our farmily

“no one is special, and everyone is needed.”
― adrienne maree brown

core team

she/her
newfane, vt
amber arnold is the founder and executive director of susu community farm. she is a black womanist mama to three humans and more than a thousand plant babies. an ecological somatic ritualist, sound healer, herbalist, founder of queen of belonging, and radical space holder, amber's life's work is guiding people back home to their bodies, their communities, the land, and a deep sense of belonging.
rooted in afro indigenous wisdom traditions, amber weaves together somatic practices, ritual arts, ancestral healing, and earth based spirituality to support personal and collective transformation. through her work, she helps people reconnect with themselves, cultivate meaningful relationships, and remember their inherent connection to the living world. her greatest joy is creating spaces where healing, liberation, and belonging can flourish.

khalif (he/him) works as a consultant, educator, and leadership coach in addition to deep engagement in seasonal landscape gardening and ecosystem rebalancing efforts where he makes his home in coastal Maine.
Khalif has spent over 25 years at the nexus of organizational leadership and social change spanning education, nonprofit and philanthropy sectors and supported many leaders in dynamic institutional and cultural contexts during pivotal times of change.
He has created partnerships for racial equity in higher education, consulted for nonprofits and community groups on strategy and organizational development, served nine years as the Executive Director of the Institute for Humane Education, served as the Director of a local independent elementary school, and as Program Director in charge of strategy development and implementation for both the Bay and Paul Foundation's PreK-12 Transformative Learning Practices and Indigenous Leadership in Climate Education programs.
He believes in collaborative, relational leadership that’s grounded in a liberatory mindset and spirited self-awareness as the key to unlocking the transformative capacity in our communities. His work has long been deeply informed by his contemplative practice and sense of play as a musician, poet, and artist. khalif is a mixed African American, cis-gender man born in the Allegheny Mountains.

he/him
youth, belonging, and place director
jarmal was born and raised on the west side of baltimore, maryland, with a single mother and sister as his main core family and focus. as a youth he experienced traumas in the form of violence in any way it could show up. he reflects that “alongside the beauty that comes with the culture I grew up in came a lot of pain and confusion as to why life looked how it did for me in those years. these things are what shaped me and molded my trajectory to what it is today.” youth is jarmal’s primary focus, as well as building/facilities and coordinating activities and events for youth and community alike. his skills involve working with other people in the community and using his heart and hands to intuitively connect to all. jarmal has experience in behavioral assistance with youth in schools, also physical or mental challenges with people in the community through a non-profit organization for 11 years.

she/her
Jenni Kotting, PhD (she/her) is a Communications Strategist who has dedicated her career to using narrative as a tool for cultural and political change. Born in the Appalachian mountains of Maryland, Jenni learned early on that real change comes from heart-to-heart conversations where trust is built through honest, respectful dialogue — finding common ground without diluting one's values or compromising on core beliefs, even when navigating divides.
Jenni holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Minnesota, where her academic focus on place, power, and liberation continues to inform her approach to strategic messaging, compassionate dialogue, and crisis communications across sectors, including grassroots organizations, school districts, philanthropies, and advocacy networks. She brings creativity and deeply held values in designing ethical storytelling programs, producing innovative visual media and collage art, and translating complex issues into accessible, action-driven stories towards transformative justice.
Jenni’s graphic design website
Jenni’s Communications websi te

he/him
Brattleboro, VT
Steffen Gillom is a practitioner of Conflict Resolution, an activist, an educator and an AmeriCorps VISTA service alum. Steffen is passionate about increasing awareness concerning disability rights and providing mental health services to communities of color and other marginalized individuals. Most recently, the bulk of his activism work is through the NAACP, where he currently serves as President and Founder of the Windham County Vermont Branch of the NAACP.

she/her
newfane, vt
amber arnold (she/her) is the co-founder and collaborative director of SUSU commUNITY farm, located in N’dakinna, the occupied ancestral homelands of the Elnu Abenaki people in so-called southern vermont. amber is a Black multiracial momma and child of radical Black, queer, radically regular people who have inspired her to vision and co-create impossible possible futures that center the wisdom, teachings, and traditions of Black, queer, womanist people. amber has a background in gardening, revolutionary mothering as inspired by the work of alexis pauline gumbs, and as an embodied somatic, sound, and plant kin commUNITY earthworker. she is an artist who looks to her ancestors, elders, and the 7 generations to come in guiding her towards co creating afrofuturistic portals of Black love, home, liberation, and a radical reclamation of our ability to dream, vision, and create beyond our current circumstances.

— audre lorde