SCWFU Board Members | South Central Farmers Union

Board of Directors

Penny Molina serves as board president and chairs the Event/Fundraising Committee. She and her husband Phil are joyful stewards of Still Point Flower Farm, a 10-acre flower farm and wedding venue in Brooklyn, WI. She currently grows flowers to sell to florists and through her flower CSA. During the summer, the farm also hosts weddings and other agricultural tourism events. Having worked in the agriculture sector for the last 20 years, she assisted farmers through her positions at DATCP’s Dairy Business Innovation Center, the Biodynamic Association and the Food Finance Institute. She helped found a local farming network, Bountiful Brooklyn to aid neighboring small family farmers gain marketplace awareness. Newly retired, Penny volunteers as a farm mentor with Women Food Agricultural Network (WFAN) and as a youth mentor through Girls, Inc of Greater Madison in Evansville and at the afterschool program at St. John’s Church, Evansville.

Sheila Everhart, is the Vice President of the chapter board. She married a farmer 42 years ago. Everhart Family Farms in Rock County raises beef cattle, corn, soybeans, hay and pumpkins for the family farmstand. After 27 years of off-the-farm employment as an educator, Sheila is now helping the fifth generation become actively involved with the Family Farm. Sheila shared her passion for helping others learn about farming by serving as a director of Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association (WATA) over the past nine years and now serving as Executive Director. Sheila has volunteered with Rock County Farm Bureau, serving as Ag in the Classroom Coordinator, Promotion and Education Chair, Executive Director and Fair Food Stand Coordinator. She has also completed WFBF Leadership Institute.

Matt Sheaffer is the Secretary of the chapter board. Matt and his family were long time organic vegetable farmers in both Illinois and southern Wisconsin. They direct marketed vegetables, hemp, meat, cheese and fruit to families in the Chicagoland area and mentored dozens of future farmers. Matt currently manages 450 acres of native plants for seed production at a nationally recognized nursery in Rock county. He continues advocating for family farmers and rural communities through his involvement with the farmers union and other active organizations.

Kathy Pennington serves as the Treasurer and a member of the Policy Committee. She lives in rural Wisconsin, possesses an MBA and has been preparing small business taxes for several years. She also serves as the Chair, Town of Brooklyn and a Green County Supervisor as a member of the Highway and Zoning committees. These experiences and positions enable her to advocate and support farmers and other agricultural activities.

Marci Hess chairs the Communication Team. She and her husband, Jim, are restoring their 60 acres named Driftless Prairies back to native ecosystems. Their goal is high biodiversity and to measure this, they do extensive work inventorying the biota on their land. Insects have been the most eye opening. Our food supply depends on our insects and they depend on our native plants. Marci spends many hours researching ecological restoration topics as this is a complex field since it’s all about nature. Accompanying this is her citizen science work vouchering insects and plants in Lafayette County.

John E. Peck, chairs the Membership Committee, and operates Yellow Dog Flowers and Produce on twenty acres between Brooklyn and Belleville with his partner, Molly, two dogs (Honey & Peanut), three sheep (Creampuff, Cocoa, Bessie) and a diverse chicken flock. Beyond selling at the Northside Farmers Market in Madison and seasonal CSA deliveries, they also have a farm stand and offer local flowers for special events. John is the longtime executive director of Family Farm Defenders, a national grassroots organization founded by WI farmers in 1994, but which has now grown to several thousand members in all fifty states. He is also a graduate of the UW-Madison Nelson Institute (PhD in Land Resources) and teaches Economics part-time at Madison College.

A local advocate for conservation, Sue Nelson championed the Clean Water Now advisory referendum question to prioritize water quality in our community — a referendum which was approved by the largest margin of all municipalities that had this on their ballot in the November 2022 elections! She served as the District 10 representative on the Green County Board of Supervisors where she chaired the Ag & Extension Educators and was a member of Health, Land & Water Conservation, and Land Use & Zoning committees. Sue is also active with the MultiCultural Outreach Program, a regional nonprofit that supports refugees to the area. Sue is also a member of the Board of Directors of Food, Faith and Farming. Here she serves to promote the well being of various entities that are involved with and/or have grass roots in rural livelihoods. FFFN provides seed money grants so these businesses can grow or add value to provide the service they do. She and her husband steward 14 acres of diverse habitat in woodlands, prairie, animal habitat along with some crop land. With an emphasis on conservation practices and methods, always learning as they go.