The Organic Landscape Association works to build professional competency in organic landscaping and works to protect the public by virtue of the responsible use of products and inputs. By connecting advocates, practitioners, and product developers and suppliers, the Organic Landscape Association will realize the goal of establishing a strong industry.
ORGANIC LANDSCAPE ASSOCIATION ADVISORS
Chip Osborne
· President / Osborne Organics, Inc.
· Board of Directors / Beyond Pesticides
· Founder / Organic Landscape Association
Founder / Advisor
Chip is the president of Osborne Organics, LLC, a company he founded to support and educate the land care industry and public sector in alternative approaches to turf management. As a national consultant, Chip works with state agencies, municipalities, universities and nonprofit organizations in the areas of organic turf management and pesticide elimination.
Ayn Craciun
Founding Board Member / Non Toxic Irvine
Advisor
Ayn is a founding board member of Non Toxic Irvine, which successfully advocated for the City of Irvine's adoption of an organic landscaping policy in just three months of active campaigning. She and the rest of NTI continue to work toward bringing safer landscaping and pest control practices to every corner of Irvine and the rest of the planet. Craciun's professional background is in corporate communications and public affairs. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Hillsdale College.
Frank Crandall
Owner / Horticultural Solutions, LLC
Advisor
Frank owns Horticultural Solutions, LLC, a landscape design, construction, and maintenance firm in Charlestown, Rhode Island that services primarily coastal properties in southern RI and southeast CT. Since 2005 he has been a NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) Accredited Organic Land Care Professional practicing, promoting and teaching organic landscape care.
His speaking experience includes presentations at most horticultural organizations in New England, NOFA accreditation courses throughout the northeast, several local colleges and various conferences across the U.S.
Frank has published 3 books with his 4th, Climate Change and Sustainability…Saving Our Future, scheduled for publication spring of 2018.
Barry Draycott
President / Tech Terra Environmental
Advisor
Barry is the President of Tech Terra Environmental with a career in the green industry that has spanned over three decades. He formed Tech Terra Environmental in order to focus exclusively as a supplier of environmentally sound products for the landscape industry. Barry earned a degree in Environmental Studies from Ramapo College of New Jersey, is a NOFA Approved Organic Land Care Provider and a founding member of the working group that developed the Rutgers Organic Landcare Certificate Course.
Jay Feldman
Founder and Executive Director / Beyond Pesticides
Advisor
Jay is a founder and executive director of the national environmental and public health membership group Beyond Pesticides, has a 35-year history of working with communities nationwide on toxics and organic policies, addressing agricultural, lawn, and landscape management practices that maintain ecological balance, enhance biodiversity, and eliminate toxic chemical use. Jay has successfully fought to remove from the market hazardous pesticides and helped draft pivotal local, state, and federal organic law, including the Agricultural Productivity Act, which established sustainable agriculture programs at USDA, and the Organic Foods Production Act, which created the USDA organic certified food label. In 2010, he was appointed by the Obama Administration to a 5-year appointment to the National Organic Standards Board, a stakeholder board that advises on organic and determines allowable materials. He has written extensively, testified in the U.S. Congress and state and local legislatures, been published in major newspapers, and appeared on national and local news networks and talk shows, while editing Beyond Pesticides’ quarterly journal Pesticides and You and Daily News.
Sarah Little Ph.D.
Advisor
Sarah holds a Ph.D. from MIT. She worked as Pesticide Awareness Coordinator for Wellesley, MA and conducted regional training on pesticide use reduction. She produced NOFA’s “ Organic Lawn and Turf Handbook,” their “Organic Land Care Standards, 5th edition,” and wrote a homeowner’s guide to organic lawns and yards. Sarah is a past member of the State of Massachusetts’ Toxics Use Reduction Act Advisory Committee.
Richard McCoy
· President / Richard A. McCoy Horticultural Services Inc.
Advisor
Richard is a 30-year green industry professional establishing Richard A. McCoy Horticultural Services Inc. in 1993. He has been offering environmentally and sustainably responsible, fine-gardening design, installations, maintenance and organic lawn care since 2005. His work at Stony Wood Garden, a 3.5-acre private woodland garden in Princeton, NJ, has been recognized by The Smithsonian Institute’s Archives of American Gardens. Richard is a member of Rutgers University’s Organic Land Care Working Group and is a co-contributor to the Rutgers Organic Land Care Best Management Practices Manual. He holds a Certificate of Organic Land Care through the Rutgers Organic Land Care Program, is a certified Natural Turf and Landscape Manager, an Organic Lawn Care Accredited Professional and has acted on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Organic Land Care Association (NJOLA). He has contributed to Organic Gardens Today Magazine and hopes to raise public awareness through his work and collaboration.
Jenna Messier
· Vice President of Business Development / Green Earth Ag & Turf
· Owner / Homes to Grow, LLC
Advisor
Jenna is the Vice President of Business Development at Green Earth Ag & Turf, a Connecticut-based firm providing wholesale distribution of organic products to the green industry and owner of Homes to Grow, LLC, which provides rental apartments with backyard gardens in the New Haven area. She began her career on Martha’s Vineyard working in the landscaping industry and organic farming for ten years. Jenna has a B.S. in Agriculture from The Ohio State University and an Executive MBA from the University of New Haven. Most recently, she was Director of the NOFA Organic Land Care Program for five years, where she led the Accreditation Program which is the gold standard in organic land care education.
Michael Nadeau
Owner / Wholistic Land Care Consulting, LLC
Advisor
Michael is a leading authority in the field of sustainable organic and ethical land care strategies. Michael helped develop both the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s Standards for Organic Land Care, and the NOFA Organic Lawn and Turf Course Manual, the only 100% organic manual for the care of athletic fields and home lawns. He works with conservation and inland wetland commissions and clients throughout the Northeast to improve water quality in wetland habitats, restore native vegetation in both upland and bottomland environments, reduce high maintenance turf with planted wildflower meadows and woodlands, and develop long-term organic land care programs. Michael is a published writer on subjects including ecological, sustainable, and organic land-care topics.
Fred Newcombe
President / PJC Organic
Advisor
Fred Newcombe is President and co- founder of PJC Organic. He oversees product research and development, consults on Organic Turf Care, is a NOFA accredited Organic Land Care Professional (AOLCP) and past Vice-President on the Board of Directors for the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) of Massachusetts. Fred has over sixteen years in the Organic Industry. Prior to that Fred spent more than twenty years in the financial and high tech sector.
Pam Newcombe
CEO / PJC Organic
Advisor
Pam is CEO, Director of Operations and co-founder of PJC Organic. Founded in 2002, PJC Organic provides landscapers, schools & municipalities with organic turf care products, support, and business tools to develop programs to fit their business. Pam’s experience is in logistics, operations, and business development with over thirty years of experience in Business Administration and sixteen years in the Organic Industry.
Britt Phillips
Owner / Complete Land Organics
Advisor / Practitioners Council Member
Britt is the Owner of Complete Land Organics. She is a NOFA accredited Organic Land Care Professional (AOLCP) and is one of the most experienced female organic turf care practitioners in the country. Like her lawns, her career has grown organically, working in all aspects of the landscape industry. A passionate speaker, guest presenter, and panel member, Britt shares organic land management strategies and success stories while advocating for the removal of harmful pesticides and synthetic fertilizers from the land.
Robert Posthuma
President / Greater Earth Organics
Advisor
Robert's passion for a more sustainable world led him to establish his company Greater Earth Organics in 2002. GEO is a leading manufacturer of Compost Tea Machines (GEOTEA) that extract beneficial microorganisms and organic compounds from compost into a liquid that can be effectively applied to landscapes & farms.
Robert’s travels have led to clients in over 24 countries, including prestigious properties such as Harvard University, Battery Park, UC Boulder, and many private residences along with other landscapers, arborists, golf courses, farms, orchards, and vineyards.
Paul Wagner
· President / Soil Foodweb New York
· President / Greener Pastures Organics, Inc.
Advisor
Paul is a Board Certified Master Arborist, as well as a NYS Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional and an Accredited Organic Lawn Care Professional with a degree in Ornamental Horticulture. He is president of Greener Pastures Organics, Inc., a commercial organic tree, shrub and lawn care company. He is also president of Soil Foodweb New York – a commercial soil-testing laboratory started in 2001. He has thirty years experience in the horticultural industry and close to twenty years focusing on science-based organic plant and soil care.
Doug Wood
· Associate Director / Grassroots Environmental Education
·Vice-Chairman Board of Directors / American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
· President / ASCAP Foundation
· President & CEO / Omnimusic
Advisor
Doug Wood is the Associate Director of Grassroots Environmental Education, a non-profit environmental health organization, where he focuses on strategic planning and campaign development. Grassroots has helped train more than 1000 landscape contractors and groundskeepers in the science and practice of organic lawn care.
Doug has created and executed dozens of public relations, and advertising campaigns for business and non-profits, and his documentary films on environmental issues have been used by organizations around the world to promote protective public health policies.
Doug is President and CEO of Omnimusic, and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the ASCAP Foundation.