Alberta Farmland Trust is fortunate to be supported by a group of engaged and capable people with diverse skill sets and experiences.

Our Team

Board of Directors

  • Ralph Nelson

    Ralph is a third-generation farmer and rancher, who along with his wife Jacqueline, is in the process of passing the torch to their son Wade and his wife Jaimie, and so preserving agricultural land is truly important to carrying on this legacy in their family.

    Ralph has been involved in land planning in the past as a councillor with Foothills County and the Regional Advisory Council for the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan. Through these roles Ralph recognized pressures of conversion of agricultural land to other uses. This background is why Ralph became involved with Alberta Farmland Trust - to help develop an opportunity for landowners to preserve agricultural lands to carry on the farming and ranching heritage so important to Alberta’s future.

  • Sheila Campbell

    Sheila Campbell joined the board in 2020 and brings experience in nonprofit governance and management to the Alberta Farmland Trust. Sheila has worked in the public, private and nonprofits sectors and holds an M. A. in Recreation and Leisure Studies from the University of Alberta. Sheila is the Executive Director of the Edmonton and Area Land Trust and an active member of the Regional Land Trusts of Alberta.

  • Denis Kennedy

    Denis spent his formative years helping with field and livestock chores on his family farm in southwestern Saskatchewan. This is where his passion for land, agriculture, community, and family developed. Denis believes that these interests align with the vision of Alberta Farmland Trust, which is his “why” for joining the board.

    Denis’s career has been centered around agriculture. Upon completion of a B.Sc. in Agriculture, Denis spent the first decade of his career with Alberta Agriculture, working as a District Agriculturalist in southern and central Alberta. The next two decades of his career were focussed on agriculture-related post secondary education at Olds College. Following his time in the public sector, Denis worked in management in the long fibre export industry. Throughout his career, Denis has focussed on building relationships, strategic planning, and acting with integrity and efficiency.

    Along with his wife, Yvonne, Denis has operated a small farm, producing timothy hay, custom rotational grazing, and raising horses.

  • John Tackaberry

    Upon graduating from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Agriculture (soils) in 1971, John embarked on a career of nearly 37 years with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. He served in numerous roles during that time, including as a District Agriculturist (Lamont, Vermilion, Wainwright and Valleyview), Regional Director (Northwest Region) and Division Director (Rural Services, Rural Development, and Resource Management and Irrigation).

    Roles included responsibility for program development and management in areas of Public Lands, Irrigation, Engineering Services, Agricultural Societies, Agricultural Service Boards, Agricultural Education, Farm Safety, 4-H, and Conservation and Development of soil and water.

    John’s interest in preserving agricultural land comes from years of experience seeing the use of good productive land being changed to housing, industrial use and recreational purposes. He is a strong supporter of agricultural resource development and management that is economically and environmentally sustainable.

    John is pleased to be a founding director of Alberta Farmland Trust.

  • Terri Holowath

    Terri Holowath is the Managing Partner of Baker Tilly Catalyst LLP; she has been a part of the accounting and advisory firm since 1992. In addition to leading the firm, Terri continues to be a trusted advisor for agribusiness clients, many of whom have been with her since her early days with the firm. The agriculture industry is witnessing the largest transfer of wealth in generations. Succession planning in agriculture as well as supporting the industry in managing a valuable land asset is the reason Terri joined the board of Alberta Farmland Trust. Committed to the success of both her firm and its clients, she makes it a priority to develop strong, supportive relationships.

    The agriculture industry is an important part of both her professional and personal interests, Terri and her husband Bart live on a farm southwest of Cayley, Alberta. Terri also sits on the board and management committee of Baker Tilly Canada and volunteers her time as financial advisor to the Alberta Reined Cow Horse Association.

Staff

Bio Coming Soon!

Mikki Shatosky
Executive Director

Agriculture and land stewardship are important interests of Lisa’s.  Her appreciation for both started as a child, participating in her family’s small farm in central Alberta.  These interests were furthered through a diploma in Land Resource Management, a B.Sc. in Agricultural Studies, and a Juris Doctor (law degree).

Throughout her career, Lisa has worked in agricultural extension, environmental monitoring, project management, and law.  This varied background lends itself well to the diverse tasks involved in operationalizing Alberta Farmland Trust, as well as to collaborating with landowners to develop individualized conservation easements to protect their land.

Lisa believes in the mission of Alberta Farmland Trust and looks forward to contributing to the preservation of Alberta’s agricultural lands. 

Outside of work, Lisa spends her time as a care attendant to a menagerie of spoiled animals at her small farm in Central Alberta. 

Lisa Kennedy

Lisa Kennedy
Project Manager

Advisors

  • Stan Carscallen

    Stan was raised on a small ranch near Priddis, Alberta. He has maintained a lifetime involvement in agriculture having continued the family ranching operation at Priddis and expanding it to White Moose Ranch which raises commercial angus beef cattle and quarter horses in the Priddis, Millarville and Turner Valley districts.

    Stan also became a lawyer in 1973 and has practiced law ever since. Through the firm Carscallen LLP, he has developed a wealth of experience in negotiating and drafting conservation easements not only for land trusts but also for many landowners.

    In 2017, Stan and his family donated an ecological conservation easement over 2,000 acres of White Moose Ranch land along the Sheep River west of Turner Valley.

    As a rancher/farmer, Stan is committed to the conservation of Alberta’s food producing agricultural land. As a lawyer, he is excited about the use of the Conservation Easement for Agriculture as a useful tool to assist in intergenerational farmland transition.

    Stan is a director of the Canadian Cattle Foundation and a former director of the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area. His involvement in the community coupled with his own ranching operation has kept him directly involved in agriculture in a way that has impressed on him the urgency of conserving the agriculturally productive land in the Province.

  • Kim Good

    After falling in love with the prairies, Kim started her 25-year career in conservation with a degree in agriculture and a focus in plant ecology from the University of Saskatchewan. She has worked and volunteered for national and regional land trusts. She has worked for the provincial government as a rangeland agrologist and consulted on conservation easements to the federal government. She spent nine years at the Miistakis Institute researching land conservation tools with a specific focus on conservation easements and transfer of development credits. Kim has served on the boards of Foothills Land Trust and Legacy Land Trust. She is particularly interested in helping bridge the gap between urban and rural views of land use, agriculture, and conservation. She is a proponent of the need and the benefits of both public and private land conservation to ensure ecological function.

    Kim co-owns a value-added agriculture products business that sells throughout North America. She lives and works with her husband, two sons, in-laws, and several dogs on their family farm east of Carstairs, Alberta. She is a Professional Agrologist with the Alberta Institute of Agrologists.