Ceres Board
Tara Butler
President
Tara Butler comes to the Ceres Community Project with an extensive
background in corporate and non-profit management, as well
as a long history of community involvement. Tara first became
involved in volunteering at age 10 when her brother was diagnosed
with lymphoma. She spent 8 years as an active volunteer for an
organization called Candlelighters. Tara has since served on 4 nonprofit
boards and was the Executive Director for The Excellence
Foundation, a non-profit personal development organization. Since
2000, Tara has had her own management consulting and coaching
practice, The Broadview Group, where she helps organizations and
individuals become more effective and deliver results. Tara’s passion
for community, cooking, healing and mind/body connection all come
together in her involvement in the Ceres Community Project.
Joe Marshall
Treasurer
Joe Marshall has over 25 years of experience covering all financial duties. Previously, Joe was CFO of Imagine Foods, the largest privately held natural food company in the United States. Joe was also CFO of a private software company, Treasurer of a public, $200 million revenue company and principal of a real estate joint venture. Joe also has experience in setting up and managing the finances and taxes of international operations for US based companies, both subsidiaries and branches, in Europe and Asia. Joe has a BS in Accounting from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard University.
Rose DeNicola
Secretary
Rose is a teen whose love for cooking brought her to the Ceres Kitchen in the Summer of 2007. She is ecstatic that her passion for cooking has improved the lives of the ill in her community. Now she volunteers not only as a chef but also as a photographer, gift-basket co-ordinator, maker, and board member. Besides volunteering with Ceres she enjoys taking pictures, traveling, reading, backpacking, and going to the beach.
Judi Pereira
Five years ago when Judi went through her own journey with cancer, she learned first hand how much difference it can be to have someone cook for you. When the vision for The Ceres Community Project began to take shape in 2006, Judi knew this had to happen. She has been involved since Ceres’s birth and currently volunteers as a client relation liaison as well as sitting on the board. Judi is a graduate of the Eastern Holistic Center and gives acupressure sessions as well as many different modalities of bodywork. Her intention is to provide body work for people going through the challenges of cancer.
Rick Goldberg
Born into a restaurant family in Portland, Oregon, Rick has over forty years of experience in the food industry. He is the founder and former owner of G&G Foods, a specialty food maker based in Santa Rosa, California. For the past three years Rick has provided product development consulting to major grocery and club stores throughout the country. Rick lives in Sonoma County with his wife Jill and their two kids, Jessica and Elliott. Speaking about his commitment to the Ceres Community Project, Rick says “It's important for me to pass along my culinary experience. Teaching young people about cooking and eating healthy is important because what we eat has so many implications for our existence and well-being. I also have a personal connection to what Ceres is doing having lost my father to cancer at a young age.”
Julia Gombos
Julia Gombos, M.S., is a body-oriented psychotherapist working with individuals, couples, groups and families. Previous to her work with the Ceres Community Project, Julia helped to create the volunteer training programs for the Marin AIDS Support Network, and also worked directly with the group’s clients – supporting them emotionally, psychologically and spiritually as they navigated their experience of facing a life threatening illness. About her work with Ceres, Julia says, “It is a way for me to invest in our collective future, creating a new way of nourishing ourselves and each other.” Ceres integrates her life-long interests in the body/mind/spirit connection, joy in preparing and eating healthy foods, local food and farmers, and developing healthy ways for people to connect with one another and their community.
Nathan Boone
Nathan Boone is an organic farmer, master teacher and spiritual healer in the Shadhiliyya Sufi Order. Nathan received a B.S. in Geological Sciences from DePauw University and pursued graduate work in sustainable agriculture at the Institute of Social Ecology. After spending 6 months in India studying the environmental fallout from Green Revolution agriculture with Dr. Vandana Shiva, Nathan moved to California and started a journey to return to organic farming. In 2008, Nathan completed a 3 year intensive healing program at the University of Spiritual Healing, the first of its type in the world dedicated to teaching the Sufi approach to healing the body, mind, heart and spirit. Also in 2008, Nathan moved to Sebastopol and started First Light Farm which is dedicated to growing vibrant, healthy food grown with love and intention for healing.
Cathryn Couch
Executive Director
Cathryn Couch, M.B.A., is a professional chef and activist. Her life work centers around helping people connect with local, seasonal and whole foods, discover the joy of cooking for themselves, and find meaningful ways to engage in their communities. She has worked in the corporate and not-for-profit worlds, including four years as Director of Communications for The Hunger Project-U.S., an educational organization focused on changing our understanding of the causes of and solutions to hunger in the world. Cathryn has been supporting The Ceres Community Project’s flowering since its inception in the summer of 2006.
