Meet The Staff

Rebecca Jepsen, Executive Director, - Prior to joining SGC Rebecca held executive level positions in the high technology industry for over 25 years; with extensive experience in sales, marketing and business development. Areas of expertise include hardware, software, network security and data storage. She has participated in many successful startups including, as founder and V.P. of Sales & Marketing, NTI (Network Translation, Inc.), purchased by Cisco Systems in 1995. Prior to NTI, Rebecca spent several years at Sun Microsystems, Mitsubishi and Texas Instruments.

Rebecca recently led the Culinary Horticulture Program and Green Initiatives at Google, Inc. She has over 10 years experience in non-profit leadership; serving as Member of the Board for the Mountain Winery Kids Foundation, the United Nation’s Growing Connection, and the Friends of Santa Clara County Master Gardeners.
081031-245Dan Hafeman, Garden Manager, has been a Sunnyvale resident since 1972. He has been married to his wife, Donna, for 32 years and they have two grown children, Danella and David. Dan has been an electrical engineering professional for the past 34 years. Dan’s weekend passion has been vegetable gardening since moving to California. Today, he manages a quarter acre sustainable organic backyard garden, which satisfies the vegetable needs of his family. Dan is a certified master composter, and he teaches composting classes in Sunnyvale and Palo Alto.
081003-009Melissa Patel, Garden Manager - Melissa grew up in Chicago and was exposed to gardening from a very early age. In spite of struggling with spelling and reading since childhood, Melissa graduated from high school early with high marks. While in school she pursued the fine arts; she went on to serve an apprenticeship with a potter after high school. After spending some time as an apprentice, Melissa's interest strayed from ceramics as she became more focused on jewelry making. Shortly after getting married, Melissa and her husband moved to Mountain View. There, they had two daughters, Mansi and Keya. Mansi was born in 2003. Keya was born in 2005 at home with a midwife. After having Keya, Melissa joined Las Madres, a local mother's group, and became the director for Keya's group soon thereafter. In 2006, the family moved to Santa Clara where Melissa became more interested in sustainable living. She has been making conscious efforts to reduce her family's waste and consumption of disposable goods. In that effort, she has implemented a system to reuse her laundry waste water to irrigate all her ornamental plants. She also started composting for her home garden. Melissa saw an opportunity she couldn't pass up in Full Circle Farm and has been devoting much of her time and efforts assisting in the garden.
081201-40Meghan Cole, Farm Manager Fresh out of North Carolina, Meghan was formally trained in sustainable agriculture at Warren Wilson College and has spent the last six years managing both organic farming operations and educational programs for school gardens. As both a passionate advocate local food systems and a seasoned organic, small-scale farmer , we are so grateful to have Meghan on our team!