Board of Directors

Rev. Laurie Bushbaum, Board Chair, has been a Unitarian Universalist minister in Prairie Star District for 25 years serving as Parish Minister, Minister of Religious Education and Consulting Minister. She and her husband have raised two teenagers whose lives have been blessed by the values, supportive framework for spiritual development and mentoring relationships of religious community. She is passionate about creating multi-generational experiences, and as a semi-professional artist, exploring the intersection between the arts and spiritual practice.

Christopher Kehew, Board Treasurer, is drawn to this project because of his interest in the connection between social and environmental issues, sustainable agricultural practices, and the food justice movement. During his 15 years as a senior manager for technology and financial services companies, Chris supervised a variety of client-facing teams and built positive, profitable customer bases.

Sara Smalley, Board Secretary, brings to The Fields her passion for education. Her career began as a secondary English teacher and transitioned to program development for youth and young adults in religious communities. A Master's Degree with emphasis on Religious and Spiritual Life underscores her commitment to create spiritually nurturing environments for families and people of all ages.  She is the parent of two children.

Jaime Meyer, brings 25 years of fundraising, non-profit management and program design experience to The Fields. He is a seminary educated theatre artist and author with a particular interest in cross-cultural shamanism and healing ceremonies. In recent years, thousands of people have attended his exhuberant, shamanically-inspired drumming events in the Twin Cities.

Joel Barker has over 10 years of experience working with nonprofits. His experience includes major gifts, grant writing, online giving, nonprofit management, board development, and marketing consulting, as well as nonprofit technology solutions and cost-reducing technology improvements. He is passionate about using technology to help businesses and nonprofits achieve their mission and grow their constituency. Over the past five years his technology enhancement strategies have helped organizations to collectively reduce operation costs by over $150,000 annually. Joel serves as a major gifts advancement officer at the nonprofit Fraser. He is President and owner at Backpack Tactics LLC, a Minnesota-based technology firm. Joel is also on the board of directors at Minnesota Food Association.