Staff 
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Jan Joannides
 Jan Joannides is the Executive Director and co-founder
of Renewing the Countryside. For the past ten years, she has been an
advocate and organizer for rural communities and citizens who are
working to stimulate economic growth and enhance their communities
through sustainable uses of their landscapes and resources. Prior to
her work with Renewing the Countryside, Jan coordinated the Community
Assistantship Program at the University of Minnesota and helped
found and directed the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and
Agricultural Management. Jan holds a master's degree in natural
resources from the University of Minnesota. She lives in St. Paul,
Minnesota with her husband Brett, daughter Olivia, and son Axel.
Brett Olson
Jonathan Beutler
Jonathan began working with Renewing the Countryside as a
Grace Brogan
ASSOCIATES
Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko
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Christy James is Director of Community Initiatives for Renewing the
Countryside. She has over 17 years of experience conducting workshops,
trainings, and facilitating meetings and strategy sessions. Having
previously worked with RTC on various projects, including sowing the
seeds for and helping to launch Green Routes, Christy brings a depth of
experience and enthusiasm for rural revitalization, entrepreneur
development and microenterprise business issues to Renewing the
Countryside. Previously, she has worked with Minnesota Rural Partners,
the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, and as the interim director of
the Alliance for Minnesota Microenterprise. Currently she serves on the
rural committee of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and is
active in the Minnesota Facilitators Network. In addition to her
professional work, Christy is an active volunteer in her community and
serves on the board of a high adventure camp that works with at risk
youth. She has a passion for traveling off the beaten track and finding
unique, quaint and quirky locations. Christy is a silent sports
enthusiast and lives in St. Paul, MN with her husband Randy, three
canoes and a kayak.
Brett Olson is co-founder and the Creative Director at Renewing the Countryside. He works on community and local foods system development and designs and manages Green Routes. Brett also hosts 
volunteer in 2007. In 2009, he completed a B.S. in Environmental Policy at the University of Minnesota, with an emphasis on sustainability studies and organic agriculture. Since then, he has worked primarily on coordination of the Green Routes sustainable travel program, and a variety of other projects for RTC. In his spare time, Jonathan enjoys cooking, biking, rock climbing, vinyasa yoga, working in the garden, and caring for his three laying hens: Pumpkin, Belle, and Mary Pip.
Grace works as a Project Coordinator at Renewing the Countryside. She is inspired by place and determined to cultivate healthy, just communities and environments through communication, education, and thoughtful work done by hand. Whether engaging in projects through traditional craft, environmental education, nonprofit management, sustainable/organic farming, or the written word, Grace is committed to bringing folks together to understand one's part in the complicated system of relationships we live in. Grace began as a writer with Renewing the Countryside in early 2009 and has since lent her time to several of projects. She has sharpened her teeth at a few great nonprofit organizations; is attaining an MS in environmental writing, sustainable agriculture, and ecology; and is excited about the mission of Renewing the Countryside.
