US Board of Directors

Carrie Evans, President

Carrie’s passion for community development work began as a Peace Corps volunteer for three years in the Philippines. Work there seemed always to center around the school environment. Perhaps because of the feeling that the school is often the “hub” of village development, she returned to Colorado to earn her Masters in Multicultural/ Bilingual Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Then, she embarked on a 25 year career with the Boulder Valley School District. Although beginning as a teacher, her interests always focused on the social/emotional well being of students and families. She has been able to continue stints of international education work in Central America, Mexico, Uganda, Tanzania over the years. Through these sabbaticals, she has gained flexibility, creative problem solving, leadership practices in a most non-traditional sense, courage and recognition of self-care, by working in these settings. After three years in Guatemala working as a social worker for Common Hope, a non-governmental agency focused on family development to support students’ educational needs, she received a Masters in Social work from University of Denver, to deepen the work of leading others in social change and equity. This led to leadership as a school principal of an alternative service learning middle school. For the last decade, she has served as a School social worker, focusing on low-income students and their families. She also is a Licensed Clinical Social worker in Colorado and runs a small private practice. She loves cross-country skiing, making art and seeking her next international adventure. She looks forward to rekindling work and friendships in the Philippines through her role on the Global Seed Savers Board of Directors.

 Roger Michael Pimentel, Vice-President

Roger is a first-generation Filipino-American.  His parents are from the city of Vigan, the capital of the province of Ilocus Sur and a UNESCO World Heritage site.  They immigrated to the United States where his mother attended graduate school at New York University.  Ever since he could remember, his parents instilled in him the importance of education and the spirit of community of service.  Roger holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.  He served as a law clerk for Denver District Court Judges J. Stephen Phillips (former Chief Judge) and Michael J. Vallejos (current Presiding Judge Civil Division).  Roger is currently a staff attorney for the Colorado Court of Appeals. Roger’s recent trip from the Philippines greatly inspired him to give back to his community, and he is fortunate to have found Global Seed Savers.  Although this will be his first experience serving as a board member, he is excited for the opportunity to advocate on behalf of Global Seed Savers and learn from the bright and motivated individuals that make up this wonderful organization.  Roger enjoys reading, traveling, live music, and eating sushi.

Alisha Williams, Board Treasurer

Alisha is a fundraising professional who first learned about Global Seed Savers after attending a Seed School in a Day training facilitated by our Executive Director Sherry. As part owner of Seeds Trust, a local seed company selling high-altitude, open pollinated seeds, the mission and work of Global Seed Savers was an obvious fit. Alisha is a proud Coloradan who grew up in Steamboat Springs and studied English at Colorado State University. After graduation, she fulfilled a dream of serving with the UnitedStates Peace Corps, spending three years in Togo, West Africa as an Environmental Action and Food Security Volunteer. It is there Alisha found her love for empowering communities to find innovative solutions for making our world a better place to live. Since returning home in 2013 she has worked in both the non-profit and local government sectors in the Denver metro area. Alisha recently completed her Permaculture Design Certification and loves cooking vegetarian feasts, hiking peaks with her pup, practicing yoga, and traveling the world with her husband. She looks forward to growing along with Global Seeds Savers as a new member of the Board of Directors.

Jon Rodrigues, Board Member

Jon is passionate about Global Seed Savers and excited to help the organization grow to new heights! Jon is the Founder of UpDig and has worked with small businesses and nonprofit organizations for more than 10 years, and has extensive knowledge of early stage organizational development, agricultural value chains,decentralized energy systems, finance for social enterprises, and new market entry strategy. As a founding partner in XayanIT, he managed an information technology services company with customers in the Middle East, Australia, and the United States. From 2008 to 2010, he provided planning, analysis, and strategy to the leadership and participants in the Global Social Benefit Institute, a social enterprise incubator in California. And, with Nokero, a solar device manufacturer, he built a direct distribution channel to Kenya and managed relationships with distributors around the world. Jon has worked in Australia, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Senegal.

Philippines Board of Directors

Padmapani L. Perez, President 

Padmapani (Padma) L. Perez is an anthropologist by training and a writer by heart, she received her bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of the Philippines Baguio. Padma went on to pursue a master’s degree in Environmental Anthropology in Kent University, in the United Kingdom, after which she earned her doctorate in Anthropology from Leiden University, in the Netherlands. She is presently a Research Fellow at Far Eastern University, in Manila. Her research interests include indigenous peoples’ rights, nature conservation, climate change, art, and visual ethnography. Padma balances her academic work with community engagement in different forms, including disaster response, participatory governance, writing for a popular readership, and now, happily, organic farming and seed saving! Her poems, essays, and feature articles about motherhood, Philippine Cordilleran culture, art in Baguio, and the environment appear in various Philippine books, periodicals, and online publications.

Cesar Galvey,  Vice-President 

Cesar Galvey is the current President of LaTop: La Trinidad Organic Farming Practitioners Association the regions largest organic farming cooperative in the Northern Philippines. Prior to becoming a full-time organic farmer and advocate, Cesar served 15 years as a Barangay Official in La Trinidad, Benguet honing in on his community development skills and learning how to interface effectively with a variety of government offices to provide social good services to communities. His advocacy and desire to become an organic farmer began when he saw the adverse health effects that the chemical laced cut flower industry had on himself, his family, and his neighbors. He has been practicing organic farming since 2005 on his 1,000 sq meter farm in Shilan, La Trinidad, Benguet that is a certified organic farm and ATI-CAR learning site farm. In 2016, Cesar joined the  Seed Savers group and began to produce his own organic seeds. Through this work he has been inspired to share his new found seed saving knowledge with a wider community of farmers in the Philippines. He is excited to serve on Philippines Board and continue to advocate for organic farmers and food security throughout the Philippines.

Efren Cabgigat,  Treasurer

Efren is a social worker with more than a decade of experience in the social development sector. He has worked for many Non-Government-Organizations (NGOs) in several capacities ranging from direct service provision, youth development, program development, to resource mobilizer. An ardent advocate of social justice, he commenced his career at the Institute for Inclusive Education Foundation in Baguio City by advocating for the rights of blind children to be included in the regular classes and advocating to make schools more accepting of children with diverse needs. He advanced to more complex roles in following organizations leading to his current job as a Liaison Officer at the International Justice Mission. His main duties include, accessing resources from government and private agencies to help restore lives of sex trafficking victims. Efren holds the following degrees: Masters in Social Work (MSW) from Philippines Women’s University in Metro Manila, Masters in Social Development Studies (MSDS) from The University of Philippines, Baguio City, and a Bachelors in Science (BS) in Social Work from Saint Louis University in Baguio City. His motivation for joining the Philippines Board comes mainly from being a son of a poor farmer. Life was difficult for him growing up with a parent whose career was undervalued by the market economy. He believes that Global Seed Savers vision is fitting to his aspiration for promoting farmers to a higher degree of importance within the society, which will translate to farmers leading better and more sustaining lives.

Nash Tysmans,  Secretary

Nash is a writer, teacher, and community worker. She was previously employed by the government to do communications work but found that she was best fit to be outside of the office, on the ground, collecting stories to make better policies. She splits her time between the Cordilleras and Mindanao, seeking to understand the everyday in the far away and learn about farmers whose lives are directly bound to the earth. At present, Nash is fascinated by what’s on her plate. She’s determined to discover where her food comes from and hopes to encourage more people to pay attention to how food travels from the farm, to the market, to our plates. In the course of her work, she has found that food is a universal experience that not many can enjoy and so, there must be a way to change this, one community at a time.

Rambie Lim, Board Member