Aimee Reische

I rely on the co-op and consider it an asset with an integral role in our community’s quality of life.  I place a high value on the co-op’s long-term viability and want to contribute to the Board’s necessary guidance in strengthening the co-op’s position, building its resilience, and planning for its growth.  I’d like to engage fellow member-owners and other community members in these efforts.

I’ve been a Wild Oats member-owner since arriving in Williamstown in 2017.  Since 1983, I’ve been a serial co-op member-owner (4); a consistent co-op shopper; a sometimes co-op volunteer; and once, a co-op staff member.  Since 2018, I’ve been a volunteer tax preparer with the Purple Valley VITA program, sponsored by BCAC and CLiA (in 2014 and 2015 in Iowa as well).  I’ve recently begun volunteering in personal finance education.  I was a Williams College staff member from 2017-2023.  Before that, I was a financial manager at the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan, handling department budgets and contracts and grants.  I received my B.S. and M.S. in Geology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Tom Cragg

Tom and his wife Melissa both retired in late 2015 and moved soon thereafter from the Detroit area to South Williamstown. After receiving his MBA from the University of Michigan, Tom worked at General Motors for twenty-five years in the areas of finance, labor relations and health benefits administration. After leaving GM in 2008, Tom helped set-up and manage a $60 billion health care trust for 800,000 UAW auto retirees. Tom and Melissa have two grown children living in New York City.

Robert Allard

Robert Allard has lived his whole life in North Adams. He graduated from McCann Tech and subsequently worked for Williams College Dining Services for almost 33 years, retiring in 2010. He previously served in the Civil Air Patrol (U.S.A.F. Auxiliary) for 18 years, as a member of the Berkshire County Chapter of the Red Cross Disaster Team, with the former North Adams Auxiliary Police Unit, on the Northern Berkshire Community Television Corporation, and as a Vestry member at All Saints Episcopal in North Adams. He currently is a team leader with the Northern Berkshire Medical Reserve Corps, serves on the Northern Berkshire Regional Emergency Planning Committee, and on the Elder Services of Berkshire County advisory Council.

Sarah Jacobson

Sarah Jacobson is an Associate Professor of Economics at Williams College. She completed her PhD in Economics at Georgia State University and her Bachelor of Science in Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. In her work, she is very involved with mentoring as well as with a variety of initiatives that address diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has been a member of the co-op since arriving in town in 2010, but her interest in natural foods and her involvement in food co-ops go back to her youth.

Michelle Juneau

Michelle is a registered dietitian nutritionist, passionate about the role that food plays in healthy bodies, healthy communities, and a healthy planet. She currently sees pediatric and young adult patients at Berkshire Health System in North Adams. Believing in the importance of community-owned food co-ops, she and her husband joined Wild Oats as members as soon as they moved to Williamstown in 2015. Before earning her Master of Science in Nutrition from UMass, Michelle earned a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Minnesota, and she was the Director of Marketing for a healthcare architecture firm in the Midwest.

Peter Siegenthaler

Born and raised near Boston, Peter moved to North Adams in 2019. He is a poet and historian, now teaching World and East Asian history online for Texas State University. He serves on the North Adams Historical Commission and was a longtime member of Austin’s Wheatsville Coop. Peter brings to the Board a history of engagement with sustainable transit and organic, local, and heritage foods, and a commitment to address growing food insecurity in our local community. Peter joined Wild Oats even before completing his move north and looks forward to getting to know more member-owners, its local farmers and other suppliers.

Jefferson Strait

Jeff and his wife Robin Brickman joined Wild Oats in the 1980’s. While raising their two sons in Williamstown, he served for 17 years on the Williamstown Finance Committee. Now retired from teaching physics at Williams College, Jeff joined the Board in April 2020. He and Robin are also CSA members at Mighty Food Farm and are big fans of fresh local produce. Jeff hopes to help Wild Oats plan for a sustainable future.

Susan Abrams

I’m a 27-yr member, I care about Wild Oats.  I care that it provides clean healthy food, is accessible and welcoming to all, and operates efficiently.  And I care that it does all this in a way that protects the environment.  I believe my focus on energy efficiency, waste reduction, and environmental toxins, as well as my more recent interest in the impact of climate change on our food systems, can help Wild Oats tackle some of the legacy issues our society now faces and become an even better partner in our local and broader food network.

After growing up and attending college in the Boston area, I moved to Seattle to pursue a PhD in Bioengineering.  It was while in Seattle that my consciousness about reuse, conservation, and waste reduction was raised, and I came to Williamstown 29 years ago with those priorities.  While raising my children, I volunteered at Williamstown Elementary, the Milne Library, as a Girl Scout Leader, and in several other groups, before re-entering the work force in the field of energy efficiency.  This is when I shifted my intellectual interest to the crisis of global warming, which has been my passion now for more than 15 yrs.  I am on Williamstown’s COOL Committee and Net Zero Task Force, and in 2019, I helped lead the Williamstown/North Adams Solarize Mass campaign to promote the adoption of solar panels and house batteries.  When I’m not playing with our 3 cats, I play violin in community groups, volunteer at the Berkshire Food Project, advocate for carbon and waste reduction, with a particular emphasis on plastics, and tinker in my garden.