Growing Leadership: Krysten Aguilar Transitions Out of La Semilla to New Director Role at Castanea Fellowship
On behalf of everyone at La Semilla, we invite you to join us in congratulating Co-Executive Director Krysten Aguilar on her transition to an exciting new opportunity in the food systems world.
La Semilla’s shared leadership model is rooted in the healthy soils of community care, grace, and a constant striving for justice that we intentionally cultivate every day, creating spaces where people from the Paso del Norte region can meaningfully develop the intelligence and brilliance they carry.
Krysten joined La Semilla as Policy Coordinator almost 10 years ago when we had a staff of five people. Four years ago, she transitioned to a leadership role. This month, she says goodbye as a Co-Executive Director to a staff of 25 and an additional 10 Farmer Fellows. In that time, she helped us to embody our values more boldly, pushed us to innovate our organizational policies, and led a remarkable policy team in making great gains at the city and state level.
Our shared leadership practices supported Krysten in sharpening her innate gifts as the advocate and trailblazer she is. With kinship and mutuality, she mentored emerging leaders within the organization, leaving us with several solid pillars to seamlessly move La Semilla through this evolution.
We are proud that a beloved and rooted member of our organization is moving into national leadership within the food justice movement – we will continue to be in collaborative relationship with her to create the equitable world we all envision.
As we celebrate Krysten’s transition we also want to honor two other staff who recently grew into their own life and work opportunities: Arlen Fernandez of the Community Education Program and Mary Moore of the Farm Fresh Program. With their energy, creativity, passion, and humor, they helped shape us and will always have a home here.
From co-created ancestral knowledge and wellness spaces to moving in community with partner organizations to decolonize the nonprofit and philanthropic space, our work is a testament to the resilience, strength, and brilliance of our community. Not only have we worked to create programs and services that contribute to a just and sustainable food system, we have also centered the wellbeing of our staff as a direct way to build capacity in our communities. The vast majority of our staff are people of color and from the very communities we serve. By creating a workplace that values rest, a living wage, exceptional benefits, and a working environment, La Semilla nourishes the elements and relationships needed to smoothly and gracefully make transitions successful.
We hope you are healthy and safe.
All the best,
Cristina Dominguez
Executive Director
To learn more about Krysten’s new venture, please see:
Krysten Aguilar Named New Director of the Castanea Fellowship »
