Board of Directors

Meet the Ozaukee Food Alliance Board of Directors

Eli Acosta

Eli is owner of That Taco Guy LLC., a local family run food truck. Eli’s passion for cooking started as a young child when he would spend hours in the kitchen with his mom. The love and laughter that filled her kitchen fueled Eli’s drive to bring that to everyone who eats at That Taco Guy. Eli became involved with Ozaukee Food Alliance by hosting Give Back events through his food truck to raise funds for the pantry. Eli is excited to part of the food pantry’s Board of Directors by being an advocate for the people that don’t have a voice. As a child, Eli benefitted from places like Ozaukee Food Alliance and knows the true need of food insecurity in our area. When Eli is not busy creating new and unique taco ideas, he loves to play and coach hockey and enjoy quiet time with his family

Carissa Barnes

Carissa Barnes is the executive director for the Ozaukee Nonprofit Center, a local nonprofit with the purpose of creating a stronger community by supporting a network of nonprofits through collaboration. She has a strong passion for giving back to the community she lives in and thrives under joint efforts that support nonprofit organizations and causes within the community where she lives. The best part of serving is knowing that even the smallest gestures may mean making a significant difference in someone else’s life. Carissa lives with her husband and their daughter in Belgium.

Kirsten Coenen

Kirsten Coenen is the Community Development Manager for Kohler Credit Union. She’s lived in Port Washington for 6 years and currently resides there with her husband Sean and two young boys. Kirsten believes food insecurity shouldn’t be a problem in today’s world, let alone a county like Ozaukee county. In her free time, she and her family love to be outside exploring the wonderful parks and lakefront that Wisconsin has to offer.

Mark Gierach

Mark Gierach, the Executive Director and Founder of the Pantry, was born and raised in the City of Mequon, and moved to Grafton just before his junior year in high school. After graduating from Grafton High, he attended MATC in Milwaukee for Police Science and began working for the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Department in 1974. He retired at the rank of Sergeant in 2004. He worked for Business International Network (BNI) from 2005 to 2015 and operated his own promotional products business. Mark started the Ozaukee Food Alliance in 2011 and became its Executive Director in 2012. He currently lives in the town of Farmington with his wife, Nancy, who also gives much time to help run the Pantry and the Community Meal Site hosted by the Pantry. They are both active at Parkside Community U.C.C. in Saukville and enjoy time with their extended families and friends.

Rhonda Golownia

Rhonda Golownia. In 2015, Rhonda began helping at the Food Pantry, along with her son, when he needed community volunteer hours for Port Washington High School’s Port Pride Program. Rhonda currently volunteers time assisting at the SCFP Pantry program and helps with the coordination of fund-raising events. Rhonda became a board member in 2020 and brings her collaboration skills to SCFP from her many roles at BMO Financial Group. In her current role as an Operations Specialist, AVP in the North American Deposits and Payments Operations Delivery group, Rhonda manages many projects from the infancy stage all the way through execution where collaboration is a key contributor to success.

Steve Jensen

Steve Jensen is Chief Compliance Officer for US Bank. A career accountant, he brings those skills to the Board as Treasurer, taking office in 2019. Steve is also organist at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Milwaukee. He and his partner live in Bayside with two dogs and a cat.

April Klinter

April Klinter and her husband Darren own Advantage Auto Service and Sales in Saukville and live just a few miles away with their three rescue dogs. They have two grown children, Gabrielle and Jacob, both graduates of Port Washington High School. Previously, April was the Board President for Milwaukee Empty Bowls and a member of the Executive Council at the Hunger Task Force. Through her work with those organizations she gained a good amount of knowledge around hunger insecurity. Her biggest takeaway is pretty simple: Everyone should be able to feed their family nutritious, quality, culturally-appropriate food. April shared that while there is a growing need for help in Ozaukee county a lot of people are unaware of the extent of that need. Her goal is to help create opportunities to build community with both those who can provide help and those who could use help. April is animal-lover and avid traveler and when she is not off on an adventure, she also volunteers her time with Sandi Paws Animal Rescue.

Carla LaFever

Carla LaFever joined Aurora Health Care in 2001. As the Vice President Operations, Carla oversees the operational functions for key clinical procedural areas as well as support services at the hospital. Carla has been at the Grafton location since it opened in 2010. In addition to this role she is the liaison to the system departments, responsible for community outreach initiatives and coordinates all expansion and growth projects for the hospital.

Sara Pashak

Sara Pashak, who currently serves as the President of the Board, began volunteering with the Pantry as a way to get her then-third grade Christian Formation class at St. Joe’s in Grafton some exposure to community service. Impressed with what the Pantry was already doing, she dove in to help them do more, beginning first as a volunteer and then as Meal Site Ambassador for the bimonthly meal site, which she continues to coordinate (and enjoys very much). She is Associate Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at UWM and resides in Port Washington with her husband and two amazing and busy children. She is heavily involved in the Music Boosters at both PWHS and TJMS and in her free time (??) enjoys kickboxing, reading novels, and drinking wine (the latter two often in combination and, whenever possible, outside in her husband’s gorgeous perennial gardens).

Michael Scaffidi

Michael Scaffidi is an Employee Benefits Consultant at Infinity Benefit Solutions. He’s worked in sales and business consulting (managing auto dealerships for 40 years) and joined our board in May 2019. Michael and his wife, Donna, have been married 29 years and have lived in Mequon since 1992. They have three daughters in their early twenties and they love their family time, four cats, cooking, yard work, golf, fishing, and sporting clay shooting.

Shannon Schultz

Shannon Schultz is mother of three who lives in Cedarburg, where she works as a real estate agent with Keller Williams. She and her family belong to First Immanuel Lutheran and are dedicated to helping others. (You may have read her Kindness Countdown!) In addition to the Pantry, Shannon also serves as a breast cancer family mentor with ABCD. In her free time, she loves to read and travel and is halfway through checking off distilleries on Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail!

Bethany Turner

Bethany started her time in volunteering at a soup kitchen in high school and then heard about Ozaukee Food Alliance through her mother, Erica Turner, a former beloved board member. Since starting at the food pantry, Bethany loves to help at the Mobile Food Pantries and interacting with every person that comes through the line and starting a conversation with each patron. Bethany enjoys having those first interactions and calls it the Impression Demonstration; you take a few minutes you have to show someone a smile, now knowing if they had seen one that day.

Being one of our youngest board members, Bethany is hoping to get younger folks involved in the food pantry, making it fun and showing them the worthwhile feeling that comes with helping others. When Bethany is not volunteering at the pantry, she enjoys baking, gaming, and nature walks. Bethany is currently enrolled in school for Early Childhood Education and works at Turnhall Financial Group in Cedarburg in financial administration.

Christine King

Chris is Branch Manager and Vice President of the Port Washington State Bank’s Saukville Branch. Chris’ banking career started after graduating from UW-Whitewater and includes the last 10 years with PWSB. Chris was born and raised in Port Washington, and continues to call it home. She has devoted many years to volunteering in the community. Most recently as President of the Saukville Chamber of Commerce, and previously on the Board of Directors for the Northern Ozaukee United Way, Treasurer for Possibility Playground and Port Fish Day. In her spare time, Chris loves to spend time with her 2 daughters, travel and play golf.