2022 Summit Participant Biographies

Greg Glenn co-founded Rocklands Farm in 2010 with a mission to “Feed, Nourish, and Engage” and a vision for “family & friends to gather around a table to celebrate the Heavenly Feast”. As a diversified agriculture operation, Rocklands is primarily known for its low-intervention winery & vineyard; however, it also has regenerative ranching, a cut flower garden, and immersive educational programming for youth & consumers.

Molly is an Instagram growth expert and community builder that believes you don’t have to be chained to your phone to build a thriving business on Instagram. She teaches women how to use Instagram with clarity and confidence and helps them overcome the overwhelm.

Founder of The Social Circle, a community that brings together education and support for woman-owned small businesses on Instagram, Molly empowers women to lean into the gifts that make them stand out in the noise of social media.

Molly has worked as a freelance writer, a professional blogger and photographer, and has had her work published both in print and online. Her work as a social media strategist has brought her together with clients that have ranged from the web’s number #1 online global media company for parents with an online audience of more than 3.5 million followers to small local businesses trying to get off the ground.

When Molly isn’t nerding out over hashtags and Reel ideas, she’s happily working away at her farmhouse on the hill with her husband and four girls, flock of sheep, and one-legged rescue pigeon.

Helen Norman ( Elmore ) and her husband Mark Elmore own 130-acre Star Bright Farm in White hall, MD. Helen is a Maryland native, growing up riding her horses in the rolling countryside of Baltimore County. After earning a bachelor of art in photography from Syracuse University, she began a career in Photography beginning in fashion. She is currently still a commercial photographer, working for the last 20 years primarily for home, garden and lifestyle magazines like Martha Stewart Living, Garden and Gun, Southern Living, Country Home and many more. Helen has also been the photographer for 9 books for some renowned garden, floral and interior designers and chefs. She and Mark bought Star Bright Farm in 1994 to raise their boys, Peter and Patrick, and to provide more land for her brother ( One Straw Farm) to grow on. In 2017 when son Peter decided he wanted to farm ( after earning a degree in regenerative ag at UVM) the family decided to begin their herbal farming and Value Added production on the farm. Helen is currently the Star Bright Farm business manager and is in charge of many of the value-added products that the farm sells, as well as much of the marketing and photography.

Emiliano joined the Chesapeake Agriculture Innovation Center in 2021 when its initial program was launched. Since his involvement, 5 new programs for farmers and value-added producers have been developed. Prior to joining CAIC, he was part of the founding team of Coops to Co-ops, a farmers’ market in Princess Anne MD that just ended its third season. Emiliano currently runs the Business Growth Program for Value-Added Producers. He assists 8 business owners understand their readiness to scale by providing the tools they need to assess, plan, and execute a growth and scaling strategy for their business.

Neith is the urban agriculture Extension Educator for Baltimore City. She has served in this role since 2016, helping urban farmers learn what they need to better achieve their goals through one-on-one technical assistance, workshops, field days, written resources, and applied research. Prior to this position, Neith worked as an agricultural Extension Educator for Dakota County, Minnesota and as Assistant Grower at Hampshire College Farm Neith earned an M.S. from Cornell University in Soil and Crop Sciences and a B.A. from the College of the Atlantic in Human Ecology.

Christopher Dipnarine is a Nonprofit Executive, with storied experience as a keynote speaker and business strategist. Christopher has an extensive background in Sales and Operational leadership with a career that expands over several industries including Construction, Powerboats manufacturing, Information Technology, Finance, Logistics, Executive management ( both retail and Corporate), Sales and Marketing. ” I believe creativity and innovation is a very important part of the non-profit sector these days, but we can never loose focus of the good old fashion values that got us to this point.”Christopher is passionate about helping those in need and has dedicated his life now to developing programs around Environmental Sustainability and Mentorship. He Launched 4MyCiTy Inc. in 2018 with those goals in mind. 4MyCiTy was recently the Winner of the 2022 Fire Award By Baltimore Business Journal and Maryland Inno; for one of the most innovative non-profits to keep an eye on in the future. Christopher is the Environmental Sustainability Member Leader of the Forbes Non-Profit Council.

Julia is an organizational leader with twelve years of experience leading and growing mission-driven organizations at the intersection of food, community and innovation. Prior to joining Cureate, Julia worked closely with the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Portland, Oregon through her roles with WeWork, Feastly, Growing Gardens, and Share Our Strength. She’s excited to bring her systems-level thinking and relationship-building expertise to the Mid-Atlantic, calling Washington DC home.

Supporting and strengthening small businesses through technology, coaching, and partnerships has been at the core of Julia’s career. As the Maryland/Washington DC Metropolitan Area Regional Director, she is passionate about driving consumer awareness on the links between food, health, climate, and the economy.

Kurt is responsible for the strategic leadership of Horizon Farm Credit’s External Affairs Department. He leads a dynamic team charged with carrying out the Association’s government affairs, industry relations, corporate giving, and young, beginning, small and member education functions. The department is also responsible for coordinating HFC’s ESG efforts and Kurt currently serves as chair of the Association’s cross-functional ESG Committee. Collaborating with Association leadership, Kurt and his team ensure that Horizon’s vision and mission are articulated across numerous external touchpoints and that key COI’s know who we are, what we do, and why we do it.

Karl farms with his father and 2 younger brothers on their diversified Maryland century farm. Their primary focus is fruit and vegetable production with an emphasis on plasticulture strawberries. In addition, they raise grain, hay, and beef cattle for freezer beef. They market these through wholesale, retail, PYO, and reclamation channels.

Emily Jackson is a 7th-generation farmer who grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in her family farm market business. This farm market operation, named Emily’s Produce, began as a small roadside tent with a few homegrown vegetables and a self-serve money box in 1999. Over the 23 years of operation, Emily’s Produce has grown into a full agri-tourism destination that welcomes visitors from all around the country, while still holding those personal small-town values to heart. This upbringing in the agricultural community influenced Emily’s dreams for the future and started her on a path where the end goal would be managing Emily’s Produce full time. In 2016 she began pursuing her degree at Delaware Valley University.

During her time in college, she worked for numerous different farm production and farm market businesses, attended conferences such as the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention and the North American Farm Marketing Association, and worked as an intern for farm markets as far west as Oregon. Once she graduated in 2020 with a degree in Agribusiness and a concentration in Horticulture and Crop Science, she returned home to Emily’s Produce where she began working her way to her current position of Business Operations Manager.

When she is not working at Emily’s Produce, she works as an Ag Lab Teacher for the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation and as a part-time teacher’s aid for Saints Peter and Paul. As she continues on her path of managing Emily’s Produce, Emily also hopes to work with organizations to increase public awareness of the importance of agriculture, whether it is aimed toward young children or adult consumers.

Shelby Watson-Hampton is the Director of the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission (SMADC), a farmer, and an active member of the agricultural community. Shelby also freelances for several regional and national agricultural publications, including the Lancaster Farming Newspaper and American Agriculturist.

Lucille W. Walker has been the Executive Director of the Southern Maryland Heritage Area (also known as Destination Southern Maryland) for the past 7 years. She is a Chair and legislative lead for the Maryland Heritage Areas Coalition, and Vice-Chair of the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission (SMADC). She serves on a number of statewide commissions, boards, and steering committees, including the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission and the Advisory Council for the Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary.
Ms. Walker is spearheading the effort for the Southern Maryland Heritage Area (a state-based heritage area) to become the 56 th National Heritage Area in the United States. Legislation was introduced into the U.S. Congress by Senator Ben Cardin and Congressman Steny Hoyer, with the support of Senator Chris Van Hollen. The legislation has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is pending a vote in the U.S. Senate. This designation will raise the national and international profile of the region.

Additionally, the Southern Maryland Heritage Area has created the Maryland Rediscovery 400 initiative, with the purpose of telling a more complete history of Maryland and its beginnings, with a focus on descendant populations, African Americans, and First Peoples, as Maryland looks ahead to the 400th Commemoration. Ms. Walker is also serving on the Fort to 400 State Commission.

Lucille Walker received her undergraduate degree from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, followed by graduate studies at Oxford University. She received her Master’s degree in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College, Annapolis. She is the recipient of the 2022 Visionary Impact Award from the Maryland Tourism Coalition.

Kevin Hilton is a Silver Spring, Maryland native that has worked in several breweries in the Mid-Atlantic and South for the past ten years. Prior to returning to Maryland, he was brewmaster for a 300-acre farm brewery in Georgia, specializing in grain and small fruit production. Working closely with the Georgia Grown organization, he connected farmers with brewers and distillers in an effort to promote both industries throughout the state.