildrootmarket.com
Betsy Falk has had a sort of “What do you want to do when you grow up” career. After an Associate Degree in Accounting from Gateway Technical College, she went on to earn her Bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin Platteville, and an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University. During her career she has worked in education teaching accounting, economics and various software programs at Gateway Technical College, MATC, UW Milwaukee, and as a Corporate Trainer for several companies. Betsy is currently teaching accounting and economics at Cardinal Stritch University. The majority of her career was spent in the accounting area which included working as an Accounting Manager for a software company, as a partner in a business serving small and medium sized firms providing their accounting, tax and pension plans management. Saving the best for last, Betsy worked as an economist for the State of Wisconsin providing demographic, employment, and educational information for businesses and governments in the seven counties of southeastern Wisconsin. These various industries have given her a diverse understanding of people and industries, and the issues they face.
Betsy believes that the Wild Root Market is a great opportunity for the Racine area. She is excited about having a place to shop for natural local foods every day, a place to learn about where your food comes from, a place that decreases our carbon footprint, and a place to help our local producers will only add to our community.
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Paul Sloth, Director, paul@wildrootmarket.com
Paul is eagerly awaiting the opening of Wild Root Market and is excited to share his knowledge of natural foods and cooperatives as a member of the board. Paul is director of marketing and communications for United Way of Racine County. Before that he was the multimedia manager for Outpost Natural Foods in Milwaukee. Paul’s first co-op job was managing the deli at Bluff Country Co-op in Winona, Minn. He’s also worked for Whole Foods Market in Chicago. A native of the Chicago suburbs, Paul and his family moved to Racine County in 2005 and have lived on Racine’s north side since 2009. While he doesn’t believe co-ops can solve all of the world’s problems, Paul knows that Wild Root Market has the unique ability to bring a vibrant business to Racine that will create jobs and improve the community, promote local growers and producers, and engage people in discussions about healthy food.
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Key Volunteers, Staff & Consultants
Marcia Buhler, Capital Campaign Chair, marcia@wildrootmarket.com
Marcia served on the Wild Root Market Board from 2012 to 2015. She is a former small business owner and corporate training and marketing professional who most recently held various management positions in the Marketing and Training departments at Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee where she also served as a certified coach for new field representatives. Marcia earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees in communication from Marquette University. With a passion for healthy eating and cooking, Marcia became involved with Wild Root Market to strengthen our local agricultural community and to increase access to fresh, local and organic foods for everybody in Racine.
Bill Gessner, CDS Consulting Co-op, cdsconsulting.coop/consultants/bill-gessner
Bill is the lead consultant with CDS Consulting Co-op, with over 25 years of experience assisting over 250 co-op start-up and expansion projects. His primary focus is guiding food co-ops through the planning and implementation of expansion, relocation, and new store projects. Bill has developed a systematic approach to co-op development that includes feasibility assessments, financial planning, timeline management, and capitalization development, helping countless co-ops reach their goals. In May 2012, he was inducted into the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) Cooperative Hall of Fame.
Nicole Klimek, CDS Consulting Co-op, cdsconsulting.coop/consultants/nicole-klimek
Nicole specializes in food co-op store design in her work with CDS Consulting Co-op. She is consulting with Wild Root Market on store planning and design. With 10 years of experience in co-op development, Nicole has assisted over 70 food co-ops with store planning to incorporate green practices and design, LEED certification and efficient store operations. She is interested in how communities are created through good design, and sees food co-ops as a big part of what makes a place livable.
Joel Kopischke, CDS Consulting Co-op, cdsconsulting.coop/consultants/joel-kopischke
Joel has over 20 years of experience in process improvement and leadership consulting. He is consulting with Wild Root Market for board leadership development. Joel is an expert on Policy Governance and will facilitate Wild Root Market’s transition to this proven model of board leadership. Joel’s been involved with co-ops for over 15 years, serving on the board at Outpost Natural Foods in Milwaukee for nine years, including five as president.
Jacqueline Hannah, Assistant Director, Food Co-op Initiative, www.fci.coop
Jacqueline joined Food Co-op Initiative in March of 2015 to fulfill her passion for new food co-op development. Before joining FCI, Jacqueline spent over 25 years in retail management for independent local businesses. She served as the general manager of Common Ground Food Co-op in Urbana, Illinois for 9 years. During her time with Common Ground Food Co-op, Jacqueline led the co-op through two expansions and the founding of their Food For All economic access program, while being the fastest growing retail food co-op in the nation from 2008-2013.
In 2010 Jacqueline was named one of the “40 Under 40” business people of excellence by Central Illinois Business Magazine. She was awarded the Innovation Award for Economic Development Impact in 2011 for her work with Common Ground Food Co-op Cooperative and received CEO of the Year award from the Illinois Cooperative Council in 2014.
Katie Novak, Green Top Grocery, www.greentopgrocery.com
Katie’s interest in local food stems from years living in Colorado when her sister and brother-in-law recruited her to assist them in opening a non-profit restaurant called SAME (So All May Eat) Café where customers are provided a healthy, organic meal regardless of their ability to pay. Katie continues to hold an “advisory” Board position with SAME Café and served as the Outreach Coordinator for Green Top grocery from April 2013 to July 2017. Katie grew Ownership (with the help of an army) from just over 100 Owners in April 2013 to over 1,600 when she left Green Top to start her own co-op consulting business. She chaired Green Top’s Owner Loan Campaign which raised over $1,450,000 in loans, a national record! She is active in the Bloomington-Normal, IL community, served on the board of the local YMCA and serves on the board of Homes of Hope, a local non-profit that provides quality housing to adults with developmental disabilities. She’s a native of Central Illinois and is excited to be part of the cooperative movement.
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