Meet our staff!
Simon Huntley, Founder & CEO
Simon grew up on a farm in southwestern Pennsylvania before pursuing a degree in Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University. After college, Simon helped a western Colorado fruit farmer expand his operation to include vegetable production and a CSA / farm share program. The project grew to serve five area farmers markets and a 130-member CSA.
Combining his passion for agriculture and technology, he started Small Farm Central in 2006 which now has morphed into Harvie. His goal, and the goal of Harvie, is to help more local farmers become more economically sustainable so they can support their families, take care of their land, treat their employees well and thrive on their farms and in their lives.
Simon has become a thought-leader in the field of local farm marketing. His writing is archived on the Harvie blog, for example CSA: We Have a Path Forward and Local Food Goes Mainstream He has spoken at many farming conferences on topics around marketing local farms. In 2016, he wrote Cultivating Customers: A Farmers Guide to Online Marketing.
Outside of Harvie, Simon is kept active by his two sons, Eliot (age 8) and Theo (age 4). He makes a mean sauerkraut, loves riding his bike to work on Pittsburgh’s North Side, and imagines a world where local food is on everyone’s table.
Kyle Jaster, COO
Kyle focuses on product development and leading our a world-class engineering team. Prior to Harvie, Kyle served as CTO of Freightflow.co, a logistics application for the produce industry. Kyle has served as Chief Product Officer of Noodle.com, a leading education search site growing it from 10,000 to over 1M visitors over the course of his tenure. Kyle has been a major contributor to the open source CRM project CiviCRM, and prior to Noodle served for four years as Production Director for rayogram.com where he helped conceive and develop innovative websites for non-profits and Fortune 500 companies, including the New York State Senate’s constituent management system and Standard & Poor’s MarketScope Advisor.In addition to his work in tech, Kyle is the founder of Atticus Farm, a regenerative, pig-centric farm in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. He has developed an innovative carbon-neutral feeding program based on locally-produced grains and the byproducts of an on-farm microgreens operation with incredible results in flavor. Atticus Farm produces forest-raised pork, pastured chicken and microgreens for restaurants, and discerning CSA members.
Farm Success Department
Stefanie Jaeger, Farm Success Manager
Stefanie was born and raised in the Ashland, WI area on Lake Superior where gardening, hunting, preserving, and made from scratch cooking was the normal way of life. She has spent over 10 years working in local food in some capacity. Stefanie has successfully managed a wholesale department for local artisan bakery, a local coffee roaster in the Ashland area, and then went on to manage a successful 300 + member cooperative CSA in Northern Wisconsin for almost 4 years. With a background and degrees in Marketing and Business Management, and a passion for helping local food growers and producers thrive, Stefanie has found a natural fit at Harvie.
When Stefanie isn’t working, you can find her on trail adventures with her rescue dogs Suki Pooh and Moon Pie, swimming, gardening, paddling, hiking, camping, rock climbing, sailing, cooking, reading, and traveling. Stefanie also serves as a board member for the Lake Superior Sustainable Farming Association and serves on their Harvest Festival planning committee.
Mackenzie Nelsen, Farm Success Specialist
Mackenzie is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she studied Environmental Science and Food Studies. She is joining the team as a Venture for America Fellow (a fellowship that matches recent grads with startups). Mackenzie is passionate about food systems and sustainability and has worked in many different aspects of the food world. Some highlights include interning at a permaculture agroforestry farm in Belize, an internship with Chef Dan Barber at the Farm to Table Restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and a Food Studies Program at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy. In her free time, Mackenzie enjoys hiking, playing soccer, reading and cooking. As a recent transplant, she is excited to explore and get to know Pittsburgh!
Katie Black, Farm Success Specialist
Katie was raised on a century family farm in Middle TN where she still resides. As an 8th generation farmer, she has spent the majority of her life playing in the dirt, working cattle, and loving life on the farm! Using her background in education and agribusiness, Katie has made the farm not only her workplace, but an entrepreneur’s playground thanks to her grandmother who taught her it is okay to think outside of the box when you have acres to dream. She started the first CSA program in her area and continues to provide the community with great locally grown produce each summer. Teaming up with her mother, she has hosted numerous events including weddings, class reunions, agricultural workshops, and field trips at the farm’s event venue. Katie was raised by farmers and truly believes the best people in the land are those working it.
When not working for Harvie or playing on the farm, you will find Katie chasing her two-year-old son Owen, coaching cheerleading, or eating Mexican food. She also loves to read, but lately, most of her books have been ABCs and 123s!
Business Development
Allison Giese, Business Development Representative
Allison grew up in Minnesota in a family full of chefs. Local food has been central to her life, as well as preserving that harvest for the long winters in a harsh climate. She has fond memories of harvesting fruits and vegetables with her grandmother and aunts and learning to preserve them for use throughout the winter. She has been getting a CSA for 10 years and has spent those years figuring out new ways to save and preserve as much as possible. Her goal has been to buy as little “convenience” food as possible, choosing instead to make her own replacements.
Allison spent 10 years in software sales for manufacturers but made the transition to Harvie after seeing the benefits when her farm moved on to the platform. Her favorite produce is summer corn, raspberries and Brussels sprouts.
When not working, you can find Allison outside with her 2 rescue dogs, Liberty Bell, and Phoenix. She also travels frequently and extensively looking for new foods and flavors to add to her kitchen. If you are looking for ways to save your produce when there is an abundance, she is a great resource here!
Bjorn Burnett, Business Development Representative
Engineering Department
Jon Doron, Lead Software Engineer
Jonathan Doron graduated with a degree in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Since joining Harvie in 2017, he has enjoyed the challenge of building software that connects people with their food and brings them closer to their local farmers. As Jon’s family is predominantly located in Santiago, Chile, he values opportunities to visit them and explore the region. When not traveling, Jonathan enjoys cooking, playing disc golf, and staying up-to-date with the latest trends in software development.
Alex Miron, Software Engineer
Alex was born in Drobeta Turnu-Severin, Romania and has since moved to Brasov, Romania where he works remotely for Harvie as a web developer. He originally became inspired to work in the programming field when he received his first computer as a boy and dreamed of someday creating his own video games. After pursuing a degree in computer science and working as anywhere from a web designer to a cook, Alex found his way back to web developing. As a Harvie developer, Alex mostly focuses on creating the coding for deliveries, sorting farm products, and user preferences, to name a few. He’s excited to be working for Harvie because he has always liked the idea of farming and one day hopes to have a farm of his own. In his free time he enjoys eating tomatoes, swimming, hiking, biking, fishing, and still has a love for video games.
Emily Kauffman, Front-end Software Engineer
Emily was born in central Pennsylvania to a family of fruit farmers. She spent most of her childhood hanging out in orchards, where her first job was as a blueberry picker.
She obtained her Master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh and has a background in front-end development, graphic design, and robotic interface design.
When not working on Harvie projects, you can probably find her riding her electric bike around Pittsburgh, traveling, or tinkering with her IoT greenhouse.
Justin Beaver, Software Engineer
Justin was born and raised in Chambersburg, PA, a small town in the rural south-central part of the state that is best known for its peaches. Being raised in an agricultural community by a father who spent a career working with farmers, Justin developed an appreciation for the importance of farming and farmers, while also coming to realize that agriculture was a fading way of life in a community that was built on it.
After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Justin permanently relocated to Pittsburgh, PA, and spent the first 10 years of his career working as a software engineer at 2 different tech startups. From there, Justin joined Harvie to re-connect with agriculture and dedicate his professional energy to helping small-scale farmers and local food economies thrive.
When he’s not working, Justin enjoys spending time with his wife, being constantly amazed and entertained by his 2-year-old daughter, long-distance hiking and backpacking, worm composting, and reading.
Pablo Barton, Support Engineer
Pablo grew up in Phoenix, AZ before moving to Pittsburgh for education. He’s settled in happily to the hills and rivers: hiking, camping, and kayaking whenever possible. When not working on support for Harvie, he’s probably tinkering with programming and electronics, cooking, experimenting with pickling, gardening, and getting trampled by his two cats (Eddie and Mercury) with boundary issues. Though his formal background is in biological research, Pablo is excited to be working for farms to support sustainable, local agriculture.
Emily Yanchak, Support Engineer
Emily was born and raised in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA. She attended Duquesne University, starting as a Music Education major, but finishing with a BS in Computer Science. Her interest in fitness and the outdoors led her to study nutrition and the personal and environmental benefits of sustainable farming. After years of working in the IT departments of larger companies, supplemented with a “hobby” job in outdoor retail and education, she is thrilled to unite her passions for local food, service to others, and technology as a Support Engineer at Harvie.
Outside of work, you can find Emily travelling with her husband Mike, on the trails with their dog, lifting weights, supporting local music, trying out new sourdough recipes, or curled up with a good book and a cat or two. She also volunteers with the Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy.
Member Support Department
Lucy Angell, Member Support Manager
Lucy was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with degrees in Psychology and Communications. She has always loved working with others from managing a local restaurant to working as a therapist with children on the autism spectrum. She’s excited to now be working in customer support at Harvie, largely because of the incredible comradery that small, local farms bring to a community. Besides Harvie, Lucy is currently studying to get her degree in American Sign Language Interpreting. In her free time she likes to play soccer, hike, kayak, and travel. She arguably has the cutest cats in Pittsburgh and her favorite vegetable is the Brussels sprout. If you ever get in touch with her, she has a delicious and easy recipe for those little morsels.
Isabella Stone-Dahl, Member Support Specialist
Born and raised on the Bad River Reservation near Ashland, Wisconsin, Isabella was raised in a home that emphasized the importance of culture, traditional lifestyle, and community. Growing up, Isabella participated in seasonal harvests and the work that went into it. Ricing, tapping maple trees, trapping, butchering chickens, smelting and processing other wild game were not foreign ideas to Isabella. As craftspeople, Isabella saw and learned what went into harvesting raw materials from the land in order to make beautiful, useful items and how to build a home. Her parents’ strong commitment to living sustainably and supporting local farms, farmers markets and CSA’s was instilled in her and her siblings from a very young age and has carried through to Isabella as a young adult.
Isabella was homeschooled and had successfully graduated from the Dagoshin Woodland Institute in the spring of 2015. She was active in Sea Scouts where she learned to sail and obtained scuba certification. As a result, she taught sailing through North Coast Community Sailing and crewed on the 52’ schooner, the “Abbey Road”. Isabella has been actively working in the community since the age of 16, providing office assistance at the local birth center, lawn care and outside maintenance for an elderly couple, and helping to restore boats at a local wooden boat repair shop. More recently, Isabella has provided awesome customer service as a cashier at the local food cooperative while servicing animals at the local humane society before becoming the weekend manager at the famed local coffee shop and eatery – the Black Cat. Isabella’s years of customer service experience has led her to Harvie, where she works in customer support, helping people connect with the local farms in their respective areas.
When Isabella has time off, she enjoys the outdoors, traveling, painting, making and drinking coffee, watching psychological thrillers/crime dramas, and, of course, eating good food. In the future, Isabella hopes to move to the West Coast with her partner, Alex, and dog, Charlie, and continue to travel and adventure where life takes her.
Shiva Bakhiyari, Member Support Specialist
Shiva was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she studied Public Health and Entrepreneurship (a perfect pairing in her opinion). She spent her undergrad years working with different start-ups and entrepreneurial organizations. This is when she realized the positive impact startups and technology can have on the population’s health and wellbeing. She is joining the Harvie team as a 2020 Venture for America Fellow. She is thrilled to combine her passions in nutrition, wellness, and innovation to grow the Harvie community and to make local farming more accessible, inclusive, and sustainable. Shiva’s favorite things include exploring new Persian vegan recipes, watching movies, creating lists for her new places to travel to, and practicing yoga (well, attempting to anyway).
Glyn Kennedy, Member Support Specialist
Glyn grew up in Santa Barbara, CA otherwise known as the “American Riviera”. Nestled between the ocean and mountains she quickly grew an appreciation for the outdoors and all nature has to offer. Growing up her family were health conscious foodies who valued the importance of fresh local foods from their weekly CSA and epic farmers markets.
After graduating from Chapman University where she studied Business and Public Relations, Glyn spent 6 years becoming an e-commerce expert. She gained progressively responsible experience as a buyer, product manager, and marketing consultant at a startup focused on helping sellers identify, source, and market a variety of products on Amazon and other platforms online. Customer support has been the cornerstone to every role in her career thus far and she has had extensive experience serving a variety of customers online.
Glyn has experience across a broad range of product lines, but a special passion for using e-commerce to increase consumer access to healthy food while supporting local and sustainable farmers. Prior to working at Harvie she volunteered for a CSA at a farm in her area where she continued to grow an appreciation for the local farm community. She is excited to expand that support to local farmers across the world in her role at Harvie.