Interim Chair

Tom Bentley lives with his wife and two kids in Watsonville. He’s a high school teacher and is currently teaching and running an agriculture program at Soquel High. Besides serving on ECF’s advisory board, he is also involved with the Center for Farmworker Families’ Campaign for Organic Regenerative Agriculture (CORA). Tom loves enjoying time with his friends and family, especially outdoor activities like camping, surfing, swimming in lakes and rivers, and golfing.

Board Member

Ariel Stonebloom is a highly engaged local community member, lending her passion for science, dedication to the community and commitment to social and environmental justice to the  Esperanza board. She is a Biology and CTE Agriculture Teacher in Watsonville, a small scale Pinot Noir grape farmer, and a dedicated volunteer with both the Santa Cruz County Search and Rescue team and the YARR rapid response immigration hotline. She sees Esperanza farm as a vehicle for mutual aid and community strength.

Board Member

Raised in Watsonville, a community that shaped his passion, Luis is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at UC Davis, with an emphasis on sustainable and environmental applications. Beyond engineering, he serves as a student advisor, supporting students and initiatives that promote academic success. In his free time, he explores the intersection of food and science and its impact on the community, inspired by his experience as a Youth Lead with FoodWhat.

Board Member

Born and raised in Watsonville, California to immigrant farmworking parents, Gerardo's first connection to agriculture was in his mother's womb as she packed strawberries into green baskets.  Realizing agriculture was not only deeply rooted in his ancestry but a fundamental part of humanity, Gerardo decided to pursue a career in agriculture by acquiring a B.S. in Agricultural Systems Management from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 2011. Since then, he has worked for multinational corporations, local non-profits, start-ups, and government entities, all with the purpose of passionately moving agriculture forward.

Board Member

María Ascensión Ramos Bracamontes is a Mexican Indigenous Certified Nurse Midwife & Addiction Nurse Practitioner in Kalendaruk territory, Watsonville, Ca. She was born at home in Coca territory, in a rural rancho called Ayotitlán, Jalisco, México and raised between the coastal Awaswas speaking territory that used to be called Aulinta, now known as Santa Cruz, Ca., and México. Formerly undocumented, she is the daughter of campesinas and day laborers & sister to system-impeacted family members. Being a new pregnant midwife during initiation of the pandemic serving undocumented Indigenous farmworkers inspired her to start a mutual aid project called Campesina Womb Justice with the purpose of bringing mutual aid, healing, justice, and reparations to her community. 

Founder & Advisor

For more than 30 years Ana has worked toward social justice and increased equity in Santa Cruz County—in health care, public education, food justice, and land access. She is grateful for the daily opportunities to learn and grow in relationships with people from backgrounds, traditions, strengths, and lived-experience different than my own. Ana is the mother of two 30-something sons who live locally, and a companion to one affectionate, beloved dog.

Advisor

He is a Watsonville native and lifetime educator. He worked in PVUSD and UC Santa Cruz for nearly 15 years combined, promoting college and supporting some of the most vulnerable families and students through the educational system. He helped establish multiple community gardens in PVUSD schools, as well as the Farm2Cafeteria project at PVHS. He now works in Salinas, CA, as a high school counselor, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

Advisor

Ronnie is a recovering academic as well as President of the Sustainable Systems Research Foundation, a green project incubator in Santa Cruz, California, founded in 2015, Emeritus Professor of Politics at University of California, Santa Cruz, where he taught from 1990 to 2020 and host of Sustainability Now!, a biweekly radio show and podcast on KSQD in Santa Cruz.  AT UCSC, he taught and wrote about energy, resources and social sustainability, foreign policy, global politics and sociology, politics and popular culture, and surveillance society. 

Advisor

I am originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, and a father of two teenagers. Since I was little I was raised in a farming environment. After 12 years as a farm laborer I became curious about becoming a grower and wondered about the possibility of working for myself. In 2018 I entered an intensive 4-year organic farming training program and I received my Certified Organic Farmer certificate. I’ve lived in the Salinas Valley, also referred to as the Salad Bowl of the country, for 21 years.

Advisor

I am proud to have roots in Watsonville, CA where I was born and raised, and in Jalisco, Mexico. I am a graduate of Pajaro Valley High School and a current student at Cabrillo College. I will soon obtain my Bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz in Environmental Studies. I like to read, write poetry, enjoy the outdoors, and spend time with family. I am passionate about the intersections of food justice, climate/environmental justice, and social justice in my community, and healing my(our) relationship to the land.

Advisor

I was born in Mexico City where a surreal air flows through the streets, creating amazing stories and pictures. That air inspires me every day in my work as an editor and cinematographer and motivates me to keep learning every day in order to bring the best quality to the projects.

I love photography, music, and movies. I’m a foodie and a fan of tea. I’m a dog lover and I love to do drone photography as a hobby.