Join us for a powerful conversation on farmer mental health after climate disasters, featuring farmers and service providers from North Carolina and Washington State sharing their experiences, challenges and why prioritizing mental health is vital. You’ll hear from libby reed from Washington Farmland Trust, Angela Sorg with Purdue University Extension, farmer McKayla R. Robinette from the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute’s Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, Ellen Scheffer of Frisky Girl Farm + Steel Wheel Farm partnership and Stuart Beam a farmer in Rutherford County, North Carolina.
Guest Bios
libby reed has been at Washington Farmland Trust since 2023 working directly with farmers through the Farm to Farmer program and, more recently, on the Conservation and Stewardship Team. libby is a first-generation farmer. She began in the Midwest in 2011 and then moved to western Washington to start her own farm business in 2016.
McKayla R. Robinette grew up on a century farm in eastern North Carolina, where she continues to raise grass-fed beef alongside her family. In 2020, McKayla graduated from Brevard College with a B.A. in Environmental Studies, and minors in Sustainable Agriculture and Pre-Law. She graduated with from Auburn University in 2022 with a M.S. in Rural Sociology and, in 2023, began a PhD in Public Policy and Administration at Walden University. She serves as Coordinator for the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute’s Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, where she leads efforts to support mental health efforts for farmers, farmworkers and their families.
Angela Sorg is a Health and Human Sciences Educator with Purdue University Extension and a licensed mental health therapist specializing in stress and trauma management. She earned a B.A. in psychology from Hanover College and has a dual master’s in mental health and school counseling from the University of Saint Francis. Raised in Kentucky, she developed a deep connection to agriculture while working alongside her grandfather on his tobacco and livestock farm. She maintains a private practice, previously served on Indiana’s 988 advisory board and is currently a doctoral candidate in Education, Innovation and Leadership.
Ellen Scheffer is the co-owner of the Frisky Girl Farm + Steel Wheel Farm partnership, two farms that joined together in 2025. After farming in North Bend, Washington for six years and facing near constant damage, Ellen and her farm partner moved their farm to Fall City, Washington to grow in conjunction with Ryan of Steel Wheel Farm. Together they now grow 30 acres of veggies and grains for their CSA, farmers market, farm stand, restaurants and Sno Valley Farmers Cooperative. Ellen is also the Board President of SnoValley Tilth, an organization dedicated to supporting a thriving, sustainable farm community.
Stuart Beam is a skip generation farmer from Rutherford county North Carolina. He owns and operates Beam Farms, which grows commercial hay and forages row crops. Stuart also co-owns a dairy and creamery. Stuart serves on his county farm bureau board of directors as vice president, as well as on several Farm Bureau State Advisory Committees.
About the Breaking Bread Series
The Highlander Center defines “popular education” as an opportunity to learn from each other’s shared lived experiences to build collective knowledge. Breaking Bread: Lunch and Listen will feature stories that uplifts the shared history of food and farming; organizing and resistance that’s got us to where we are now. We pair that history with work that folks are doing presently, that will inform the future we want for each other as it relates to farming and agriculture, food, culture and rural communities. This storytelling and making our narratives public is a key and critical part of community organizing. Please join us!
