As the Farm to School program manager, educates and trains school food service staff, farmers, and other food system stakeholders, expanding farm to school participation in Illinois.

Prior to SGA, Diane had a career in food service that spanned thirty-two years, the last fifteen committed to school nutrition. She developed successful farm to school programs, building relationships with farmers and producers across the midwest. In 2011, Diane was the first Operations Manager for the newly created Fifth Season Cooperative, in Viroqua, WI. She built the six-member class co-op from the ground up, aggregating products from twenty-eight individual farms, three farm co-ops (totaling 200 farms) and multiple processor members. Utilizing returning trucks and existing distribution routes with co-op member Reinhart Foodservice, and later Sysco Foods, she successfully backhauled locally grown foods into broadline distributors. When she’s not working to grow the Illinois local food infrastructure, Diane is filling canvas after canvas with stunning landscapes in the Driftless Region of Wisconsin.